Dwarf Planet MakeMake

Pronounce as “makimaki”. Nothing to see folks! only a very very dim and small star-like object. However, Makemake is the third largest Kuiper belt object, after Pluto and Eris. Makemake is smaller than our moon. Sunlight travels 6hrs and 20 mins to reach this object of only 1430km diameter. It was first observed at Palomar observatory in 2005 and recognized as a Kuiper belt dwarf planet in 2008.

Hubble discovered in 2015 a moon next to MakeMake, “MK2”. This moon has a diameter of 160km and turns around Makemake in 12 days at a distance of 21.000 km. It is definitively out of reach at magnitude 25 !

Second Jupiter of this season

And still not any higher then 16° in the sky. That’s like, behind the trees and the neighbour’s houses. The seeing for this session was worse then the night before. It does not show on the results.

Jupiter on June 2nd, 2.30 MEST / Maksutov 180mm F15, ASI290MM Baader RGB

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