![]() ![]() If you do attempt to observe Makemake visually, a single observation won’t be enough to confirm a successful hunt. The most critical piece of equipment needed is a tracking equatorial mount with proper polar alignment. In fact, you probably do not need a telescope any larger than 100mm aperture. The digital imaging revolution, and more recently, the ubiquity of affordable CMOS cameras has made tracking down faint objects attainable to users of fairly small instruments. Nowadays, users of more modest equipment will have a much easier time exploring our solar system’s distant worlds. Up until a few years ago, only observers with access to such a large instrument could even attempt such a challenge. The chart shows the patch of sky between Diadem (alpha) and beta Comae Berenices with stars down to magnitude 17.5.Ī keen-eyed observer using a 20-inch or larger telescope may be able to spot Makemake making its slow progression amongst the background stars. To locate Makemake, we turn our gaze towards Coma Berenices, just a few degrees from the north galactic pole. Makemake reaches opposition on March 26, and due to its northerly declination, is well placed for observation for several months. Although Makemake is smaller than Pluto and significantly more distant, its somewhat higher albedo helps to keep it within range of amateur telescopes at 17th magnitude. Its orbit is also highly inclined at 29° to the ecliptic, and it is currently close to its northernmost position in that orbit, putting it in a very favorable position for northern hemisphere observation. Makemake orbits the Sun at an average distance of 45 AU, but because it is close to aphelion (2034) in its highly elliptical orbit it will be nearly 52 AU away from Earth during the next several oppositions. Makemake was discovered by a team of astronomers led by Mike Brown at Palomar Observatory in 2005, and is named for the creator and fertility god of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island. Our first destination is Makemake, a world about ⅔ the diameter of Pluto, and known to have its own moon. On this 90th anniversary of Pluto’s discovery, let’s take a journey to two of these fascinating outer worlds. That leaves three other worlds that we call dwarf planets, and they’re all trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) which lie beyond the orbit of Pluto. It is also the only other dwarf planet besides Pluto that we have had a good view of, courtesy of the Dawn spacecraft. Ceres is the most easily observed of all the dwarf planets, remaining bright enough to be seen with binoculars most of the time. You may have heard of Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt, and the first asteroid to be discovered, in 1801. But did you know that our solar system has four other dwarf planets (and possibly more)? When we think about dwarf planets, we often first think of Pluto, the one we had for decades known as our solar system’s ninth planet, and the one we became very familiar with when New Horizons gave us our first close-up views of in July 2015. ![]() Outer Worlds: Take a Journey to Two Dwarf Planets March 2020 ![]()
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