Primordial Light: Asteroid 2003 UV11 Moving Through Andromeda
Gray Line

October 29, 2010 UTC: Asteroid 2003 UV11 moves through Andromeda (motion is left to right) enroute to Pegasus. This is a series of 10 two-minute luminance exposures made from 01:36:50 UTC to 02:04:28 UTC (27 min, 38 sec), during which period the asteroid moved approximately 29 arc minutes (arcmin), a rate of motion slightly greater than one arcmin per minute of time. 2003 UV11 is an Apollo Near Earth Object (NEO). Place your cursor over the image to see selected stars identified along with their visual magnitudes (Mv). The faintest stars visible in the linear FITS images are fainter than Mv 18. Please see http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2003%20UV11;orb=1 for a JavaScript representation of 2003 UV11’s orbit.

Takahashi FSQ-106, SBIG STL-11000M, Astro-Physics 1200GTO. All-Mac Image.

Gray Line
Forget the clouds. Don’t worry about a couple of satellites. Just open the shutter!
The following image, dated 30 October, is not comparable in scale to the first image.
This image is binned 2x2 in the camera. Details below.

October 30, 2010 UTC: Asteroid 2003 UV11 has already passed through the Great Square of Pegasus and is gaining momentum as it draws closer to the sun. This is another series of 10 two-minute luminance exposures made from 01:03:30 UTC to 01:05:26 UTC (about 22 minutes), during which period the asteroid moved approximately 1 degree and 14 minutes (arcmin), a rate of motion greater than 3 arcmin per minute of time.

Takahashi FSQ-106, SBIG STL-11000M, Astro-Physics 1200GTO. All-Mac Image.

Gray Line
How cloudy was it?
This is frame #4 (full camera frame) of the 10 frames that are in the sequence above.
I also skillfully captured not one, but two satellites passing overhead during this two-minute exposure.
cloudy
Gray Line
Below is a crop from frame #4 of the 30 October image (second image above) that closely matches the cropping in that image. In this image the FITS has been flat and dark reduced, but there was no non-linear post-processing, i.e., post-processing consisted only of cropping and saving as a JPEG.
cloudy