Point&Shoot = Vesta !

[SilverAstro]

Normally I stay with visual astro, but from time to time I will do a 'Constellation' pic with my little 10y old point&shoot on a tripod.

A couple of nights ago I was doing Gemini and remembered info on the forum that asteroid Vesta was somewhere between Cancer and Gemini. Lo! when I did a close crop on one of my 15sec frames there was a small trail near where CdC said Vesta should be !

To make sure I did the same again the following night and here we are, one tiny mobile spec :-

 

[JimT]

Well done

Jim

[happy-kat]

Brilliant love these captures of an asteroid. I had completely missed it is in such a good spot for me potentially

[Davey-T]

Good catch, just took a few more pic's of it earlier to add to my collection, should have a nice GIF eventually.

Dave

[SilverAstro]

Thanks guys

I've been identing stars and annotating with the magnitudes given in my CdC,   just fractionally less than mag6.3 d'rekn ??    actually maybe = 6.3, I cant decide, have to do some pixel-poking on the original

[happy-kat]

Just been looking at which lens to use, I think the rdf that fits in the flash hot shoe will be useful here to speed up the aim to the area.

[JimT]

I used my SW80ED with a QHY8L with Stellarium showing the same on two monitors assured mt that I was on target.

Jim

[SilverAstro]

Mine were actual focal length 20mm (120mm equiv@35mmformat)

ISO1600 f/3.6 then a crop of prob. about 1/5th of the frame. 15s each,

linear 1/n stack of 4 in one of them and 6 in the other.

 

[SilverAstro]

49 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Brilliant love these captures of an asteroid. I had completely missed it is in such a good spot for me potentially

and it is going to remain in that region for a while yet, it moves further in to Gemini for a bit and then loops back not far from where it is now.

Thinks, has it passed oposition yet, will it brighten or fade ?  More googling in the offing !

 

[SilverAstro]

Answer = opposition was night of 17/18Jan when it would have reached mag6.2,   so sayeth Dave Mitsky on Cloudynights.

edit : decreasing to about mag7.5 by mid-April  when it will be back to between kappa and phi Gemini

 

[SilverAstro]

and this is what I started out to do, a starscene with Gemini in the middle.

In the field is Cancer with M44 just vis. ( better in the fullsize orig) and M35 in Gemini as well, also Auriga and a bit of Orion (Beetlejuice)  A lined version below showing the approx position of Vesta.

Edit : PS apols for the top of my chimney but it can be a useful baseline against  black-level clip  

[SilverAstro]

18 hours ago, Davey-T said:

to add to my collection, should have a nice GIF eventually.

Good luck with that in this climate !

Another two days gone by with no view oif it here and by the look of the 'cast there will be a horrid great gap in my gif if I ever do see it again !

I may have to 'borrow' some fill-in pics ,,,  oh how's that for an idea, an SGL group movie !

 

[Davey-T]

Just now, SilverAstro said:

Good luck with that in this climate !

Another two days gone by with no view oif it here and by the look of the 'cast there will be a horrid great gap in my gif if I ever do see it again !

I may have to 'borrow' some fill-in pics ,,,  oh how's that for an idea, an SGL group movie !

 

I'll see how good / bad it is when I give up, may have to P'Shop some in 

Dave

[SilverAstro]

Just now, Davey-T said:

may have to P'Shop some in 

  or Gimp it in in my case, yes the thought had crossed my mind also , , , what is it they say about "Great minds   "

[Davey-T]

18 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Just been looking at which lens to use, I think the rdf that fits in the flash hot shoe will be useful here to speed up the aim to the area.

I'm using 300mm it gives a reasonable field of view and enough stars to recognise where you are, it's pretty easy to find ATM just below Pollux.

Dave 

Last nights pic'

 

[SilverAstro]

well, contrary to my earlier gloom about the forecast I had a clear (very transparent) break last night and got my 3rd obs and set of images of Vesta,  what a surprise !! I wonder if the 3 would be good enough to calculate its orbit like we discussed elsewhere ? !

All I have to do now is process them all and add to my little movie. I'm not sure about this imaging lark, it takes a lot longer to proc than to obs  -  but it is now raining again so what else is there to do 

 

[Davey-T]

Got another one last night, looking at the forecast it could be a while until the next one.

Dave

[SilverAstro]

Having a bit of trouble aligning the third one but here is what I've got so far,  for your amusement and delectation on this horrid wet Sunday :-

[Davey-T]

Thai's encouraging me to have another go at mine.

Dave

[SilverAstro]

3 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Thai's encouraging me to have another go at mine.

Yes please, I'd love to see a proper job

Mine was never supposed to be, as RenéD might have said, it just happened;  so by the time they have been cut from a wide field stretched, rotated and bashed about, specially the last one, within an inch of their lives well, , ,

, , , at least they show, as Galileo might have said but probably didnt,  - nevertheless it moves !

 

[SilverAstro]

Between the 24th and the 29th Vesta had moved about 1deg30', 3x moon dia.

From images taken 24Jan 3:00, 25Jan 0:00, & 29Jan 1:30

 

 

[SilverAstro]

Continuing my little experiment with the point&shoot on a tripod, I have got 3 more images to add to the gif ( with a bit of an interruption by the moon ! )

One problem is becoming evident - it is fading ! ( past opposition) and I fear will soon be out of range of this wee camera originally it was plain to see in a single though noisy frame, now I am having to stack 10 frames to see it well, but at least the noise is supressed.

24Jan, 25Jan, 29Jan, 4Feb, 14Feb and 18Feb. (the bright star top-middle is Pollux - beta Gemini)

and here it is without the arrows