On March the 4th 2005, the spacecraft Rosetta was at its closest to Earth, using it for a gravity assist, on its way to land on a comet. Below are some images taken the day before on the 3rd March 2005. These images can also be found at the ESA Rosetta website.
 |
This is a combination of 5 exposures, 60 seconds each with a 30 second gap between images. Taken in 2x2 binning mode at 22:58UT on 2005-03-03. |
 |
This is a combination of 5 exposures, 60 seconds each with a 30 second gap between images. Taken in full res. mode at 23:06UT on 2005-03-03. |
 |
This is a single 240 sec guided exposure taken at 23:27UT using STAR2000. |
 |
This is a single 480 sec guided exposure taken at 23:39UT using STAR2000. The spacecraft appears to dim and brighten during the exposure. This is probably due to local sky conditions so the craft would vary in brightness over time. |
 |
Clicking on the image will bring up a moving sequence. It is made up of 5 images of 60 seconds each with a 30 second gap between them. |