1 Ceres's 4.6-year orbit around the Sun will carry it to its closest point to the Sun – its perihelion – at a distance of 2.55 AU.
In practice, however, 1 Ceres's orbit is very close to circular; its distance from the Sun only varies by about 17.2% between perihelion and aphelion. This means that the difference in the amount of heat and light it receives from the Sun between aphelion and perihelion is extremely small.
Finding 1 Ceres
1 Ceres's distance from the Sun doesn't affect its appearance. From Columbus, at the moment of perihelion it will not be readily observable since it will be very close to the Sun, at a separation of only 15° from it.
A chart of the path of 1 Ceres across the sky in 1990 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of 1 Ceres at the moment it passes perihelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| 1 Ceres | 10h50m20s | 15°18'N | Leo | 8.6 | 0.0" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 30 Jun 2024
| The sky on 30 June 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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23% 24 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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Warning
Never attempt to point a pair of binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness.
Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.
Related news
| 18 Dec 1989 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 16 Apr 1991 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 25 Jul 1992 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 21 Oct 1993 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
Image credit
© NASA/Dawn 2015