Astroblog

Eastern horizon on the evening of Monday, October 12 as seen from Adelaide at 20:54 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Saturn is the brightest object above the eastern horizon. The asteroid  Vesta is at opposition and 1s easily visible in binoculars on the 12th.  unfortunately there are no bright guide stars to easily get to it. The insets shows the telescopic view of Saturn and the binocular view of Vesta at this time.  Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time	Vesta last night taken on my Samsung S24 in astrophoto mode. 5x zoom, 2 minutes exposure. Vesta comes to opposition on Monday the 12th. The Guide stars theta (𝛉) Ceti and Zeta 𝜻 Ceti, are indicated along with Vesta and HIP 8230.(click to embiggen)
Black and white binocular chart suitable for printing showing the movement of 4 Vesta over October. The large circle represents the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. Saturn and the Guide stars theta (𝛉) Ceti and Zeta 𝜻 Ceti, are indicated along with Vesta, HIP 7999 and HIP 8230.Click to embiggen and print.  Use the horizon chart to the left for orientation first.  Use the chart above to orient yourself to get to the guide stars.	Black and white binocular chart suitable for printing showing the movement of 4 Vesta over October. Guide stars are indicated. The large circle represents the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. Click to embiggen and print.  Use the horizon chart to the left for orientation first.

The Asteroid 4 Vesta is one of the iconic minor planets, and one of two orbited by the Dawn spacecraft. At favorable oppositions Vesta is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye under dark sky conditions. This year it only gets to magnitude 6.5 making it binocular only. It will be easily visible in binoculars and small telescopes even under suburban skies.

This year Monday, October 12 is a reasonable opposition of Vesta, when it will reach a magnitude of 6.5 at its brightest with no Moon interference and few reasonable guide stars.

Labels: 4 Vesta, Asteroid, binocular

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 6:12 pm 0 comments

Evening sky on Friday, May 2 as seen from Adelaide at 23:00 ACST. Asteroid Vesta is at apposition in Libra.  The inset is the binocular view of Vesta at this time. At magnitude 5.7 it will be an easy binocular object near clear guide stars. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time.	The approximate wide field binocular view of Vesta and the guide stars at 23:00 ACST from Friday, April 25 on with the track of Vesta shown  (click to embiggen, similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time).
Black and white horizon chart facing North suitable for printing showing the guide objects of 4 Vesta, Antares, 𝛃 Librae (Zubeneschamali), μ Virginis (Rijl Al Awwa, unlabeled in this view) and Arcturus as seen from Adelaide at 23:00 ACST at Saturday 25 April. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. Use the charts above to orient yourself to get to the guide stars.	Black and white binocular chart suitable for printing showing the movement of 4 Vesta over April-May. The large circle represents the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. Click to embiggen and print.  Use the horizon chart to the left for orientation first.

The Asteroid 4 Vesta is one of the iconic minor planets, and one of two orbited by the Dawn spacecraft. At favorable oppositions Vesta is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye under dark sky conditions. This year it gets to magnitude 5.7 just over unaided eye visibility at dark sky sites. Not really visible from suburban skies, but it will be easily visible in binoculars and small telescopes.

This year Friday, May 2 is a  good opposition of Vesta, when it will reach a magnitude of 5.7 at its brightest with reasonable guide stars and no Moon interference.

Labels: 4 Vesta, Asteroid, binocular

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 3:28 pm 0 comments

Black and White printable map for locating Vesta at s asimilar scale to the images. Elnath and zeta Tau (Tianguan) are fairly obvious and Vesta is near 121 Tau. Click to embiggen	Photorealistic map for locating Vesta (and in conjunction with the printable map). Elnath and zeta Tau (Tianguan) are fairly obvious and Vesta is near 121 Tau. Click to embiggen.
Stack of 30x 1 second exposures at ISO 3200 with my canon IXUS "point and shoot" on 8 March. Click to embiggen.	Labelled Stack of 30x 1 second exposures at ISO 3200 with my canon IXUS "point and shoot" on 8 March. Click to embiggen.
Stack of 10x 4 second exposures at ISO 3200 with my Samsung S24 on 8 March. Click to embiggen.	Labelled stack of 10x 4 second expsures at ISO 3200 with my Samsung S24 on 8 March. Click to embiggen.

So how did my asteroid 4 Vesta imaging challenge go? Remember my original attempt didn't go too well, despite my confidence. 

I had a second opportunity on the 8th. The sky clarity was better, I could actually see Tianguan (zeta tau) and Elnath on the back of the camera/phone screen in test shots (there was a lot of groobling around on the ground setting up the shots  and several test exposures to get the right patch zoomed in. My Knees do not like me as I did this on the gravel bike path near the beach. 

