The Position of Asteroid Vesta

in the Night Sky, 2022

by Martin J. Powell

Finder Chart showing the path of asteroid 4 Vesta through southern Aquarius at 5-day intervals from late July to mid-September 2022 (click on the thumbnail for the full-size chart, 134 KB). This is the period during which the asteroid is technically visible to the naked-eye (i.e. brighter than apparent magnitude +6.5) from fully dark, non light-polluted skies. A Southern hemisphere view of the chart can be found here (137 KB) and a printer-friendly (greyscale) version can be obtained for Northern (59 KB) and Southern hemisphere (60 KB) views. The path of Saturn, positioned close by in Capricornus, is also shown over the same period.

Vesta reaches opposition to the Sun (its closest point to the Earth, when it shines at its brightest for the year) on August 22nd 2022, when it is 1.2853 Astronomical Units (192.3 million kms or 119.5 million miles) from the Earth. Vesta then shines at magnitude +6.1.

Click here (114 KB) to see a 'clean' star map of the area (i.e. without asteroid path); a printable version can be found here (51 KB).

The faintest stars shown on the chart have a magnitude of about +7.3. Astronomical co-ordinates of Right Ascension (longitude, measured Eastwards in hrs:mins) and Declination (latitude, measured in degrees North or South of the celestial equator) are marked around the border of the chart.

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Credits

• The star chart was produced using the commercial software MegaStar by Willmann-Bell, Inc.
• The track of Vesta was plotted on MegaStar using orbital elements obtained from the JPL Small-Body Database.

• The star colours were based on those shown in "Patrick Moore's Colour Star Atlas" (Mitchell Beazley Publishers Ltd., London, 1973).

Copyright  Martin J Powell  March 2022