A challenge for planetary imagers.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

After all the recent hoo-haa of what makes a planet a planet, I thought I might be of interest to some to maybe have a go at imaging Ceres

Its pretty close to opposition right now. See below.

Asteroid
1 Ceres 2006- 8-19 20h55m
Magnitude: 7.7
Phase: 5 °
Distance: 1.9948 au
Solar Distance: 2.9807 au
Solar Elongation: 164°

J2000 RA: 21h41m45.72s DE:-28°31'58.2"
Date RA: 21h42m08.84s DE:-28°30'08.7"

What do you reckon ? Is it worth a go ?

[iceman (Mike)]

How many arcseconds is it? Is it going to resolve as a disc or just a star-like point?

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Angular size, 1.2 arcsec so should show a disk, just. Neptune is 2.4 arcsec.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Ganymede shows as 1.3 arcseconds.
Oh well its worth a look anyway for those of us that use eyepieces

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Damn,I forgot about it last night out at Ron's. Oh well might have to wait until Wednesday night Sounds like a good challenge Geoff. Could be a perfect opportunity for an animation for someone, 'eh Mike

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by Starkler

After all the recent hoo-haa of what makes a planet a planet, I thought I might be of interest to some to maybe have a go at imaging Ceres

Its pretty close to opposition right now. See below.

Asteroid
1 Ceres 2006- 8-19 20h55m
Magnitude: 7.7
Phase: 5 °
Distance: 1.9948 au
Solar Distance: 2.9807 au
Solar Elongation: 164°

J2000 RA: 21h41m45.72s DE:-28°31'58.2"
Date RA: 21h42m08.84s DE:-28°30'08.7"

What do you reckon ? Is it worth a go ?

I will have a go at viewing it tonight through the 16" weather and seeing permitting, after all if I can see some of the moons of Uranus I should be able to see Cerus.