Messenger spacecraft imaging attempt

The animation consists of five cropped frames (200x200 pixels) on the left (east) side of the full frame (~1000 pixels). The cropped frames above are about eight arcminutes on a side, with north at the top, and east to the left. Each image is a stack (or sum) of four 30-second exposures (with about 40 seconds between images for downloads), offset in the predicted motion of the MESSENGER spacecraft. The spacecraft (and/or its third stage) appears on the left-center side of the image as a dot moving left to right in the direction the stars are streaked. It can be seen clearly in stacks 1 and 2, and is partially visible (involved with stars) in frames 3 and 4. It seems to be lost in the glare of a brighter star in the last stack (#5). There are so many stars because the spacecraft was located in the summer Milky Way. The full image center (not this cropped portion) was targeted for 19h 23m 21s, +32 39' 22", based on a somewhat outdated ephemeris (MESSENGERS burn was a bit below planned, and we forgot to check for updates).

The images were made on August 4 UT, using the Fort Bend Astronomy Club's 18-inch (46 cm) reflector, and a Zilkha-grant Apogee AP-8 camera. Observers were Bill Dillon and Joe Dellinger. At the time, the spacecraft was about 0.0023 AU from the earth (about 210,000 miles or 350,000 km) at the time the images were taken.

Image center UT times were:

1: 03:36:03
2: 03:40:24
3: 03:44:45
4: 03:49:06
5: 03:53:27

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