Saturn and Vesta in Taurus

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This view of the constellation Taurus captured two members of the solar system: the planet Saturn and the asteroid Vesta, four months before their close conjunction (only 2 arc-minutes apart) on March 19, 2002. The labeled version shows their path among the background stars and also identifies the deep-sky objects in the area.

Date: November 17, 2001
Time: 2:35am MST
Location: Florence Junction, Arizona
Camera: Olympus OM-1 on homemade tracking mount
Film: Kodak Ektachrome P1600
Lens: 100mm
Aperture: f/2.8 Exposure time: 5 1/2 minutes
Scanner: Nikon Coolscan LS-10E

This photograph appeared on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day site on January 18, 2002.