Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9: Three Days To the First Impact

This image of the leading fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (A-G)
was obtained on July 13, 1994, 00:00 UT with the 3.5-metre New Technology 
Telescope. It was made by visiting astronomer Pierre Dubath (Lick Observatory, 
California, USA and Geneva Observatory, Switzerland) with the EMMI instrument 
and a 2000 x 2000 pixel CCD, covering a field of about 10 arcminutes across. 
Only a subset of the total image is shown here. The A fragment is at 
the upper-left, it is diffuse and quite faint. The other fragments 
extend in a line towards the lower-right. The brightest fragments 
are E (close to the centre) and G which is close to the lower-right 
corner and appears double.

Technical data: 20 min red exposure with EMMI RILD during poor 
conditions. North is up and East is to the left. The frame was
flat-fielded and the strong, uneven background caused by stray-light
from Jupiter was removed by image processing.

This is ESO PR Photo SL9J/94-08 dated July 14, 1994. It may
be reproduced, if credit is given to the European Southern
Observatory.