Viewing asteroids

[ScottM]

As a bit of a challenge while I'm trying to improve at finding objects with my binoculars, I want to try to view some asteroids. Can anyone offer any tips to help find them? I'll be looking for some of the brighter ones like Ceres (yes, I know it's a dwarf planet -- I still think of it as an asteroid), Vesta, or Pallas. Also, this may be a dumb question, but when I spot one of them, how will I know that's it? Any tips are greatly appreciated.

[StarSapling]

The web site heavens-above.com will give you good finder charts for the brighter asteroids.  Locate the indicated star field, draw out the star field (just the brighter stars making sure you include the star you think is the asteroid) and observe the same star field the next night.  The star that moves is your asteroid.  Once you confirm the asteroid, you can follow it for weeks sometimes.  It's alot of fun.

[Stu]

Best thing to do is look on Stellarium or another similar program to find them. This screenshot is from SkySafari. Ceres is near Mars at the moment so it is at its highest at around 2.30am. It's visual magnitude is 7.4, so it will appear as a relatively faint star.

To locate it, print out a star map of the location with stars down to the same sort of brightness that you can see with your binos, then it is just a matter of matching star patterns to find one where there is no star on the map!

For instance, this chart has a 5 degree circle on it to help with orientation, and stars down to mag 8.0 so you can match the star patterns. If you find Tau Virginis, you should be able to find Ceres.

The best way to verify you find is to check back on successive nights to see if the one you thought was Ceres has moved!

This chart shows the position a week later so the movement is quite slow.

I believe the site www.binocularsky.com has finder charts for these and good advice for binocular observing.

Good luck, let us know how you get on!

Stu

[Stu]

Vesta info below, close to Ceres and mag 6.2

Pallas transits earlier at around 9.52, mag 7.3 and in Hydra

Hope that helps you find them.

Cheers,

Stu

[iksobarg]

*searches 'asteroids'

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=search&fromMainBar=1

not found any images yet...

*searches google for 'asteroid'

https://www.google.de/search?q=asteroid&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=3ZIpU5fkG8fOtQam3oCoAw&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=489#q=asteroid+astrophotography&tbm=isch

Now I can "see" why they're not so popular (pun intended).

[BinocularSky]

I put  monthly finder charts for the brighter ones in my newsletter (go to http://binocularsky.com & click on the newsletter tab)

[Stu]

Well, totally inspired by the original question, I've just been out and spotted Pallas which I had not seen before.

It's very clear, and easy to identify from the star field, almost pointed to by the arrow shaped asterism to the right of it.

I could pick out the mag 8 ish stars in a row above it, and Pallas itself was quite obvious.

Cheers,

Stu

[ScottM]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I used Starry Night on my computer as a guideline, and using Mars and Spica as a starting point since they're currently so nicely aligned, I was able to spot Ceres and Vesta quite easily. I started a search for Pallas, but that required using quite a few stars as a guide, and as I'm pretty tired right now, I decided to save it for a time when I felt like thinking a bit more (yeah, I'm being lazy!).

Not asteroid related, but since Titan had a good elongation from Saturn, I was able to spot it for the first time as well.

[Stu]

Nice one Scott :-)

Stu

[Ptarmigan]

The web site heavens-above.com will give you good finder charts for the brighter asteroids.

Thanks for that reminder, I had forgotten that HA did them and so I got Ceres confirmed ok, where they said it should be :)

Just curious :-

Last night I had trouble with Stellarium and Ceres - anyone else?- 

Vesta and Pallas were both ok in it (Pallas new for me !)

Last night was far too late to sort the problem cos Stellarium always confuses me when I try to update asteroids and/or comets

[Ptarmigan]

Well, I got a second clear night (gosh, in England !!) and yes, all is well with the world, I am pleased to say that Ceres is where it is supposed to be and my (two) implementations of Stellarium are wrong, still have not figured why !

Strange that Vesta and Pallas are OK, that is going to bother me

[andrew63]

Thanks for all the links - inspired me to look for some asteroids !

andrew