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Observers: Francesca Figueras, David Galadi-Enriquez
Location: Calar Alto Observatory, Spain
Date: September 10, 1995 UT
We present the first images of comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) taken from Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán (CAHA) at Calar Alto (Gérgal, Almería, Spain). They are the first observations of this minor body from a professional observatory placed in the European continent. At the date of the observations, Calar Alto was the northernst professional observatory from which comet C/1995 O1 had been seen (observatory coordinates: longitude 2deg32.3'W, latitude +37deg13.8').
The images were obtained by Francesca Figueras and David Galadí-Enríquez, from the Departament d'Astronomia i Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona (Spain), at the German 1.23m telescope of CAHA. As can be checked from the observation dates and hours, the observation conditions were not good: almost full Moon, twilight and small hegiht over the local horizon (under 20 degrees in all cases). Our observing program for these nights was not the study of C/1995 O1, that's why these images were obtained during the twilight, outside the useful time for our program.
Interested people can get the original CCD images (FITS or BDF formats) contacting via e-mail dgaladi@mizar.am.ub.es (David Galadí-Enríquez).
The image: in all cases north is up and east is right. Hours are given in UT. Sidereal guiding. The original images have been bias- and flat-field-corrected.
First Image: 1995-09-10. Additon of three images taken with Jonhson's R filter, with exposition times of 200, 250 and 200s. Beginning times: 19:20, 19:26 and 19:32. Field width: 2 arcmin. Comments: in the images obtained this night, the cometary coma extends on a sky zone occupied by several stars whose brightness is similar to thar of the comet itself. So, the coma is difficult to see. Another feature can be seen north-eastwards from the nucleus, something that could resemble a second jet. But most probably this is an effect of the presence of two or three background faint stars.
Second Image: 1995-09-10. Addition of two images taken with Jonhson's I filter, with exposition times of 219 and 250s. Beginning times: 19:37 and 19:42.
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