Vermin of the skies

[fivemack]

Here are two pictures of the same region of the head of Cetus, taken a month apart

November 12	December 12

You will see with the eye of faith that, not only have the stars moved relative to the tree, but one of the stars has moved relative to the rest of the stars. How on Earth Piazzi managed to spot that in 1801, without the benefit of photography and not even sure that it was there to be found, I know not; I knew the asteroid was somewhere near the head of Cetus, and it still took me some time to see the blinking dot after I'd lined up the images.

Comet Holmes is still up there, it's expanded a bit, moved out a bit past the α Persei cluster, and the tail is a little more visible. Click for bigger colour image, but be warned that the sky from central Cambridge is very bright orange.

November 12	December 12

Comments

[tau-iota-mu-c.livejournal.com]

Without blinking the images, I spotted the missing asteroid in the second frame, but I was looking for it nearby, not way over there ----->

[aldabra]

Wow. I couldn't see that.

[angoel.livejournal.com]

Yay. I spotted it in the first frame.

Eventually.

[kaet.livejournal.com]

I got it in the first one, but not the second. I also hadn't expected it to be so far away.