But eventually I got Tianguan (zeta tau) and Elnath framed at a good zoom level (don't ask me what the Zoom is, the Canon IXUS just gives a zoom bar and the Samsung S24 give a zoom level but I forgot to record it. Both the IXUS and Samsung were on a tripod (I have a special adapter to pones for my tripod).

For the point and shoot IXUS I took 30 x 1 second frames at ISO 3200 (f/5.6), as the IXUS doesn't take exposures longer than 1 second (well it does, but defaults to ISO 50!). I traded noise for sensitivity. I also took a dark frame (exposure exactly the same as the main images but with the lens blocked to account for noise. The frames were then stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, the stacked output saved (a TIFF file), then exposure adjusted in The GIMP and the TIFF converted to JPG. 

Unlike last time 4 Vesta was clearly (if faintly visible). You should embiggen the images above to see Vesta clearly.

For the Samsung S24 I took 10 x 4 second frames at ISO 3200, f/3.4no dark frame though. The frames were then processed as for the IXUS (stacked in Deepsky Stacker, the stacked output saved (a TIFF file), then exposure adjusted in The GIMP and the TIFF converted to JPG). The result is much better than the single 10 second exposure.  

The Samsung S24 is cheating though, few cameras/phones have a 200 megapixel camera. They will be closer to the 20 megapixel IXUS. But the point is that even with an ordinary camera phone and stacking you can take effective astrophotos down to at least magnitude 8. This opens up a world of sky imaging you didn't think you could access with simple equipment. 

How did others go, Well Brendan got Vesta on the 9th,

Vesta is seen faintly above121 tau and has clearly moved since my images on the 8th.

 If anyone else has images and wants to submit them, let me know. 
 

Single 10 second second exposure at ISO 3200 with my Samsung S24 on 3 March, Vesta is just visible.	Labelled stack of 10x 4 second expsures at ISO 3200 with my Samsung S24 on 8 March. Click to embiggen.

In these images from 3 and 8 mrach you can clearly see the movement of Vesta.

Labels: 4 Vesta, Asteroid, astrophotography, gimp

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 10:25 pm 0 comments

Black and White printable Black and White printable Northern horizon map for locating Vesta. Map is set at astronomical twilight,  21:12 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset. Elnath and zeta Tau (Tianguan) are fairly obvious below Orion. Click  to embiggen and print.and print.	Black and White printable map for locating Vesta suitable for binoculars. Elnath and zeta Tau (Tianguan) are fairly obvious and Vesta is near 121 Tau. The circle is the approximate field of view of 10x50 binoculars. Click  to embiggen and print.
Photrealistic Northern horizon map for locating Vesta (and in conjunction with the printable map). The mMap is set at astronomical twilight,  21:12 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset. Elnath and zeta Tau (Tianguan) are fairly obvious below Orion. Click  to embiggen .	Photrealistic  map for locating Vesta suitable for binoculars (and in conjunction with the printable map). Elnath and zeta Tau (Tianguan) are fairly obvious and Vesta is near 121 Tau. Click  to embiggen.
Stack of 10x 1 second exposures at ISO 3200 with my canon IXUS "point and shoot" on 3 March, Vesta is not readily visible.	Single 10 second second exposure at ISO 3200 with my Samsung S24 on 3 March, Vesta is just visible.

So, for this months Astrophotography challenge I set "imaging the Asteroid 4 Vesta". Now vesta is magnitude 8 at the moment, a bit dim, but visible in binoculars and potentially image-able with fairly ordinary cameras using stacking, a powerful software technique where multiple images and be combinted to enhance dim objects.  

The biggest challenge is actually aiming your camera, even though the horns of the bull, Elnath and zeta Tau (Tianguan) are fairly obvious, they did not really show up well in the back of my canon IXUS not the mobile phone. So I had to do a bit of guess work in aiming and do a number of test shots to get Elnath and zeta Tau in view.

For the Canon IXUS "point and shoot" camera I took 10 x 1 second exposures at ISO 3200 and stacked them in Deep Sky Stacker, This wasa simple "drag and drop" procedure. I was limited to 1 second exposures because Canon messed up their long duration exposures (anything over 1 second defaults to 50 ISO, which is useless). The stack revealed several of the expected guide stars (and a couple of satellites) but no unambiguous Vesta. I'll try again with a deeper stack (20 + images, and some dark frames for noise reduction if the weather clears up before the Moon comes out again (around the 12-13th).

For the Samsung s24 I took a single 10 second shot at ISO 3200, this *just* revealed Vesta (see image above), so if the clouds go away I will try stacking multiple shots with the S24. 

