Mercury, Spica & Venus
| Image exposure: 2.0 sec; f/1.4; ISO 400 | Camera: Canon 60D, 50mm lens | Image field of view: 40° x 27° | Image date: 2021-09-14 |
No planning for this image. I popped outside just before dinner for a quick Western view of the sky and noticed the bright alignment. I quickly set up the camera on its tripod and took a few images with varying exposures and selected the above as the best.
Venus is top and the elusive Mercury is bottom (just skimming to the right of the jacaranda tree). In between is the first magnitude star Spica with a slightly blue hue.
Mercury was shining at magnitude +0.2 in a fairly darkish looking sky, 70 minutes after sunset – one of the best views possible for this little planet which never strays far from the Sun. I wish I could have used my telescope on it.
I love taking wide angle DSLR images of the night sky, because you never know what you might “discover”. The surprise this time was when I checked in Sky Safari and noticed that the asteroid 4Vesta was in the field of view. Surely my DSLR wouldn’t pick out tiny Vesta – but it did!
The following two image crops will lead you to Vesta.
The first image below shows bright Spica (bottom left) and an obtuse triangle of stars (far right centre) which is cropped and magnified in the smaller image below.
Spica (bottom left) & Vesta (right)
Minor Planet Vesta (centre)
Vesta orbits in the Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is a mere 468 km in diameter and shines in the sunlight at magnitude 8.2. It was first discovered in 1807.
Cosmic Focus Observatory
34° S
Above us only sky….
Thanks for reading!
🙃
Images © Roger Powell
I’m one of the founder members of Macarthur Astronomical Society
Cosmic Focus 
Good catch, Roger.
Last Thursday, I held a little viewing party for the students in our English Language Learners class. We help them practice conversational English. About 10 showed up. Some brought younger kids. We looked at the Moon, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter. No police came by to break up our party. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Public outreach was always a pleasure and kids ask better questions than adults! 🙃
Regrettably my last such event was over two years ago and I will not be going to any until I know this covid crisis is completely over. Anyway, as it stands, here in Sydney we have been in enforced lockdown since 26th June.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Everything about the photo enchants me, I have never seen a Jacaranda tree. I am transported. Happy springtime.. Thank you,
Fran
LikeLike
Thanks, Fran. They are beautiful trees, especially in November when in blossom. I’ll have to work out how I can slip in a daylight image for you!
LikeLike
Nice… Really nice. M 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks very much, Marty.
LikeLike
Very nice . . . I keep meaning to go out and just snap away . . . but snacks run interference.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like it when I shoot something in wide angle and then find something else of interest in the shot. I’ll be having a closer look at Vesta next year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah! So that’s what Spica looks like. I haven’t managed to spot it on my own yet. 😅
LikeLiked by 1 person
Chances are you unwittingly have!
🙃
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s amazing that you captured an asteroid! Is it visible with the unaided eye?
LikeLiked by 1 person
It may be visible in binoculars but at magnitude +8.2 it’s too faint for the human eye. Magnitude +6.0 is generally considered to be the dimmest magnitude seen unaided. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitude_(astronomy)#Examples
When I take wide field images with a DSLR I will often check the field to see if there are any unforeseen objects – and this time I got lucky!
LikeLiked by 1 person