This finder chart of northern Cancer and eastern Gemini shows a section of sky about the span of an outstretched hand at arm’s length wide with stars down to magnitude +7.4 — approximately half a magnitude dimmer than dwarf planet 1 Ceres. This region currently lies about 60 degrees high in the southern sky of the UK at midnight. Let magnitude +4 star iota (ι) Cancri be your starting point for any binocular sweeps of the area, the star lying 13½ degrees east of Pollux, the southern (and brightest) celestial twin in the constellation of Gemini. Click on the graphic for an expanded and scalable PDF version of this chart for printing and use outside. AN graphic by Ade Ashford.
While antipodean observers are enjoying views of the totally eclipsed Blue Moon in Cancer (The Crab) on their night of 31 January/1 February, observers should not forget to look out for 946-km-wide dwarf planet 1 Ceres at opposition less than a span of an outstretched hand at arm’s length north of the lunar disc in the same constellation.
On Thursday, 1 February at 15:10 UT (3:10pm GMT), 1 Ceres, the nearest dwarf planet and the largest minor planet inside the orbit of Neptune, passes closest to Earth for this year. At this instant, the minor planet is 1.602 astronomical units, or 239.6 million kilometres (148.9 million miles) from our world. This is the closest approach of 1 Ceres to Earth since the evening of 25 February 2009 when the body was 1.583 astronomical units, or 236.8 million kilometres (147.2 million miles) distant.
Ceres reaches opposition in the small hours of 31 January and shines at its peak magnitude of +6.9 for 2018 (fading to +7.3 by the beginning of March), hence it’s a comfortable binocular or small telescope target — if you know exactly where to look. Viewed from the UK, the dwarf planet is currently highest in the sky close to 1am GMT, some 65 degrees high in the south as seen from the centre of the British Isles.
This artist’s impression is based on a detailed map of the surface compiled from images taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft in orbit around dwarf planet 1 Ceres. Some 946 kilometres (588 miles) in diameter, Ceres orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter once every 4.6 years. It was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in Sicily on 1 January 1801. As seen from Earth, however, the angular size of 1 Ceres never exceeds 0.9 arcseconds, so it will appear starlike in a typical backyard telescope. Image credit: ESO/L.Calçada/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/Steve Albers/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org).
When and how to see Ceres
Since first quarter Moon occurred on the evening of Wednesday, 24 January, the light from the waxing gibbous lunar disc makes the task of finding 1 Ceres slightly more difficult, but the minor planet is still within the grasp of a typical 10×50 binocular. To identify it, one ideally needs not only a moonless night when the dwarf planet is high above the horizon murk, but a location that is largely free from light pollution too.
To ensure a successful identification, find a safe area as far removed from streetlights as you can and allow your eyes at least 15 minutes to become fully adapted to the dark. If the Moon is up, try to hide its glare behind a fence or wall. Assuming that you have printed both the chart above and the detailed PDF version, study them under a dim red light so as to preserve your night vision. Try to memorise the positions of faint stars in the vicinity of 1 Ceres and, if you’re fortunate to have a run of clear nights, you’ll be able to follow its retrograde motion through Cancer. Bear in mind that the dwarf planet is indistinguishable from a star, so only its shifting position from night to night will betray it.Magnitude +6.9 dwarf planet 1 Ceres is the brightest starlike object at the centre of this image captured at 19:58 UT on 29 January 2018 with an 8-inch f/4 Newtonian and Starlight Xpress Ultrastar C camera. Background field stars down to magnitude +16 in northeastern Cancer are also shown. The cruciform appearance of 1 Ceres is due to diffraction within the telescope. Image credit: Ade Ashford.The position of 1 Ceres on the chart is for 0h UT (12am GMT) on the dates shown, so make an estimate of its position on intervening dates and times. Telescope users may also use the daily equatorial coordinates tabulated below, suitably interpolated for intermediate times. Astrophotographers may be interested to know that the dwarf planet lies close to magnitude +12.2 galaxy NGC 2789 (α=09h 15.0m, +29° 44′ J2000.0) in the small hours of 28 January. Ceres lies in the same 10×50 binocular field as magnitude +4 star iota (ι) Cancri (α=08h 46.7m, +28° 46′ J2000.0) once moonless UK skies return around 8 February, passing 3⅓ degrees north of the star on 3 March.
This topocentric ephemeris for 1 Ceres shows the dwarf planet’s daily visual magnitude and J2000.0 Epoch equatorial coordinates for the centre of the British Isles at 0h UT (12am GMT).
As shooting-star devotees prepare for the naked-eye spectacle of the Geminid meteor shower in mid-December, owners of small telescopes can also witness the close passage of the meteors’ parent body — a curious “rock comet” known as 3200 Phaethon, galloping through the constellations of Auriga, Perseus, Andromeda, Pisces and Pegasus at a rate of up to 15 degrees/day.
As dawn creeps across Western Europe on the morning of Thursday, 10 September, a close conjunction of the two brightest objects in the nighttime sky is taking place low in the east an hour before sunrise. So, set your alarm for 5:30am in the UK to see a beautiful juxtaposition of a 26-day-old waning crescent Moon and dazzling planet Venus in the twilight.
For an early astronomical treat to usher in the New Year, seek out the natural pyrotechnics of the rich Quadrantid meteor shower. Peak shooting star activity occurs within a four-hour window centred on a prediction of 8am GMT on 4 January 2020 – a time that favours UK skywatchers at astronomical dawn, or North American observers around local midnight.
