I trust you will show us the movement - in a similar way to this:
Let's get up close and personal to Vesta:
NASA’s Dawn mission obtained the above image of the giant asteroid Vesta (average diameter 329 miles) on July 24, 2011.
Being almost spherical, Vesta is is nearly classified as a dwarf planet, a designation that is held by the more massive asteroid Ceres.
Here's practically everything one would want to know about Vesta: https://www.space.com/12097-vesta-asteroid-facts-solar-system.html
This object Vesta is as easier than Uranus because it moves so fast. Discovered after Uranus around 1788, it is currently retrograde in appearance, but orbits every 3.6 years and comes to opposition about every 18 months.
Recall on the evening of the 16th:
This is 2AM on the 18th, 27 hours later. I make that about 15 arcminutes movement, about half a full Moon's width. Much darker skies. The overall window is about 10 x 6 degrees.
This is skylive's more detailed map for the second observation:
https://theskylive.com/where-is-vesta
Because the nearby star is magnitude 7, this means I have a good chance of snapping Neptune (mag 7.5) when it is better placed later in the year. That is about the last easy thing with my current 75mm camera setup. Ceres is magnitude 8, so doable too.
Usual 4 seconds, ISO 800, f2.8. Nikon D3200, 75mm eff. My tripod has a vertical calibration, so here I just set it to 30 degrees elevation from the sky map and I used Arcturus, Spica and Vega to locate. I checked for the T CrB Nova again, now at 60 degrees elevation,but nothing as usual.
About 40 Star Clusters, and some wide doubles, and the Andromeda Galaxy are doable. All the fainter galaxies are extremely difficult, being about 20X further away. I would need to borrow a 300mm telephoto for the Moon and smaller Jupiter moons I think.
Recall on the evening of the 16th:
This is 2AM on the 18th, 27 hours later. I make that about 15 arcminutes movement, about half a full Moon's width. Much darker skies. The overall window is about 10 x 6 degrees.
This is skylive's more detailed map for the second observation:
https://theskylive.com/where-is-vesta
Because the nearby star is magnitude 7, this means I have a good chance of snapping Neptune (mag 7.5) when it is better placed later in the year. That is about the last easy thing with my current 75mm camera setup. Ceres is magnitude 8, so doable too.
Usual 4 seconds, ISO 800, f2.8. Nikon D3200, 75mm eff. My tripod has a vertical calibration, so here I just set it to 30 degrees elevation from the sky map and I used Arcturus, Spica and Vega to locate. I checked for the T CrB Nova again, now at 60 degrees elevation,but nothing as usual.
About 40 Star Clusters, and some wide doubles, and the Andromeda Galaxy are doable. All the fainter galaxies are extremely difficult, being about 20X further away. I would need to borrow a 300mm telephoto for the Moon and smaller Jupiter moons I think.
I just checked this, Ceres looks good at 7.5 in October along with Neptune at 7.5 and Saturn at opposition. Bit low in the sky around 25-30 degrees in the South, but no really worse than tonight's observations of Vesta.
Should get them all in one frame and Saturn will make an easy marker:
That and some of the Nebulas and clusters low in Scorpio and Sagittarius in July are my next projects.
I see from my Astronomy Now magazine, which is pretty good if you are a practical observer, I can do a 2 year home course MSc Astrophysics with Liverpool University.
Probably cost 10,000 pounds and I have the 2.2 Physics degree required, given outrageous college fees these days, and a mere A-Level costs 250 pounds, but a unique and impressive sort of qualification I think.
Just wonder if it might really be a bit of a dumb sort of thing, since there is little we don't know about in this thread! 🤣
Should get them all in one frame and Saturn will make an easy marker:
That and some of the Nebulas and clusters low in Scorpio and Sagittarius in July are my next projects.
I see from my Astronomy Now magazine, which is pretty good if you are a practical observer, I can do a 2 year home course MSc Astrophysics with Liverpool University.
Probably cost 10,000 pounds and I have the 2.2 Physics degree required, given outrageous college fees these days, and a mere A-Level costs 250 pounds, but a unique and impressive sort of qualification I think.
Just wonder if it might really be a bit of a dumb sort of thing, since there is little we don't know about in this thread! 🤣
Last edited: