Ixion is a potential dwarf planet and a plutino orbiting the sun in the Kuiper belt. Ixion's orbital period is almost 250 Earth years, about 0.5% larger than Pluto's.
April 4 12:05UT | April 5 12:06UT |
Imaged on April 4th and April 5th 2009 using the 0.61m f/10 Cassegrain at the Sierra Stars Observatory. 120 seconds unfiltered image, cut down to 5 x 5 arc minutes. Ixion was at magnitude 19.5.
Ixion is close to the limit for detection for a single 120 seconds image - I will move to 300 second exposures for fainter Trans-Neptunian objects.
Martin Nicholson - Daventry, United Kingdom. The image was taken using the facilities provided by the Sierra Stars Observatory Network (SSON).
This page was last updated on April 14th 2009.