Free Stacking software includes Deep Sky Stacker and Autostakkert for Windows,  and StarStaX for macOS.

Labels: 4 Vesta, Asteroid, astrophotography

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 12:55 am 0 comments

Evening sky on Friday, December 22 as seen from Adelaide at 22:16 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset). Asteroid Vesta is at apposition in Orion.  The inset is the binocular view of Vesta at this time. At magnitude 6.6 it will be an easy binocular object near clear guide stars. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time.	The approximate binocular view of Vesta and the guide stars at on from Thursday, December 23 on.  with the track of Vesta shown  (click to embiggen, similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time).
Black and white horizon chart facing east suitable for printing showing the guide objects of 4 Vesta Elnath, Propus and Chi orionus  as seen from Adelaide at 22:16 ACDST. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. Use the charts above to orient yourself to get to the guide stars.	Black and white binocular chart suitable for printing showing the movement of 4 Vesta over December. The large circle represents the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. Click to embiggen and print.  Use the horizon chart to the left for orientation first.

The Asteroid 4 Vesta is one of the iconic minor planets, and one of two orbited by the Dawn spacecraft. At favorable oppositions Vesta is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye under dark sky conditions. This year it gets to magnitude 5.8 just over unaided eye visibility at dark sky sites. Not really visible from suburban skies, but it will be easily visible in binoculars and small telescopes.

This year on Friday, December 22 is a  so-so opposition of Vesta, when it will reach a magnitude of 6.4  at its brightest with reasonable guide stars and some Moon interference. The next bright opposition is May 2025 it will reach magnitude 5.6 with good guide stars.

Labels: 4 Vesta, Asteroid, binocular

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 8:26 pm 0 comments

The North-east horizon as seen from Adelaide at 20:00 ACST (8:00 pm) showing the location of Vesta (click to embiggen) on Tuesday, August 23, when Vesta is at opposition and at its brightest.Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time.	The approximate binocular view of Vesta and the four guide stars at 20:00 ACST (8:00 pm) on Tuesday, August 23.  The helix nebula is shown but will not be visible in binoculars(click to embiggen, similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time).
Black and white horizon chart facing east suitable for printing showing the guide objects of 4 Vesta Saturn and Fomalhaut as seen from Adelaide at 22:00 ACDST. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. Use the charts above to orient yourself to get to the guide stars.	Black and white binocular chart suitable for printing showing the movement of 4 Vesta over August. The large circle represents the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. Click to embiggen and print.  Use the horizon chart to the left for orientation first.

The Asteroid 4 Vesta is one of the iconic minor planets, and one of two orbited by the Dawn spacecraft. At favorable oppositions Vesta is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye under dark sky conditions. This year it gets to magnitude 5.8 just over unaided eye visibility at dark sky sites. Not really visible from suburban skies, but it will be easily visible in binoculars and small telescopes.

This year on Tuesday, August 23 is a okay opposition of Vesta, when it will reach a magnitude of 5.8  at its brightest with reasonable guide stars. The next bright opposition is  May 2025 it will reach magnitude 5.6 with good guide stars.

Labels: 4 Vesta, Asteroid, binocular, unaided eye

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 8:41 pm 0 comments

Morning sky on Sunday June 12 as seen from Adelaide at 5:50 am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury form a line (Uranus, Neptune and the Asteroid Vesta are in the line too, but all need at least binoculars to see). Venus and Uranus are at their closest.The inset shows the binocular appearance of  Venus and Uranus at this time. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).	Morning sky on Sunday June 19 as seen from Adelaide at 5:52am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). The waning Moon is near Saturn. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).	Morning sky on Wedensday June 22 as seen from Adelaide at 5:53 am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). The waning Moon is near Jupiter. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).
Morning sky on Thursday June 23 as seen from Adelaide at 5:53 am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). The crescent Moon is near Mars.The inset shows the binocular appearance of the Moon and Mars at 3:00 am local time. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).	Morning sky on Saturday June 25 as seen from Adelaide at 5:53 am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). The Moon and and Uranus are at their closest (occultation in WA, NT and FNQ). The inset shows the binocular appearance of the Moon and Uranus at this time. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia except the occulting states at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).	Morning sky on Sunday June 26 as seen from Adelaide at 6:24 am ACST (60 minutes before sunrise). The crescent moon forms a line with Venus, Aldebaran and Mercury, with the Pleiades cluster close by. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Over the next three weeks you will be able to see a rather rare sight, if you have clear morning skies. All 5 bright classical planets are lined up in the order they are from the Sun. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In February 2016 we also had 5 bright planets in the morning skies but the lineup was Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. We have to go back 21 December 2004 to have all 5 planets in the morning sky in solar order. 

