This page documents an attempt by students in the AY433/533 class (Observational Techniques), under Bill Keel's prodding, to observe the Stardust comet-sample spacecraft a few hours before it enters the Earth's atmosphere before dawn on 15 January, 2006. We are using the UA campus observatory's 0.4-meter telescope and CCD imaging system. If conditions permit, we should be able to follow the incoming spacecraft telescopicaly from about 1800-2230 CST (0000-0430 UT).

Watch this space for still and animated images during the event!

Update, 9:00 p.m. CDT (0300 UT): We've been tracking the spacecraft position; it's still too dim to see its trail among the stars against the moonlight. We're now trying a hitherto unused capability of our telescope, tracking at arbitary rates, to try picking it up by letting the background stars trail behind it.

Next update, 10:20 CST (0420 UT): Success! By tracking the telescope to follow Stardust's motion across the sky, we just barely recorded the 18th-magnitude spacecraft shortly before 10 p.m., at a range of about 160,000 km. It's shown circled in this enlargement from a 4-minute CCD exposure, taken just before we lost it into trees and the skyline of Bryant-Denny Stadium. The near-vertical streaks are background stars and galaxies, smeared out by tracking the spacecraft during the exposure. Welcome home to the Stardust return capsule from our team - Branyon May, Alana May, Adriana Durbala, Sebastian Zamfir, and Christy Hyde. Nathan Keel acted as general gopher.

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Last changes:  January 2006