Probably old news for most, but new to me. I learned tonight that Ceres is viable this month as I was listening to several of my podcasts. From The Night Sky with Ian Morison he states: "Ceres, the largest of the minor planets or asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has now been accorded the status of a dwarf planet as its size and mass is sufficient to make it spherical in shape. The plot on the left shows that, in February, it will lie just above the star Zosma which forms the hindquarters of Leo, whilst that on the right shows more accuratly where it will lie throughout the month of February. It will be around magnitude 7 (varying from 6.9 to 7.2) and will be easy to spot in binoculars from a reasonably dark site. Try to spot its motion over a few nights!" This is an object I would like to go after and at that magnitude it should be easily visible. My question is will the best way to determine that I am seeing it to observe it one night while comparing it to a detailed star chart and marking it and then if it moves the next night confirming that it has moved? Newbie question and I just want to make sure my thought process is right since I haven't gone after an object like this yet. I just thought it would be cool to after something like this in our own solar system. Thanks, Jay P.S. Here is the link in case anyone wants to see the plot on the chart Ian posted at The Night Sky. http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/ Just scroll down.
Jay, boy that brings back memories of sitting in the "bowl" up at the University of Utah student housing with my 7x35s and Bushnell 60mm telescope! I watched Ceres over a week doing just what you said - Look at the area one night and revisit it. I found the charts in Sky&Tel magazine at the time to be plenty accurate and ID'd it the first night easily and sure enough it moved every night, a pretty cool sight! Good Luck. Howard PS Here's the printable map from Sky & Telescope magazine, although your link gives very nice charts as well. http://media.skyandtelescope.com/documents/CeresPath2009_BW.pdf --- On Fri, 2/6/09, JayLEads <jayleads@gmail.com> wrote:
From: JayLEads <jayleads@gmail.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Ceres this month? To: "Utah-Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Friday, February 6, 2009, 9:34 PM Probably old news for most, but new to me. I learned tonight that Ceres is viable this month as I was listening to several of my podcasts. From The Night Sky with Ian Morison he states:
"Ceres, the largest of the minor planets or asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has now been accorded the status of a dwarf planet as its size and mass is sufficient to make it spherical in shape. The plot on the left shows that, in February, it will lie just above the star Zosma which forms the hindquarters of Leo, whilst that on the right shows more accuratly where it will lie throughout the month of February. It will be around magnitude 7 (varying from 6.9 to 7.2) and will be easy to spot in binoculars from a reasonably dark site. Try to spot its motion over a few nights!"
This is an object I would like to go after and at that magnitude it should be easily visible. My question is will the best way to determine that I am seeing it to observe it one night while comparing it to a detailed star chart and marking it and then if it moves the next night confirming that it has moved? Newbie question and I just want to make sure my thought process is right since I haven't gone after an object like this yet. I just thought it would be cool to after something like this in our own solar system.
Thanks,
Jay
P.S. Here is the link in case anyone wants to see the plot on the chart Ian posted at The Night Sky.
http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/
Just scroll down.
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If you want to ID asteroids, it's always easiest (or at least less difficult) when they are as far from the Milky Way as possible! On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 12:40 AM, Howard Jackman <sumoetx@yahoo.com> wrote:
Jay, boy that brings back memories of sitting in the "bowl" up at the University of Utah student housing with my 7x35s and Bushnell 60mm telescope! I watched Ceres over a week doing just what you said - Look at the area one night and revisit it. I found the charts in Sky&Tel magazine at the time to be plenty accurate and ID'd it the first night easily and sure enough it moved every night, a pretty cool sight! Good Luck.
participants (3)
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Chuck Hards -
Howard Jackman -
JayLEads