I tracked down my first asteroid (Vesta) using binoculars a few nights ago, and decided to have a go at imaging it. The attached file is a quick animation made up of images taken on the 23rd, 24th and 25th October, showing Vesta's movement against the background stars. All images were taken using a tripod-mounted Pentax K100D and 300mm telephoto lens, from my backyard in Brisbane. Exposure 6 sec at f/5.6 and 800 iso.
I'm happy with the result given the equiptment used. I might try a longer animation over the next couple of weeks. (Vesta is at opposition on Nov 1st).
Great work in planning for this and following through with the animation – I’m impressed! Consider me also newly educated in how quickly these lumps of rocks move…I didn’t expect to see such a large movement with the relatively short focal length of 300mm.
How did you acquire the field - just through the camera viewfinder? If so, take a bow, star hopper!
Yes Dennis, I did use the viewfinder to track down Vesta. After checking with Stellarium, I first found it using binoculars, and then star hopped with repeat exposures. I also cropped the view while making the animation (to help keep the size down).
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