Is it a Star??! No, It's an Asteroid! Or maybe it's a Planet!
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Vesta Finder Chart 05/04 - 02/05
Hi Res Opposition Chart 11-15/Sep/2004
Legend to the points on the chart with magnitudes, dates, presence or absense of the Moon, and for similar latitudes (mine is N 25°43'): should give a good idea at least from 10° to 40° north latitude, click here.
Vesta is a much larger place than a casual reader of "Le Petit Prince" might expect for the home of the curious golden haired Prince, though there are some good reasons to think that even melancholic author Antoine-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupery would expand upon the strange home of his wondrous person, Asteroid B-612, for those of us forever sentimentally sad for the Little Prince. Vesta's wee brightness graciously is a petit challenge for anyone to discover with just the perfect little effort.
It is my firm belief that B-612 is a yet unrecovered asteroid from the Vestoid family that some adults know occasionally really does fall to Earth. In 1931 we have the apparition of the Tunisia Stone of Tatahoiune in the Great Sahara Desert, which adults can readily identify, "Yes, that comes from a unique asteroid that has volcanoes", and often, no further explanations are necessary. As we recall our little man tended three volcanoes on his planet, one non-active ... of course we adults know that Vesta is the only planetoid in the main belt that might have any volcanoes at all to tend.
The home of our inquisitive petit person, for those of us who believe in his story, is most probably a piece of the eucrite surface of Vesta with a small amount of diogenite magma. B-612 would have been produced from a tremendous collision (though children know it was more likely due to neglect of housekeeping and the fierce boa constrictor-like roots of the baobobs) and sent spinning days into nights on a fantastic voyage into an eventual Earth crossing orbit. It isn't any common piece of Vesta, however, and I am mostly convinced that it is the very unique piece which since the beginning of our time contains a great portion of the passion that has heated the mantle of Vesta and is responsible for the uniqueness of Vesta itself. This passion, for the Prince, was the love of his enigmatic rose, who has given the essence of her delicate leaves to color the diogenite matrix, which we find scattered in many otherwise unassuming howardites and eucrites as fragile tears.
According to de Saint-Exupery's thoughtful capsule, adult astronomers can readily identify that which is presented with proper protocol. While eucrite-clad Vesta herself may be too small to get much respect as a "planet", she is the only object in the Solar System that consistently rivals Uranus when both are at their brightest. And for the adult invented concept of "asteroids" Vesta is strangely the sole visible one to keen child's eye. When Vesta is at her least resplendent, she is still half as bright as Neptune at his brightest.
Vesta is of special interest to planetary and meteoritic scientists, and astronomy and meteorite enthusiasts. Sharing this amazement as well are readers of the wondrous tale of "Le Petit Prince", by the sensitive and romantic French aviator.
In 2004, Vesta will be faintly visible to the naked eye under dark skies in September, most remarkably from September 5 through September 18, which include the date the Earth is exactly between it and the Sun ("Opposition", or sort of a "Full Vesta"), considering these dates not only correspond to the brightest magnitude, but also with Lady Luck's approval, to dark evenings devoid of Moonlight. It appears that Saturday, September 11, 2004 will be the optimal date to observe Vesta at her brightest. Mark your weekends! It will not be until mid-May of 2007 when some of us get an opportunity once again to see such a sight in our fleeting lives.
While the 2007 apparition of Vesta will be special, as it marks the 200th birthday of the discovery of Vesta by adults, during which Vesta at 5.4 magnitude will dramatically outshine Uranus, discovered 26 years earlier (though, debatably 2000 years earlier by Ptolemy), the estimated 6.08 magnitude reached in September 2004, is most perfectly timed in the comfortable evening hours and absence of any Moonlight.
Vesta, which is less than half of the diameter of Ceres, the largest main belt planetoid, is approximately 530 kilometers (329 miles) in diameter. It orbits between Mars and Jupiter on the closer lane to the Earth of the main asteroid belt. Cloudless Vesta is more reflective even than Earth; only cloud-covered Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus reflect a higher proportion of the light reaching them among the principal reflective objects in the Solar System. For example, if Vesta orbited earth where the moon is (Moon diameter 3,476 kilometers = 2,160 miles), although the Moon has 43 times more disk area, the Moon only returns 7 times the total amount of light Vesta would. Or, alternatively, if the Moon reflected as much as Vesta, it would be well over 2 magnitude points brighter and be bleached brightly. Why, the equivalent light of over 6 full Moons in one would give everyone night vision on Full Vesta-moon nights, and make such a reflective moon less comfortable to look at.
Well getting down to basics ... Vesta can be easily be seen in Aquarius with binoculars from reasonably dark skies starting in the May an hour before Sunrise, and by August, it will be increasing a half magnitude monthly and visible earlier into in the evening skies, partying together with her night sky rival, Uranus, in the same constellation. Neptune is in the neighboring constellation of Capricornus. I put together a finder chart: click here, as I couldn't find any detailed charts elsewhere on the Internet. Since the black background chart may be hard to print I have also provided a more printable version with black stars on white (finder chart inverted: click here).
During this September 2004 opposition, the brighter star, part of the Aquarius constellation, Omega (2) Aquarii, magnitude 4.5 will provide an interesting dance partner for wandering Vesta. Omega (1) Aquarii, magnitude 5.0 and the 5.4 magnitude star named HR 8987 on September 11 will form an equilateral triangle with Vesta 1.5 degrees (three full Moon lengths) on a side, with the brighter dance partner star Omega (2) in the center, and by September 14-15, Vesta will wander to less than a quarter degree of the guide star Omega (2) Aquarii itself (Less than the radius of a Full Moon away!). All three stars are variables. Click here (high resolution chart) for the illustrated Vesta dance steps at Opposition. And click here (inverted high resolution chart) for the printable version.
Vesta beckons to all those who share her wonder and mystique to come to her cozy fiesta before the American tourists show up, with NASA making its rounds about the block and further elucidating her typically quiet, albeit sometimes violent, unique niche of the Solar System. In 2006 the DAWN mission will be launched and after three passes in ever increasing orbital distance from the Sun, will be circling Vesta by October of 2011, spending several months as low as 122 miles (200 kilometers) altitude, in search of unique clues to how and why all is and what was, before moving on to a drabber Ceres where it arrives 3 Earth years later to discover her secrets ...