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EPOXI

Two intriguing investigations -- One flight-proven spacecraft

DI3 Science

Observation windows for potential cometary targets of the DI spacecraft

comet ISONClick for larger image.
Fig. 1: Deep Impact MRI image of comet ISON taken during the Jan 2013 observing window.

This list highlights the comets that may be bright enough for DI to detect, and the windows of opportunity when the geometry will allow observations. Although we push to get as many observations as we can, we are currently limited in how much data we can take and download.

VIS observations typically consist of ~6 days worth of broad and narrowband imaging, with images acquired every 15 minutes.

IR observations typically consist of ~18 hours of spectral scans, with sampling every 15 minutes.

C/2012 S1 (ISON)

2013 Jan 17 - 2013 Jan 30 VIS observations completed
2013 Feb 16 - 2013 Feb 17 IR observations completed
2013 Mar 03 - 2013 Mar 10 VIS observations completed
  
2013 Jul 06 - 2013 Sep 12 VIS window -- No observations
2013 Jul 20 - 2013 Aug 16 IR window -- No observations
  
2014 Mar 04 - 2014 May 06 VIS window
2014 Mar 28 - 2014 Apr 22 IR window
  
2014 Aug 28 - 2014 Nov 26 VIS window
2014 Sep 16 - 2014 Oct 22 IR window

2P/Encke

2013 Dec 26 - 2014 Apr 11 VIS window
2014 Jan 05 - 2014 Mar 03 IR window

C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring)

2013 May 01 - 2013 Aug 15 VIS window
  
2013 Dec 27 - 2014 Jun 18 VIS window
2014 Jan 26 - 2014 Mar 01 IR window
2014 Apr 19 - 2014 May 21 IR window
  
2014 Nov 18 - 2015 Mar 17 VIS window
2014 Dec 08 - 2015 Feb 16 IR window

C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)

2013 Jun 13 - 2014 Feb 23 VIS window
2013 Aug 19 - 2013 Oct 18 IR window

154P/Brewington

2014 Jan 29 - 2014 May 18 VIS window
2014 Mar 22 - 2014 Apr 30 IR window

C/2012 K1 (PanSTARRS)

2013 Nov 25 - 2014 Jan 27 VIS window
2013 Dec 10 - 2014 Jan 04 IR window
  
2014 Jun 16 - 2014 Aug 03 VIS window
2014 Aug 22 - 2014 Aug 25 VIS window
(No IR windows in this time frame)
  
2015 Jan 24 - 2015 Mar 15 VIS window
2015 Feb 14 - 2015 Mar 05 IR window
  
2015 May 25 - 2015 Aug 02 VIS window
2015 Jun 07 - 2015 Jul 04 IR window

67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

2014 Nov 05 - 2015 Feb 04 VIS window
2014 Dec 17 - 2015 Jan 20 IR window
  
2015 May 11 - 2016 Mar 22 VIS window
2015 May 23 - 2015 Jul 03 IR window
2015 Sep 22 - 2016 Feb 07 IR window

19P/Borrelly

2014 Feb 01 - 2014 Apr 04 VIS window
2014 Feb 12 - 2014 Mar 07 IR window
  
2015 Jan 03 - 2015 Sep 30 VIS window
2015 Mar 13 - 2015 Jul 22 IR window
  
2015 Dec 23 - 2016 Apr 16 VIS window
2016 Jan 30 - 2016 Mar 14 IR window

comet windowsClick for larger image.
Fig. 2: Potential observing windows of several comets during 2013-2016.

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