Dwarf Planet Makemake

[lukebl]

Here's a capture of the Kuiper belt object Makemake as it passed by the nice little 12th Magnitude spiral galaxy NGC 5012 in Coma Berenices. Captured on Friday evening (27/28th May 2022). Makemake is the second furthest dwarf planet from the Sun and, so far, is the third largest dwarf planet in the solar system, discovered on March 31st 2005.

Despite relatively bright twilight and the lack of astronomical darkness, 17th magnitude Makemake was distinct even with short exposures. I tried to capture it again last night to show its movement over two days, but an as-yet unresolved failure in guiding meant I didn't have any useful exposures. However, you can clearly see its movement in the first and last captures from Friday night, about 3 hours apart. Amazing that something so far away can show such discernible movement in such a short time.

250mm f/4.8 Newtonian, Atik383L+ cam, binned 2x, 45 x 180 second exposures. Stacked in Astap, Processed in Photoshop.

Field of view 51.7 x 39 arcmin.

Here's the animation:

Here it is with the galaxies labelled in Astap.

Edited May 31, 2022 by lukebl

[skyhog]

Good stuff Luke and a bit of education for me, I haven't heard of that object before. Great capture.