Ceres is at opposition

The first asteroid is hovering near the stars that form the face of the Bull constellation.

See the end note about enlarging illustrations.

Ceres is the dot in the middle of the arrow that shows its motion over 5 days – retrograde (westward) motion as is characteristic for bodies when we are overtaking them around the time of opposition.

At magnitude 7, Ceres is below the naked-eye limit of about 5, but should be findable withe binoculars. It can be as bright as 6.8, as in 2012 and 2028, or as dim as 7.7, as in 2020. At the 2020 opposition it was quite far south, whereas now it is conveniently to the north, and the stars of the Hyades should be a guide to it.

I’d be glad to know whether you find Ceres and confirm that it’s in the right position. I’ve been having trouble with the asteroids!

Ceres, the first asteroid discovered, is so much larger than the others that it is now classified as a dwarf planet, like Pluto. But it remains an asteroid, and keeps its minor planet number 1.

Pages 124-127 of our new Astronomical Calendar for next year are devoted to the asteroids. 3 Juno and 4 Vesta will be at opposition in 2022.

 

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16 thoughts on “Ceres is at opposition”

  1. Seeing the telescope discussion here made me wonder, does anyone still make a commercial 6inch f/8 Newtonian on an equatorial mount like the old Criterion RV-6?

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  3. I’ve been following Ceres through 10×42 image-stabilized binoculars since 15 October, in the dawn sky until 7 November and in the evening since then. Yes, the chart is correct. After a few observations it became easier to identify Ceres. I’ve been surprised how quickly she moves relative to the background stars from one night to the next!

    On 11, 12, and 13 November I was able to see Ceres, Mercury and Mars in the morning, and the Moon, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, and Ceres in the evening, all with the 10×42’s. Three solar system bingos in a row!

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  4. Hey Guy: I’m thinking about getting a Celestron 8 reflector for my daughter for Christmas. Celestron 8 has always been the gold standard in my opinion. Unless you have a better recommendation.

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    2. Rick, are you getting a Celestron 8 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope or a Celestron 8″ newtonian reflector? I still have the C8 SCT that my father bought in the mid-1970’s; it excels on the planets. Their 8″ newtonian reflectors, whether on German equatorial mounts or Dobsonian mounts, would be more suited for wide-field deep sky views, since their focal lengths are in the f/5 to f/6 range.

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      1. Ordered a Celestron Next Star 8SE 8″ (203 mm. aperture). That’s the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.

        It has 203 mm. lens. I took note of your reply but I couldn’t find an 8″ (203 mm.) newtonian reflector. The biggest Newtonian telescope I could find only had a 114 mm. aperture, so i went with the Celestron SCT. (I was hoping to find an 8″ Newtonian cuz they were much cheaper)

        My daughter has a roof top patio in D.C. Stars are only visible to the naked eye down to +3 magnitude but scope should be good for planets, moon, star clusters, and maybe a couple galaxies.

        Can’t wait to visit. Maybe her gift is more for me?

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          1. An 8 inch SCT is a fine telescope. I hope your daughter (and her father) will enjoy the views!

    3. The Celestron Edge HD has better optics than the C8 Schmidt Cassegrain. The most noticeable difference is that the Edge HD has a very flat field, pinpoint stars all the way to the edge of the field of view (thus the name, I guess). A Schmidt Cassegrain has a lot of spherical aberration in the outer third of the field of view, producing bloated and distorted stars. Most people look at the center of the field and don’t notice aberration on the edges, but if you look for it it’s obvious.

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  5. Too cold tonight and maybe cloudy but I’ll give it a go on Monday when I’ll be in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park which is now an International Dark Skies Park.You say that the 7th magnitude is too faint for the naked eye which I tend to agree but one of the people who does the BBC Sky at Night monthly podcast says that he’d seen the galaxy M81 with the naked eye from somewhere very high and dark but I can’t remember where he said it was if he did?I think M81 is about 7.5 magnitude and small too.I could just make out M33 naked eye from the Northumberland National Park, again a IDSP too,a few weeks ago and it was easy in my 2×40 Helios Starfield binoculars.For most people M31 and the SMG and LMG are the only naked eye galaxies.I think that M81 covers a small area too so even if you could see it naked eye telling it apart from the myriad of dim stars would be a challenge and this goes for Uranus too and things like Ceres and Vesta.

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