Asteroid Vesta is at its brightest this week. Here's how to find it in the night sky

A cropped image of the asteroid Vesta's surface captured as NASA's Dawn spacecraft departed the rocky body on a trajectory to rendezvous with Ceres.

On Friday, May 2 the asteroid Vesta will reach opposition, marking the ideal period to spot the second largest asteroid orbiting in the rocky belt of debris located between Mars and Jupiter.

A solar system body is considered to be 'in opposition' when it is located at the opposite point in the sky relative to the sun from the perspective of Earth, allowing the sun to illuminate it from our perspective. During these periods of alignment, the asteroid or celestial body in question is particularly bright, which often makes for ideal astronomical observing conditions.