Haumea at Opposition

[lukebl]

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea was at opposition a couple of days ago, around magnitude 17 in Bootes. Its amazing to think that it was only discovered 13 years ago, yet it's large, around 1960km across. Currently 49.6 AU distant, compared to Pluto, which is a 'mere' 33.3 AU away.

This is a rough animation of two captures 24 hours apart. Even a thing that distant still moves noticeably.

Atik 428ex, 200mm f/5 Newtonian, 10 x 60s exposures. Field of view of big image 29.6 x 22.2 arcmin.

[JeremyS]

Great result, Luke!

[David Smith]

Good catch Luke

[orion25]

Nice! Wow!

[Astroscot2]

Caught an image of this one last year also, have you tried imaging Makemake, well placed too.