Astroblog: Minor Planet (1) Ceres close to Galaxy M100 26-27 March

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Minor Planet (1) Ceres close to Galaxy M100 26-27 March


Location of Minor planet (1) Ceres at 00:10 am ACDST on Sunday 26 March as seen from Adelaide. Similar views will be seen at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen)	Telescopic view of Minor planet (1) Ceres and galaxy M100 at 00:10 am ACDST on Sunday 26 March as seen from Adelaide. Similar views will be seen at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen)

Minor planet Ceres is at opposition at the moment, and is currently around magnitude 7, easily visible in binoculars even under suburban skies. Ceres is currently beyween Beta (β) Leonis (Denebola) and epsilon (ε) Virginis (Vindemiatrix). Over the next few days it is in an easily recognised cluster of dim stars, and Ceres can be seen moving from night to night.

On the late evening of the 25th, Early morning of the 26th Ceres is next to the spiral galaxy M100. At magnitude 9 it is too fail to be picked up clearly without a telescope, but is an interesting telephotography challenge. By the late evening 26th early morning 27th Ceres is n the other side of M100.


Chart suitable for black and white printing to help locate Ceres. Chart is at 00:10 am ACDST. Note that the chart locations are out by 1 day fro come reason (even with a fresh Ceres download) so the 27th is in fact the 26th, the circle is the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. (click to embiggen and print)	Binocular chart suitable for black and white printing to help locate Ceres. Chart is at 00:10 am ACDST. Note that the chart locations are out by 1 day fro come reason (even with a fresh Ceres download) so the 27th is in fact the 26th, the circle is the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. (click to embiggen and print)