I observed my first minor planet ever this evening: 4 Vesta is currently situated right under the “Lions Head” in Leo, and at mag 6m.55, it’s easy prey for both binoculars and backyard telescopes.

I found that limiting magnitude tonight is around 3m.5, so the situation wasn’t ideal, still it was fun thinking that this is a cold rock hurtling around the sun between Mars (shining nearby, a little west in the constellation cancer) and Jupiter.