Asteroid hunting.

[Darran]

Hi,

    Newbie here, this might be a niche subject? I'm fascinated with the asteroid belt, and  would like to ask what equipment would enable me to view/image/analyse this wonderful part of the Heavens please?

[Nik271]

To view some brighter asteroids (Ceres, Vesta, basically anything up to mag 8-9) you only need binoculars and an accurate star chart.

Vesta is brightly visible this and next month in Leo, it is the brightest asteroid reaching magnitude 6. 

For imaging the dimmer asteroids, you need a small telescope, camera (DSLR or dedicated astro-camera) and a star tracker (or motorized equatorial mount). The gear rapidly gets very expensive. 

Personally I stick with visual, others should be able to advise on the imaging in greater detail.

[Darran]

Thank you, I've bought myself an Skywatcher skymax 127. I've got the software/hardware to link up to my iPad/iPhone, should this be enough to get me going in the right direction?

Darran.

[Cosmic Geoff]

18 hours ago, Darran said:

should this be enough to get me going in the right direction?

That depends on you. The key to successful asteroid hunting is 1) look in the right place. 2) be able to 'spot the difference' and determine which white speck is the extra one (the asteroid).  A GoTo mount will be a major help.  My scopes have star diagonals whcih are a distinct disadvantage as they erect the image but leave it flipped l/R.  If  you have the budget and are sufficiently interested, you could invest in a correct-image prism diagonal.

[Xilman]

21 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

The key to successful asteroid hunting is 1) look in the right place. 2) be able to 'spot the difference' and determine which white speck is the extra one (the asteroid).

1) is essential for all kinds of observing! Though sometimes you get lucky. My first image of globular clusters in M31 was the result of my failing to set on a variable star. To be fair, it was the first time I had tried using that telescope for real work.

2) If you have imaging, and it sounds like you do given that you have a iPhone, the classical way of determining whether a speck is an asteroid is to take images a day or few apart and see which speck has moved with respect to all the other specks. Another common way, if you can run it, is to use Astrometrica and ask it nicely to show which asteroids are present in your image.

[Darran]

5 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

That depends on you. The key to successful asteroid hunting is 1) look in the right place. 2) be able to 'spot the difference' and determine which white speck is the extra one (the asteroid).  A GoTo mount will be a major help.  My scopes have star diagonals whcih are a distinct disadvantage as they erect the image but leave it flipped l/R.  If  you have the budget and are sufficiently interested, you could invest in a correct-image prism diagonal.

 

4 hours ago, Xilman said:

1) is essential for all kinds of observing! Though sometimes you get lucky. My first image of globular clusters in M31 was the result of my failing to set on a variable star. To be fair, it was the first time I had tried using that telescope for real work.

2) If you have imaging, and it sounds like you do given that you have a iPhone, the classical way of determining whether a speck is an asteroid is to take images a day or few apart and see which speck has moved with respect to all the other specks. Another common way, if you can run it, is to use Astrometrica and ask it nicely to show which asteroids are present in your image.

I've set up an old iPhone using a cheep bracket of Amazon (£12-13) as a guide scope, reverse camera so I have a screen to look at instead of being on my knees, then (until I can afford better) my new iPhone for image capture. I intend to incorporate my iPad and a RB pie into the mix eventually. This is my plan, we'll see how it goes?

[Cosmic Geoff]

The easiest way to identify asteroids in a star field is to image it and then plate-solve the image.   If you are able to plate-solve an EVAA image at the telescope, you can also check that you are aiming at the right field.