Finally after a month of clouds and moonlit nights we have a clear night with no moon! And to top it off, the asteroid Vesta is currently moving through Leo and up at 10:30 in my backyard observatory. I hauled out the ETX-70, set it up, and quickly homed in on Gam Leo and... there it was! Vesta! I decided to make a sketch and managed to snag a few 8th magnitude stars in the field. Even Vesta kind of came and went at times but it looks like I can pull in mag 8 at least on a good night. There was plenty of light polution as usual but it was cool and clear with no clouds although there may have been a bit of smoke from Reynosa across the border or some other source of haze. 40 Leo was clearly visible next to Gam Leo and I will have to try to catch Vesta in the coming days as it slides between the two stars. The weatherman is predicting clear skies for the next few nights so I may be in luck.
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