Also, unlike the other times we had all the bright classical planets together in the morning, we also have all the other planets (Uranus, Neptune), the Dwarf planet Pluto and the Asteroid 4 Vesta. These are not is solar system order. 

To make up for this on the 12th we have a close approach of Venus and Uranus. The Moon joins the line-up from the 19th, and we have lots of nice close Moon approaches, with the Moon and Uranus being close on the 25th and occultations in Cairns (Dawn), Darwin, Alice Springs and Perth. 

On the 26th Venus and the thin crescent Moon are close, the Pleiades and Aldebaran and Mercury make this an attractive sight. On the 27th the thin crescent Moon forms  a rectangle with Mercury, Venus and Aldebaran. On the 30th Venus forms a second eye for Taurus the Bull.

Labels: 4 Vesta, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Occultation, Saturn, unaided eye, Uranus, Venus

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:16 pm 0 comments

The North-east horizon as seen from Adelaide at 23:00 ACDST (10:00 pm non-daylight saving time) showing the location of Vesta (click to embiggen) on Thursday, March 4, when Vesta is at opposition at its brightest.Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time.	The approximate binocular view of Vesta and the three prominent guide stars at 23:00 ACDST (10:00 pm non-daylight saving time) on Thursday, March 4.  (click to embiggen, similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time).
Black and white horizon chart facing east suitable for printing showing location of 4 Vesta as seen from Adelaide at 23:00 ACDST. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. Use the charts above to orient yourself get to the guide stars.	Black and white binocular chart suitable for printing showing the movement of 4 Vesta over the next 30 days. The large circle represents the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. Click to embiggen and print.  Use the horizon chart to the left for orientation first.

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The Asteroid 4 Vesta is one of the iconic minor planets, and one of two orbited by the Dawn spacecraft. At favorable oppositions Vesta is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye under dark sky conditions. This year it gets to magnitude 5.8 (although the chart says 6.0) just over unaided eye visibility at dark sky sites. Not really visible from suburban skies, but it will be easily visible in binoculars and small telescopes.

This year is a reasonable opposition of Vesta on March 4, when it will reach a magnitude of 5.8  at its brightest with good guide stars. The next bright opposition is 22 August in 2022 (also magnitude 5.8) but there will be fewer good guide stars. And in May 2025 it will reach magnitude 5.6 with good guide stars.

Labels: 4 Vesta, binocular, telescope

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 9:56 pm 0 comments

The north-east horizon as seen in Adelaide at 11 pm local daylight saving time (10:00 pm non-daylight saving time) showing the location of Vesta on 26 October. The inset is the binocular view of Vesta and the two prominent guide stars.  (click to embiggen, similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time).	The north-east horizon as seen in Adelaide at 10 pm local daylight saving time (9:00 pm non-daylight saving time) showing the location of Vesta on 12 November at opposition. The inset is the binocular view of Vesta and the two prominent guide stars.  (click to embiggen, similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time).

Black and white binocular chart suitable for printing showing the movement of 4 Vesta over the next 30 days. Click to embiggen and print.  Use the charts above to get to the guide stars.

Labels: 4 Vesta, binocular, telescope

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:00 pm 1 comments

Evening sky showing the location of the asteroid 4 Vesta on 20 June when at opposition. The view is looking east as seen from Adelaide at 22:00 ACST. Saturn is high above the horizon and Mars is clearly visible. The Asteroid Vesta is visible to the north near Saturn. (click to embiggen, similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time).	Simulated binocular view of the region near Saturn showing the open cluster M24 and Vesta on Monday June 4 looking east  as seen from Adelaide at 22:00 ACST. Vesta is above M24 and in a direct line with Mu Sag and Kaus Borealis. Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

Black and white binocular chart suitable for printing showing the movement of 4 Vesta over the next 30 days. Click to embiggen and print. 

Labels: 4 Vesta, asteroids, binoculars, unaided eye

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 10:55 pm 0 comments

Evening sky on Thursday May 17 looking east  as seen from Adelaide at 22:00 ACST. Saturn and Mars are clearly visible above the horizon. The Asteroid Vesta is visible in binoculars to the left (north) of Saturn. Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).	Simulated binocular view of the region near Saturn showing the open cluster M24 and Vesta on Thursday May 17 looking east  as seen from Adelaide at 22:00 ACST. Vest will be close to M24 for around a week. Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

Labels: 4 Vesta, asteroids, binoculars

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 10:34 pm 0 comments