Solar system wanderers - animation

[Rob_K]

This is a work-in-progress, showing the movement of asteroid (minor planet) 4 Vesta over the last few nights. You can also see the movement in Jupiter.

Just shot off the tripod with 400D, at 55mm with 18-55mm kit lens. Opened right up & can't go any longer than 8-sec without noticeable star trailing! Used Easy GIF Animator to produce animation.

Hope to keep going as long as clear nights continue - will attend to minor registration issues with an eventual final version.

Cheers -

[JohnG (John)]

Nice bit of work there, Rob, looking forward to the final version.

Top stuff.

Cheers

[erick (Eric)]

Hey that's great Rob - I hope the nights stay clear for several more frames!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Very nice Rob, plus I like how the appearance and disappearance of Jupiters moons at the same time adds to the feeling of movement .

[anthony.tony]

I have taken taken shots with a 350D Zoomset at 55mm. of Vesta its good to see some one doing it too. Tony.

[Rob_K]

Thanks all! Got another set of shots tonight, but then the cloud rolled in. Hope it doesn't stick around, or it'll be the end of the sequence.

Yeah, Tony, it's hard to grasp really that you can photograph asteroids off a tripod, with a kit lens! I really liked the Vesta shots you posted in the other thread.

I was hoping to start my sequence on the 29th Aug, to show Vesta actually passing Jupiter. They got as close as 0.4 of a degree (at midnight 30th). But it was cloudy here, of course ! I tried to image 2 Pallas which was at opposition on 3rd Sept, but the best I could do off the tripod was the faintest of grey streaks at 30-sec. Need tracking on that one!

Cheers -

[NQLD_Newby]

Wow Rob, thats a fantastic bunch of shots. Vesta really does race away from poor old jupiter. Can't wait to see the final product.