ESA's faint object camera first images

Two views of a small (4.6 by 6.2 arcsecond) star field in the galactic cluster NGC 188 containing two stars separated by 2.9 arcseconds in the sky. Located at a distance of about 5,000 light years, both stars are far too remote for their surfaces to be resolved, and are therefore suitable point sources for evaluating optical imaging quality.

The ground-based image on the left was obtained with the 2.5 meter Nordic Optical Telescope at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma. At the time this exposure was taken the atmospheric conditions were such that the stellar images were blurred to an apparent diameter of 1.9 arcseconds - somewhat poorer than typically found at this excellent site.