Arecibo Observations of Comet 8P/Tuttle

We observed comet 8P/Tuttle at Arecibo from 2007 December 29.9 to 2008 January 05.9 The first four days were passive OH observations, and the last four were mostly S-Band radar.

2008 Jan 2.9

We split the time about evenly between CW and 2-μs (300-m) imaging. The pixel size in the images is 1-μs (150m) in range. In the image below, each panel is a sum of about 25 minutes of data.

2008 Jan 3.9

Based on the rotation seen last night, we did imaging at the beginning and the end of the track to maximize rotation coverage, with CW in the middle. As before, each panel is a sum of about 25 minutes of data.

2008 Jan 4.9

The track was getting shorter, so we only did imaging.

2008 Jan 5.9

We did a final OH map for half an hour, then finished with imaging once we got to new longitudes.

Last modified: Thu Jan 17 17:20:27 AST 2008