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[newbie]

07/04/2014

Paulie star-hopped to find the two asteroids.

Confirmed!


At Conway near Lowell Indiana. Two unguided shots with a Canon T3i dslr with coma corrector on Astrotech 6" imaging newt and Celestron AVX mount.

Attachments:

[Paulie pchris00]

Thanks, Javier, for confirming photographically what I observed visually throughout Friday night.

I used the chart published on page 50 of the July 2014 Sky & Telescope, which can also be found here:

www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/super-close-pairing-ceres-vesta/







It was an easy starhop, starting at third magnigtude Zeta Virginis, which was easily visible above Mars and Spica. Using the finder scope on my Dob, I went from Zeta Virginis west-southwest to 6.4 magnitude BSC HR5078. From there, using a 20mm eyepiece (60x), I started matching nearby stars in the eyepiece to what I saw on the chart below.





I soon had the asteroids in sight, and shortly after, had identified them to a high degree of certainty (about 95%). I still had a little bit of doubt, but Bill was also confident that I had found the asteroids after checking the star chart.


We weren't sure of the time scale that proper motion could be observed on the asteroids, and Javier tried several exposures on the pair, trying to confirm the rocks through their motion. Early in the night, the two asteroids made a straight line with 7.8 magnitude TYC 4966-473-1, and a fainter star, which I cannot find a catalog name for (seen between Ceres & Vesta in Javier's GIF). As Mars, Spica, and Zeta Virginis got low in the west, I was able to detect visually that the asteroids had indeed moved past TYC 4966-473-1, and especially the dimmer star between them.

This was the closest apparent meeting ever seen of the two easiest asteroids to observe, and was the only thing on my observing agenda for the night. Of course I observed plenty more before sunrise, but I was glad to accomplish my main objective, and thankful that Javier was able to confirm my observation photographically. Good job!




Chart from Cartes du Ciel.

[Paulie pchris00]

Javier, I just noticed that you have Ceres & Vesta mislabeled. Ceres is at top, and Vesta is at center.

[newbie]

Corrected Paulie. Sorry about that!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Excellent job crew.

I was not only clouded out here in the city, but was not able to venture with you to the Conway site and share in the hunt.

These next few days are forecast for clear skies, so I may try a hand in spotting these rocks as well.

[Paulie pchris00]

They're still fairly close together. Depending on focal length of the scope, the pair should be visible together with 20mm- 30mm eyepieces. I could probably still get them with my 20mm. Might try again tonight.