Vesta and some astrophotography

Hard to believe that this was almost the first clear night since November!  That's not quite true but nearly so.  The post thanksgiving and Christmas/New year season has been cloudy in south Texas.  It finally cleared today and warmed up a bit to high 60's.  I didn't feel like setting up the ETX but I did take out my 7x50's and look for Vesta.  It was at the limit of visibility in binocs but I saw it up near Jupiter and the Hyades forming a shallow 'Y' pattern with 3 dim stars.  HR1442 formed the base of the Y.  I found it by drawing a line between Aldeberan and Epsilon Tauri.
The Pleiades was also pretty tonight as was the Hyades.  I explored a bit around Auriga and managed to snag M36, a dim patch not far from Beta Tauri.  That's no mean feat for binocs and light polluted skies!
The highlight though was remembering to shoot some stars with my new Canon SX150 camera.  I had some success earlier when the moon was in its first quarter but was waiting for a moonless, clear sky to try for some stars.  I also shot Jupiter when it was near the almost full moon a few nights ago.  I sat the camera up on its back on a small stool, set it for manual focus at infinity, a 15" max exposure time, and f3.2 aperture.  Success!  I was able to capture Jupiter (over exposed), the Hyades, Pleiades, and many stars down to about 6th magnitude.  I even caught a bit of foliage on my grapefruit tree.  The image shows small star trails of course and the star images aren't in the best of focus but it worked just fine for a first attempt.  I'm pleased with the new addition to my astro-tools.  It also takes very nice snapshots!  The battery life is the only disappointing feature.  It eats AA's for lunch.