Telescope Reviews: Three asteroids in Gemini on Thanksgiving morning!

I've been trying this for weeks, but been clouded out until this morning, Thanksgiving Day! Not talking turkey here, but I nabbed two new asteroids to add to my list (up to 30 now!) and Ceres, a frequent target, made up the third. Ariadne, at estimated magnitude 11.5, was the toughest, as it was surrounded by a sea of magnitude ~11 stars. But Ceres, a much brighter target, was only 42' to it's west. So once I made positive ID of Ariadne, I backed off to low power. That's the first time I caught two asteroids in the same field of view!

Open clusters M35 and NGC 2158 were also in the very same field of view, making for a very rich viewing experience!

Metis, at estimated magnitude 9.5, was a much quicker catch. It's not only brighter, but it's proximity to a magnitude 8.5 red giant made it an easy ID. Metis is currently about 3º south of Wasat. What a way to start Thanksgiving Day!