Swaarmoed pass 5:12:45 pm
The Search of Ceres

Ceres, the goddess of agriculture in Roman mythology, is searching for her daughter Proserpina who had been abducted by Pluto, ruler of the underworld. The sculpture was made in the 1780s by Johan Tobias Sergel.
Motion of dwarf planet Ceres
This image shows the dwarf planet Ceres near opposition in Sagittarius. Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, having a diameter of 950 kms. It completes an orbit in 4.6 years and has a rotational period of 9 hours and 4 minutes. 
At a maximum magnitude of 6.8 Ceres is not visible to the naked eye, unless perhaps viewed under exceptionally dark skies. It was discovered in 1801 by the italian Giuseppe Piazzi. 
It is thought that Ceres is likely a surviving protoplanet which formed 4.57 billion years ago in the asteroid belt. While the majority of inner solar system protoplanets (including all lunar- to Mars-sized bodies) either merged with other protoplanets to form terrestrial planets or were ejected from the Solar System by Jupiter, Ceres is believed to have survived relatively intact. The NASA Dawn space probe is currently en route to explore both Vesta in 2011 and Ceres in 2015. 

OPTICS 10" Newtonian f/5 
MOUNT Losmandy G11 equatorial 
CAMERA Philips ToUCam Pro SC1 webcam 
FILTERS IR block 
EXPOSURE 66 x 15.5 s 
DATE/TIME 17/06/2010 
LOCATION My backyard observatory in west Auckland, New Zealand
Leaf from a diptych of the Nicomachi and the Symmachi.  Priestess of Ceres performing a rite in honor of Cybele.  Rome (?), c.400.  Ivory.  From the abbey of Montier-en-Der (diocese of Langre).  Found in a well.  Acq. between 1860 and 1862.  Cl. 17048.  Musee national du Moyen Age [Cluny Museum], Paris, France.
Swaarmoed pass 5:12:45 pm
Swaarmoed pass 5:12:45 pm
Swaarmoed pass 5:12:45 pm
See photo in original gallery.