Observations
When Ceres has an opposition near the perihelion, it can reach a visual magnitude of +6.7. This is generally regarded as too dim to be seen with the naked eye, but under exceptional viewing conditions a very sharp-sighted person may be able to see this dwarf planet. Ceres will be at its brightest (6.73) on December 18, 2012. The only other asteroids that can reach a similarly bright magnitude are 4 Vesta, and, during rare oppositions near perihelion, 2 Pallas and 7 Iris. At a conjunction Ceres has a magnitude of around +9.3, which corresponds to the faintest objects visible with 10×50 binoculars. It can thus be seen with binoculars whenever it is above the horizon of a fully dark sky.
Some notable observational milestones for Ceres include:
- An occultation of a star by Ceres observed in Mexico, Florida and across the Caribbean on 13 November 1984.
- Ultraviolet Hubble Space Telescope images with 50 km resolution taken on 25 June 1995.
- Infrared images with 30 km resolution taken with the Keck telescope in 2002 using adaptive optics.
- Visible light images with 30 km resolution (the best to date) taken using Hubble in 2003 and 2004.
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