Sunday, November 30, 2008

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).

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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

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.

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