Dwarf planet Ceres, formerly asteroid 1 Ceres, was visible just before midnight on the evening of December 29th and into the early morning of December 30th. It was west of the celestial meridian, but still high in the sky at 57° at the start of the imaging session. The seeing was fair-good.
Some of the images I captured of this dwarf planet follow. All were captured using a Meade LXD-75 SN-8 (203mm f/4) telescope and ZWO ASI224MC camera with UV/IR cut filter.
With a diameter of 964 km (600 miles), Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is so large in fact, that it contains 25% of the asteroid belt’s total mass. Ceres’ large mass allowed gravity to pull it into a planet-like spherical shape, unlike most of its much smaller irregularly-shaped companions in the asteroid belt. Because of its shape, size, and mass, Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Although it is no longer classified as an asteroid, Ceres retains its official designation of 1 Ceres in scientific literature and databases.
Ceres orbits the Sun at an average distance of approximately 2.8 AU (413 million km/257 million miles). Ceres completes a lap around the Sun every 1,680 days, or once every 4.6 years. On the night of these observations, Ceres was 1.89 AU (283 million km/176 million miles) from Earth.
Notes:
1.December 30, 2021, 05:54:26 and 06:54:57 UT. Stack of two images, each a stack of 6 frames at 30 seconds (total 180s). Gain: 320. Telescope: Meade SN-8 (203mm f/4). Camera: ZWO ASI224MC with UV/IR cut filter. Mount: Celestron CGEM.
2.December 30, 2021, 05:54:26-06:54:57UT. 60-minute, 21-image, animation sequence. Each image a stack of 6 frames at 30 seconds each (total 180 seconds). Gain: 320. Telescope: Meade SN-8 (203mm f/4). Camera: ZWO ASI224MC with UV/IR cut filter. Mount: Celestron CGEM.