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[Centaur]

The two brightest asteroids, 4 Vesta and 1 Ceres, will both be in opposition to the Sun and their most brilliant for their current apparitions in mid-April. Currently Vesta is at magnitude +6.2 and Ceres at +7.4. Their mid-April brightness peaks are expected to be +5.7 and +7.0 respectively.

They are both in the constellation of Virgo while in the vicinity of Mars, Saturn, Arcturus and Spica. Sharp-eyed observers under dark skies may spot Vesta by naked eye. Those with especially strong eyes may even find Ceres.

I’ve created equatorial charts and ephemerides for these asteroids and other bright ones not far from their oppositions. They can be viewed at CurtRenz.com/asteroids.html

Photos and descriptions of these asteroids would be welcome additions to this thread.

[Paulie pchris00]

I was thinking about trying to track these down April 14-15, either to kill time waiting for Luna to come to opposition, or when the sky darkens during Luna's opposition (total lunar eclipse).