Vesta at 11 year best.

[Tropo-Bob]

Vesta is having a particularly favourable Opposition this year on 19th June. It is already brighter than 6th Magnitude and will remain so till about the middle of July. Apparently,Vesta's best oppositions occur 10 to 11 years apart and we will not see it this bright again until 2029.

[glend]

Yes it it pretty bright and easy to find right now. I captured Vesta last week while imaging the Sagittarius Star Cloud area, it had apparent motion over the different RGB filters I used to capture the image. It was also irregular in shape, not round like a background star. You can see it in this image, with apparent motion towards the dark nebula (LDN323) near it. As I shot the red filter first, the red part of the image indicates where it was when I started, then the colour shifts as the G, then B, and Ha filters are used. Zoom in on full resolution mode to get a good look. Shot with a MN190 at 1000mm fl.

https://www.astrobin.com/full/348039/0/

[Tropo-Bob]

Glen, thanks for the image of Vesta. Its interesting to see that Vesta moved enough to blur during your imaging time.

[glend]

That is apparent motion Bob. Vesta does have orbital movement (19.34 kms/sec). I was using Sideral tracking so the background stars are stationary in relation to the Earth's orbital speed and rotation, but Vesta is not locked in place. All the details are in the link below.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Vesta

Btw, this is the same technique used to find comets, and other near Earth objects.

[Tropo-Bob]

Glen, would the idea be to image near Earth object at Opposition when their movement would be greatest, or before Opposition to perhaps be the first to find the object and also to give to forewarning before its closest approach?

I am just wondering, and apologies if I am asking to deep a question.

[gaa_ian]

I look forward to following this one too Bob !

[AussieTrooper]

Saw it naked eye last night...just. Took nearly an hour of waiting for the perfect moment, then with averted vision, then only just.

40yr old eyes aren't set out for this stuff.

[Tropo-Bob]

Well done! My 60+ eyes could not see it.

However, last night it was in the same binocular field as Saturn. (Using 8x30s, 7.5 degree field. Vesta was above Saturn on the far side of the field when placing Saturn on the lower edge of the view.)

[Tropo-Bob]

I viewed this last night with my ED 127mm F9 scope with up to 142x. It has a distinctive, medium-yellow hue, which is in agreement with people on Cloudy Nights also saying it is yellow. Some on Cloudy Nights say that they can tell it is not a star, but to me, it looks like a star.

It is only 5 days left to Opposition, so this is a great time to look.

[Tinderboxsky]

I had a view of Vesta this evening using my 6.5X32 binoculars. Vesta stood out clearly and was a distinctive light yellow and was positioned nicely near M23.
These binoculars have a true 9 degree FOV and are remarkably sharp right to the edge. So, putting M23 and Vesta near the left hand edge, a truely spectacular FOV emerged. Almost across the opposite side of the field was Saturn. Towards the upper part of the FOV the glow of the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae and associated stars stood out and in the lower part of the field M25 (Sagittarius Star Cloud) glowed magnificently. All of this in a sea of background stars.