by Joe Stieber » Sat Jun 09, 2018 7:20 pm
neufer wrote: ↑Sat Jun 09, 2018 5:04 pmMay 15 would put Vesta back near Messier 24, I guess:
Indeed, on May 15, (4) Vesta was between M17 and M24, at the southwest vertex of a nearly-equilateral triangle, about 20 arc minutes per side, with the stars HD 168000 and HD 168329, both nominally 7th magnitude.
Saturn was the key to getting the date. In the APOD, it is just left of a line between M22 and M25, so I just cranked SkyTools back in time until Saturn's position matched as best as I could eyeball it. Then I checked Mars' and Vesta's positions and they were in accord too. Not sure about the time of night since I can't tell how high the mountain ridge is above the astronomical horizon.
I confess that I'm somewhat more familiar with this area than I might usually be, since I was out in the NJ Pinelands this past Monday night (June 4-5, 2018) looking at Vesta, and taking
a couple of snapshots of the area too. While I failed to spot Vesta with unaided eyes, it was an easy binocular object, and now I have an improved grasp of the area for further attempts to spot Vesta (if the weather ever cooperates). Bob King has a
nice online article at Sky & Telescope about observing Vesta this opposition.
[quote=neufer post_id=283174 time=1528563871 user_id=124483]May 15 would put Vesta back near Messier 24, I guess:[/quote]
Indeed, on May 15, (4) Vesta was between M17 and M24, at the southwest vertex of a nearly-equilateral triangle, about 20 arc minutes per side, with the stars HD 168000 and HD 168329, both nominally 7th magnitude.
Saturn was the key to getting the date. In the APOD, it is just left of a line between M22 and M25, so I just cranked SkyTools back in time until Saturn's position matched as best as I could eyeball it. Then I checked Mars' and Vesta's positions and they were in accord too. Not sure about the time of night since I can't tell how high the mountain ridge is above the astronomical horizon.
I confess that I'm somewhat more familiar with this area than I might usually be, since I was out in the NJ Pinelands this past Monday night (June 4-5, 2018) looking at Vesta, and taking [url=http://sjastro.org/]a couple of snapshots[/url] of the area too. While I failed to spot Vesta with unaided eyes, it was an easy binocular object, and now I have an improved grasp of the area for further attempts to spot Vesta (if the weather ever cooperates). Bob King has a [url=http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/vesta-2018-opposition/]nice online article at Sky & Telescope[/url] about observing Vesta this opposition.