Three nuclei of comet LINEAR

This photograph shows the three nuclei of Comet LINEAR (C/2001 A2). It is a reproduction of a 1-min exposure in red light, obtained in the early evening of May 16, 2001, with the 8.2-m VLT YEPUN (UT4) telescope at Paranal.

Technical information: this image is based on a 1-min exposure on May 16, 2001 at 23:10 hrs UT through an R-filtre with the VLT Test Camera at the Cassegrain focus (under the main mirror) of the 8.2-m VLT YEPUN (UT4) telescope on Paranal. Although the comet was low in the western sky, the atmospheric conditions were good and the seeing was excellent, 0.6 arcsec. The telescope was set to follow the motion of the comet in the sky. The fields shown measure 17 x 18 arcsec 2 and 27 x 21 arcsec 2, respectively; 1 pixel = 0.0455 arcsec. North is up and East is left.