Orwell Astronomical Society (Ipswich)
Ceres Passes In Front Of M100, 27 March 2023
Astronomy magazines highlighted that Ceres, the largest dwarf planet, would pass in front of the galaxy M100, a Messier object, on the night of 26-27 March 2023, creating a photo opportunity.
Ceres moves across the sky at approximately half an arcsecond per minute, so the passage took several hours. At magnitude 7, Ceres could not be mistaken for a supernova, which would be around magnitude 15 or so.
The video shows the passage. Early evening cloud delayed the start of the video. Gaps in the video are due to cloud occasionally obscuring the view, and the need to perform a meridian flip of the telescope. The image below the video is a composite of the video frames.
Nigel Evans