Make arrangements to view an asteroid. At opposition, some of the largest asteroids are bright enough to be seen through a modest telescope. You can use Starry Night Enthusiast™ to see which bright...

Make arrangements to view an asteroid. At opposition, some of the largest asteroids are bright enough to be seen through a modest telescope. You can use Starry Night Enthusiast™ to see which bright asteroids are visible Update asteroids on-line by opening the LiveSky menu at the top of the program and clicking on Update Comets/Asteroids/ Satellites. Close and restart the program. Click the Home button in the toolbar followed by the Stop button to stop time flow. Set the time in the toolbar to your expected observing time. Open the Find pane and clear any data in the search box to bring up a list of solar system objects. Click the “+” button to the left of the Asteroids entry to expand the list of asteroids. Asteroids that are visible from your location at the time of your planned observation will appear in black typeface while those that are not visible will appear in a light gray font. Double-click on one of the asteroids that will be visible at the time of your planned observation. Zoom in on the asteroid progressively and print a chart of its position in the sky at various zoom factors. To print a chart, move mouse to asteroid (right-click on a PC or Ctrl-click on a Mac), and select Print Chart. . . In the Print Settings dialog, select the 3 Pane layout, choose 3 different fields of view, such as 90, 50, and 5, and select Use current settings options. As an alternative to using Starry Night Enthusiast™, you can check the “Minor Planets” section of the current issue of the Astronomical Almanac to see if any bright asteroids are near to opposition, or check the current issue, as well as the most recent January issue, of Sky & Telescope for star charts showing the paths of bright asteroids among the constellations. You will need an appropriate sky chart to distinguish the asteroid from background stars. Observe the asteroid on at least two occasions separated by a few days. On each night, draw a star chart of the objects in your telescope’s field of view. Has the position of one star-like object shifted between observing sessions? Does the position of the moving object agree with the path plotted on your star charts? Do you feel confident that you have in fact observed an asteroid? Explain.