Look! Up in the sky! It's a star! No. It's a Comet. No. It's a Planet! No. Well ... how about a star that looks like a planet since it moves it's position from night to night?
Perhaps, so name it. Humm.
It's a little planet! Nope. A dwarf planet? Ok, but lame.
An Asteroid!
I Like it!
The asteroid/dwarf planet Ceres, the biggest and first asteroid to be discovered, is as bright as it gets right now and doing a loop on the back of the Lion Leo as we speak. And it's as bright as it will get in our lifetimes.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observin ... 87769.html
It's an easy binocular object for the next several weeks, so try a little asteroid, oops dwarf planet, discovery. Plot it's location over several nights to convince yourself that it's a starlike object that moves slowly across the heavens. Not planet or star, but _________.
Post your descriptions and hopefully some plots or images.
BobS
See Ceres. See Ceres Go!
Where's Ceres?
Here's a pair of shot's I made on the 13th and 15th of the sky above Leo. And assembled with a draft of brew or two. Ceres, the asteroid or Dwarf planet is in the picture and moves a lot over two days.
Sadly no pics from Saturday the 14th since the meeting was, as usual, clouded out. These images are a pretty good match for the brightness of 10X50 binoculars and were shot with a digital camera with a bit of telephoto (f4 and 30 sec ISO 800).
Can you find Ceres? As Commander Cosmos would say ... "Easy Beans"
For a bit more resolution, here's a larger image
http://home.comcast.net/~sikesassne101/ ... oShots.jpg
It will be a long time until Ceres gets this bright again and close again until 4164. Don't miss it or you'll have a long wait!
Sadly no pics from Saturday the 14th since the meeting was, as usual, clouded out. These images are a pretty good match for the brightness of 10X50 binoculars and were shot with a digital camera with a bit of telephoto (f4 and 30 sec ISO 800).
Can you find Ceres? As Commander Cosmos would say ... "Easy Beans"
For a bit more resolution, here's a larger image
http://home.comcast.net/~sikesassne101/ ... oShots.jpg
It will be a long time until Ceres gets this bright again and close again until 4164. Don't miss it or you'll have a long wait!
Aiming in the dark
Aiming in the dark was tricky until I piggybacked the camera on the scope and lined it up with the finder using Sirius, or in the daytime, anything. Then I just aim using the finder.
Focusing is aided enormously by having live view. Also the Olympus E510 has a intensity boast for live view as well as a fantastic 10X magnification button. This really makes focusing easy.
BobS
Focusing is aided enormously by having live view. Also the Olympus E510 has a intensity boast for live view as well as a fantastic 10X magnification button. This really makes focusing easy.
BobS