Movement of Vesta

2003/3/22 -- 28. This is an animated GIF of the asteroid Vesta. It covers 7 days when Vesta was near and at opposition to the Sun, and shows Vesta moving against background stars in Virgo. The bright star at left is Epsilon Virginis. The frame covers about 9x5.5 degrees with north at upper left and west at upper right.

The animation consists of 6 frames, each frame is a stacked photo of three to four 20 second exposures taken at one night (with one cloudy night skipped) from light polluted Pittsburgh city. I used a Nikon coolpix 995 digital camera on tripod. No tracking or telescope was used.

Vesta 2003/3/22

2003/3/22 23:30 EST. Vesta is near opposition to the Sun, and is around magnitude 6. This photo is an average (stacked) of eight 8-second exposures (F2.6, f8.2mm, ISO 800, noise reductio on) made with Nikon coolpix 995 camera. Contrast and brightness adjusted to bring out the faint asteroid. The pink sky backgroud is due to light pollution. No telescope or tracking is used. From Green Tree, Pittsburgh. Compare the photo with the article in Sky & Telescope, April 2003, p.101.