Re: [Utah-astronomy] Ceres and Vesta

One thing to note about observing right after sunset. There is often a window lasting anywhere from five minutes to as long as 40 minutes, right after sunset, when the air is remarkably still and seeing is excellent. The sky is still blue, so you can't look at any faint fuzzies, but lunar and planetary observations are possible. Apparently the ground hasn't begun to give up the heat it accumulated during the day yet. Sometimes this window doesn't appear, but often in summer it is there, briefly. I took advantage of it when observing the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts on Jupiter. I got some incredibly good views for up to 40 minutes after sunset, before the air started boiling and seeing went downhill until well after midnight.