The "Last Pictures" from La Silla

These NTT images are the last that could be obtained using this telescope
before the first fragments start to hit Jupiter. The comet is now so
stretched that several images are required to cover the full train and
the leading fragments are too close to the planet to be seen at all.
The proximity of the planet means that the images are dominated by scattered
light which is in places saturating the CCD chip. As a result subtracting the
background light becomes extremely difficult and this explains the strange
features seen on these frames - they are not real!

These images were taken by Pierre Dubath (Lick Observatory, USA and 
Geneva Observatory, Switzerland) using the New Technology Telescope (NTT)
with the RILD CCD system and a red (R) filter. They were all taken
close to July 15.0, 1994. The background has been subtracted using a
low-pass filtering method.

The first picture shows fragments E,F,G and H, stretching from upper left
to lower right. F is rather faint and small, G is double and just beneath
a star. This is a 10 minute exposure

The second shows the trailing fragments, L-W. The brightest fragment is Q
which is close to the centre of the image. This is a 15 minute exposure.

The final picture may show nucleus H. However almost everything which is
seen, particularly the strange shapes towards the upper-left are just
artifacts of the CCD detector and the attempt to remove the scattered
light from Jupiter. This is a 15 minute exposure. This picture is "The End".