136472 Makemake will pass close to the Sun in the sky as its orbit carries it around the far side of the solar system from the Earth.
At closest approach, 136472 Makemake will appear at a separation of only 27° from the Sun, making it totally unobservable for several weeks while it is lost in the Sun's glare.
At around the same time, 136472 Makemake will also be at its most distant from the Earth – receding to a distance of 53.36 AU – since the two planets will lie on opposite sides of the solar system.
Over following weeks and months, 136472 Makemake will re-emerge to the west of the Sun, gradually becoming visible for ever-longer periods in the pre-dawn sky. After around six months, it will reach opposition, when it will be visible for virtually the whole night. A chart of the path of 136472 Makemake across the sky in 2017 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of 136472 Makemake at the moment it passes solar conjunction will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Angular Size |
| 136472 Makemake | 12h58m20s | 24°07'N | Coma Berenices | 0.0" |
| Sun | 12h11m | 1°14'S | Virgo | 31'54" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 26 Sep 2017
| The sky on 26 September 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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37% 6 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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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
| 23 Mar 2017 | – 136472 Makemake at opposition |
| 24 Mar 2018 | – 136472 Makemake at opposition |
| 25 Mar 2019 | – 136472 Makemake at opposition |
| 25 Mar 2020 | – 136472 Makemake at opposition |
Image credit
© NASA/Hubble Space Telescope