I'm making an easy target of Vesta this weekend. It's a piece of cake, even with binoculars it should be easy to bag:
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You start at Graffias, Beta Sco (mag 2.5) and hop to Nu Sco (mag 4), then half again that distance to Vesta (mag 6).
There's a loose ring of 5 stars around Vesta, and all the other stars in Vesta's immediate area are dimmer:
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I have Charlottesville's light pollution in my South, but I should have no trouble with this puppy!
Rich

Well, I saw it! Just a little dot, looked a tad dimmer than I thought it would appear. Perhaps one of its darker spots was showing, I dunno. It was cool to tell my daughter and her friend (both going into 6th grade in a week) that it was a rock the size of Arizona out past Mars. They're outside in our tent having a sleepover under the shooting stars tonight! They were still awake 20 mins ago when I came in.

I had the fun of hosting the monthly observing session for my club at my house this evening, something I haven't done in a year and a half. We had good dark skies and even a good run-up for tomorrow night's Perseids. I saw 4 bright ones myself and over a half dozen dimmer ones. Showed the Veil and the Ring nebulae to the neighbor's 16 year old son and his 2 cousins from California and talked to them about stellar winds & supernovae and stuff. I answered the usual barrage of questions as well, I'm always thrilled to do public outreach with youngsters, even if it's just a few.

Later I took in the Swan nebula in Leo Lombardi's 8", saw the Perseus Double Cluster and Dumbbell in mine and saw an Io shadow pass in Wes Epperly's 11". Sat around and BSd with the folks for a couple hours under dark skies, it don't get better than that!
Rich