Observation Asteroids and Asteroid Hunting

A realistic view of Vesta by the Hubble Space Telescope. picture site 'Amateur Astronomy', from a picture NASA / HUbble Space Telescope

Asteroids are those leftovers of the solar system formation, mostly found in the asteroid belt, numbering in the hundred thousands and ranging there from relatively bright objects like Vesta or Pallas to the foot-soldiers ranging down the whole magnitude scale. Some asteroids have more independent orbits, as some are part of the category NEOs (Near Earth Objects) -that is objects with a potentially hazardous orbit bringing it close to Earth. for more about asteroids, see at "Asteroids" in the Theory section

Asteroids of all categories now range in the several hundred thousands, and thousands more are discovered each year. Only the largest are easy targets, each side of their opposition. They are Vesta (or 4 Vesta, as a new trend is to now use this nomenclature), Ceres, Pallas and Juno. The remarkable apparitions of these minor planets are generally announced in the media of the amateur community. It's then the opportunity to follow them, night after night. Asteroid belt asteroids, near opposition are moving by 1° each 5 days. They are at reach of small binoculars and instruments. Vesta is the brightest of the 4 largest asteroids due to its surface material not as dark as the one of the othe asteroids of the Asteroid Belt. Our site is providing each year an overview of the yearly appearance of these four minor planets. A step further are objects which, each side of their opposition, are reaching magnitude 8.5 or 9 magnitude, that is accessible with 50 mm binoculars, at a dark site, only. Such objects are Hebe, Euterpe or Parthenope e.g. All these minor planets are subject to the apparent motion of a superior planet, like Mars or Jupiter. They are at their nearest and brightest, being observable all night long, at their opposition, that is when they are just in line with Earth and the Sun, on the other side of Earth, as they endure a period of retrograde motion. see more about the apparent motion of superior planets. Fainter objects are mostly of the domain of the professionals. As far as asteroid-hunting is concerned, they have an interesting page at Sky & Telescope/SkyTonight.com. The recording body for asteroids is the International Astronomical Union (IAU)'s Minor Planet Center (MPC); see there for the recording procedures. Astronomers usually find asteroids by taking images of the same place in the sky and looking for star-like objects that move between frames, a old technique. A desktop software has been deviced by 2015 thanks to NASA, a free application and useable on any basic computer, allowing amateurs to analyze images they took for asteroids. The application will also tell the user whether a matching asteroid record exists and offer a way to report new findings to the Minor Planet Center. That new asteroid hunting application can be downloaded at http://topcoder.com/asteroids

see a page about how the IAU is naming newly discovered comets and asteroids

check a table of more data about the visibility of the 4 main minor planets