For many years now I have wanted to attempt seeing Ceres' disk (c. 0".8 this favourable apparition) and the superb conditions this a.m. gave the ideal opportunity.
To condition my eyes for this I spent some time looking at the fine bluish double 54 Leonis which was close to the south. This 'trick' works very well as when going to Ceres it could be seen at once that there was a true disk apparent. Looking decidedly non-stellar with x365 and unmistakable at x535 Similarly with Titan; though here the disk is soft-edged - presumably due to it's atmosphere.
There was a fine golden tint (amber) to Ceres; a deeper hue than Arcturus which could be conveniently viewed with the naked eye.
[David Gray: Spennymoor Co. Durham,United Kingdom]
John Sussenbach(280mm SC)
The seeing was fair and I imaged Ceres again now it is so close to the Earth. I used Procyon as a testobject showing a typical stellar diffraction pattern. The diameter of Ceres is about 0.83"
[スセンバッハ:オランダ]
[John Sussenbach:Houten,Netherlands]
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