Venus, Jupiter and the Moon

Look to the West tomorrow evening just after sunset for the spectacular triple conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon. This is a rare astronomical treat, not to be missed. The objects are bright enough to be visible even in light polluted skies. I prepared a view of the event for my location on "Cartes de Ciel" software.

Meanwhile Vesta may be observed, even only through binoculars, slowly creeping towards Alpha Piscium (Alrischa).

Vesta

After a hiatus in my observational astronomy, last night I tried out my new Celestron Skymaster 15x70 binoculars on an observation of the asteroid Vesta. At this time, this asteroid is well placed close to the star Alpha Piscium.

I downloaded a very good chart from the Sky & Telescope website. The asteroid was quickly found in the expected position, almost equidistant between the stars TYC0040-01162-1, TYC0041-01221-1 and TYC0041-01255-1 on the border between Pisces and Cetus. I will now check tonight if there was any movement in the object I observed that would confirm that it is the asteroid.

Otherwise I tried the binoculars on some open clusters like M35, M41, M36, M37, M38 and the Pleiades. I also observed the Perseus Double Cluster, the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy and was quite pleased to find and observe Hind's Crimson star, R Leporis.

Altogether, I am quite pleased with the performance of my new binoculars.