Author: Jeremy Perez

Eyes to the South for NGC 55

NGC 55
NGC 55 – Galaxy in Sculptor
Sketch by Serge Vieillard

In addition to observing nebulae from La Palma in the Canary Islands, time was also devoted to observing and sketching galaxies and this is one of them. NGC 55 is an irregular barred spiral seen almost edge on and situated not far from the South Galactic pole at a distance of 7 million light years from us. Serge writes, “Observing NGC 55 in the constellation of Sculptor is always a great pleasure. This galaxy is vast, highly luminous and shows many nebulous knots.”

Translation by Frank McCabe

Unstable Spots

Mars - December 27, 2009
Mars – December 27, 2009
Sketch and Details by Ignisdei (Robert Twarogal)

Hi!
Yesterday at 23.00 Mars was in a high altitude
The telescope was in the garden from the afternoon, so it was perfectly chilled.
Meade LB 305/1524 + Pentax XL 5.2 mm, it gave me the power 293x ..

That set proved to be insufficient, to trapping delicate and fragile spots on small disk. So, to make a greater detail I used Barlow 1.6x from Bino WO. It was already almost 469x.
But still the view was too bright. To increase contrast i used Orion Ultrablock.
Pentax XL is a great planetary glass. Wide field whit good correction, allowed me “to pass” the planet from the diaphragm to diaphragm a lot of times (You know – Dobson 🙂 )
What I saw was again alchemy of looking. Spots were unstable, as the atmosphere through I looked at it.
The first thing I could see (in Newton inverted view), was white polar caps on the bottom and eastern shore – shining bright!
The a dark spot on the pole, slowly narrowed towards the top in “s-shaped.” I am not 100% sure that I saw a dark “box” at the opposite side….
I apologise for my imagination 😉

Yours Robert

Object Name: Mars and unstable spots 🙂
Object Type Planets, Mars
Location (Oborniki, suburbia, Poland)

Date (27-12-2009)
Equipment: Meade LB12″ + Pentax XL 5,2mm, WO Barlow 1,6X

Autor: Ignisdei (Robert Twarogal)

Crater Moretus

Moretus CraterMoretus Crater
Sketch and Details by Frédéric Burgeot

Hi,

Here is the crater Moretus, observed from France on december 26th, 2 days after the first quarter.
The seeing was good, very pleasant image in my 16″ Newtonian equiped with a binoviewer at 350X.
The sketch is made with graphite pencils, and required 2 hours of observation.

Fred.

Mars – December 26, 2009

Mars - December 26, 2009
Mars – December 26, 2009
Sketch and Details by Krzysztof Bednarek (Scaiter)

Hello.
Here is my sketch of the planet Mars, the current diameter is 12.2 arc”
White paper, sketching, graphite pencil, HB
date of 26 December, the telescope Vixen achromat NP-80L, Soligor 9 mm eyepiece (133x) -2 * C temperature, transparency 3 / 5. Lodz, Poland.

Crescent Moon and Earthshine

Crescent Moon
Crescent Moon and Earthshine
Sketch and details by Carlos E. Hernandez

I was able to observe the Waning Crescent Moon (27.6 days old) above the eastern horizon covered by pastel bluish-lavender clouds and an orange strip on December 14, 2009 (11:10 U.T.). The Moon was spectacular as it displayed a thin bright white sliver and earthshine was very prominent over the un-illuminated portion. I hope that others were able to view this scene as well.

A digital image produced in Pixelmator.

Carlos E. Hernandez

An Alignment of Giants

Jupiter-Neptune Conjunction
Jupiter-Neptune Conjunction
Sketch and Details by Jeff Young

This pairing nearly got the better of me: I forgot all about it on Sunday night and Monday evening started out cloudy. However, it cleared at about 7pm and I headed out to the observatory — only to find the pair behind clouds again by the time I had the scope pointed. But I stuck at it, and the clouds cleared just as the pair started to set. (In fact, the sketch was done looking through the empty branches of a tree on my horizon.)

HB pencil on 150gsm cartridge paper. Sketched through a 16” Mak-Cass at 110X from County Louth, Ireland. Scanned and inverted and colourized in Photoshop.

— Jeff.

Into the Depths of the Solar System

Moon-Jupiter-Neptune Conjunction
Conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Neptune
Sketch and Details by Peter Mayhew

Object name: Moon, Jupiter, Neptune
Object type: Conjunction
Location: York, UK
Date: 21st December 2009

I had to cycle home from work especially quickly on the icy roads in time to sketch this solar system trio before they sank below the trees. The sketch spans about 5 degrees of sky, with the 5-day crescent moon at the bottom (north) and Neptune and Jupiter with the Galileans at top. I observed them all at 18:00 UT through my Skywatcher Skyliner 150mm f8 Dobsonian with a 25mm eyepiece, repositioning the scope several times to include them all, and had to do this in about ten minutes before they sank from sight. Later I tidied the sketch up (graphite pencil on white paper) and reversed the colours and added labels. The field of view spans the closest heavenly body to us, as well as the farthest planet and the largest planet and helps give a sense of scale to our solar system family.

Mars – December 16, 2009

Mars
Mars – December 16, 2009, 9:45 – 10:15 UT
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Mars December 16, 2009

It was a cold, clear, moonless, early morning with Mars high in the southern sky. The mirror of the telescope took some time to cool down as the temperature continued to drop on this night and early morning. Mars was very bright at visual magnitude -0.4, 93% illuminated and 77.5 million miles from us.
My fingers were numb in just 10 minutes of sketching so I was inside at 10 minute intervals to thaw them.
I decided to make a graphite field sketch and when I finished I converted it to a color pencil sketch indoors. After completing the color sketch I returned to the scope with the sketch to check for accuracy and then concluded.
I did not spend any time trying filters and the seeing was about average (Antoniadi III). Mars is inverted in the sketch with the north polar cap down and the preceding side to the left.
Don’t miss a chance to have a look.

Sketching:

White sketching paper 8″ x 11″; HB graphite pencil, soft charcoal pencil for sky background, blending stump for blending orange and yellow Crayola pencil shavings. Brightness decreased at scanning by -2 using scanner
Date 12/16/2009 – Time 9:45-10:15 UT
Telescope: 13.1 inch f/6 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 222x
Temperature: -19°C (-2°F)
clear, calm
Transparency 4/5
Seeing: Antoniadi III

Frank McCabe

Mars

Moon over Armagh

Moon over Armagh
Moon over Armagh on Christmas Eve
Sketch and Details by Miruna Popescu

This painting depicts how the southern sky looks on 24 December 2009 at 5.30 pm, when the Moon’s phase reaches first quarter. The next brightest celestial object at this time is the planet Jupiter, which this year is the “Christmas Star” for the Royal School, Armagh. Jupiter is seen here just before it disappears behind the school. The painting shows stars in Pisces, Pegasus, Aquarius and other constellations, and the location of the planet Uranus (visible through a telescope) about a third of the way from the Moon to Jupiter. Uranus was found in 1781 (seven years after the old building of the Royal School was completed) by the astronomer and musician William Herschel, the discovery constituting the first identification of a planet since ancient times and earning Herschel the post of King’s astronomer from George III.

In 1609, the year after the founding of the Royal School, Galileo Galilei used an early telescope to map the Moon and discover satellites of Jupiter. To mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope to observe the sky, 2009 is being celebrated worldwide as the International Year of Astronomy.

Dr Miruna Popescu from Armagh Observatory is the coordinator for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 in Ireland.