Comet thought experiment.

From: GD (alfa_at_melb.something.au)
Date: 01/12/05 

Date: 12 Jan 2005 18:28:48 +1050

Upfront I'll say that I dont have any of the bits of equipment required
to try this idea, all my astrophoto stuff is film based. Not a CCD or
laptop in sight.

On the topic of comet hunting:
It seems that there is such a thing as a "typical comet spectrum". Doing
a google search on the topic seems to bear this idea out anyway.

What I had in mind was taking a few CCD images of the same patch of sky,
each image taken through a different filter (UHC, Swan Band etc...).
Then a bit of software would look though the images and display a view
based on how similar the intensities of each pixel in those images
represented the intensities expected by a comet.

You'd calibrate and set it up using filtered images of known comets of
course.

If this idea worked for *most* comets, and imaging only took a minute
or so, and the computer analysis was quick, then I imagine a heap of sky
could be scanned quite quickly for new comets since you arent looking for
movement, just the right spectrum.

Thoughts?

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