(NASA Photo)NASA probe crashes into Comet Tempel 1
“Look at that! Jeez! And we thought it was going to be something subtle!” said JPL?s Donald Yeomans, a member of the Deep Impact science team.
I was on the roof of a neighbor’s house with binoculars, but either the binocs were too weak or there was too much ambient light. I sure couldn’t see the debris cloud. Of course, the collision was 83 million miles away.
I stayed up until 2:30 am watching the NASA webcast.
Although it was a clear, moonless night here in Michigan, the comet was below the western horizon at time of impact, so I did not even attempt to drag out my 80 mm refractor to have a look.
Watching the photos roll-in in near-time, both from the impactor and the flyby craft, was exciting.
What a bullseye!