Asteroid Ceres photographed

I have a new full frame camera (Sony alpha7iii) to improve my astrophotography. Together with a very fast wide angle lens (Sony FE 1.4 24mm GM), I took photos on 3rd November and again on 7th November. The background stars are so far away that they hold their relative positions in the night sky. Asteroid Ceres is so much closer to Earth in the asteroid belt than the background stars - so its motion can be seen over the few days between the two images. So, looking at all the points of light, the one that has moved is Ceres.

A similar layout to compare motion of an astronomical object as used for the Pluto discovery

If the weather allows I will take another photo to show the motion of Ceres through the Taurus constellation. By using the bright orange star Aldebaran as a guide, Ceres was quite easy to pick out from the background stars. Now the direction of movement through Taurus is known, the position of Ceres at whenever the next photo is taken can be predicted - allowing that the distance travelled in 4 days is seen in the two images.

David Martin