Catalina Sky Survey Captures Image of EPOXI's spacecraft
Caption: Astronomer Richard Kowalski of the Catalina Sky Survey recovered (successfully imaged) EPOXI's spacecraft on the night of 29/30 Dec but reports that "due to the weather conditions, the spacecraft was right at the edge of our detectability." He tried again the next night 30/31 December and the weather was clearly better! Taken with the Catalina Sky Survey's 1.5m telescope located at Mt. Lemmon (MPC G96), the exposures were 10 seconds long taken every 25 seconds. The four frames in the detailed strip image (top) were put together to make the animation. The spacecraft is the object within the purple circle.
Credit: Catalina Sky Survey