Encke’s Comet – 1828 (1), Halley’s Comet – 1835 (2), Biela’s Comet – 1846 (3), Great Comet of 1843 (4), Comet of 1744 (5)
Drawings by Struve (1), Bessel (2), Struve (3), and Cheseaux (5)
From A Treatise on Astronomy by Elias Loomis, LLD, 1868. Available at Google Books.
Longomontanus and Environs
Sketch and Details by Richard Handy
Sketch of Longomontanus and environs on November 25, 2005 4:42 am PST to 6:10 am PST.
Telescope: Meade 12″ SCT
234X (2X barlow with 26mm Plossl)
Seeing: Antoniadi III-IV and occasionally II.
Colongitude: 199.9 deg
Lunation: 23.48 days
Medium: White Conte’ on black Strathmore textured paper.
Sketch size: 17.5″ x 23.5″
M87
Sketch by Wade V. Corbei
M87 is a fairly bright and easily located galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. Although I could not make out any detail per se in regards to this galaxy, the general shape and size was very evident.
This galaxy is surrounded by a fairly rich starfield, which adds to its beauty and contrast in the inky blackness of the sky.
While observing this galaxy, I noticed a few larger, out-of-focus stars to the N and E-S-E of M87. I also noted that these “stars” seemed to fade in and out with direct/averted vision. I thought maybe my eyes were getting tired, but I sketched them exactly as how I saw them…a little fuzzy.
After digitizing my sketch of M87, I did some checking on this galaxy. Now I am not too sure if these “fuzzy” stars may not have been smaller galaxies within the region/area. I will have to break out my atlases and see if I can confirm this to be the case ot not.
At any rate, here is my digitized rendition of M87 as it appeared to me.
Crater Maurolycus
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe
This is a notable crater around the twentieth day of lunation as the setting sun shadows begin to crawl across the crater floor to the east. The large size (115 km.), central peaks on a flat floor and high terraced walls identify this ancient (Nectarian period) crater as a walled plain impact. The east wall rises steeply above the floor 4.2 kilometers. Part of a previous large crater juts out from under Maurolycus to the south. Central peaks casting shadows were seen north of the center point on the crater floor. The floor is mostly flat and smooth. In addition the floor is not believed to be lava flooded and in the October 2007 issue of Sky and Telescope, Chuck Wood describes a hypothesis that it may be covered with fluidized ejecta from basin formation. The problem with this notion as he points out is that basin formation ended before the Maurolycus forming event occurred. Among the many similar craters in the southern highlands this is a crater that truly stands out.
Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9”x12”, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased (-4) and contrast increased (+4) using Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 241 x
Date: 7-23-2008, 5:45-7:10 UT
Temperature: 20° C (68° F)
Partly Cloudy, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 154.2 °
Lunation 20.2 days
Illumination 76.3 %
Frank McCabe
M33
Sketch by Michael Vlasov
NGC 7008
Sketch by Serge Vieillard
Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn
Drawings by Schröter, Secchi and Dawes
From A Treatise on Astronomy by Elias Loomis, LLD, 1868. Available at Google Books.
NGC 6520 and Barnard 86
Sketch and Details by Kiminori Ikebe
A dark nebula telescopically easy and an beautiful overlapping open cluster. A photograph taken by a 200mm lens shows a small dark nebula and a compact open cluster at the southern edge in addition to M8 and M20. At 110x B86 is quite clear. The field is lit up by the Milky Way stars but a dark triangular shape region to the west of NGC 6520 is quite conspicuous. It appears as if the area is literally painted black and is called the “Ink Spot.” A line of stars along the base of this triangle. A hint of a long dark nebula to the southwest of NGC 6520. This is not as conspicuous as B86; not visible with direct vision. NGC 6520 is beautiful, compact, and “lively.” Bright stars are scattered across. Faint stars are concentrated in some areas.
Neptune
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe
Currently Neptune is the farthest planet from the sun with the demotion of Pluto to minor planet status. Neptune is slightly more massive than planet Uranus but is less voluminous than the seventh planet. Along with Uranus, Neptune is an ice giant. Neptune’s atmosphere contains much hydrogen and helium as well as ices of ammonia, methane and water. Much of Neptune’s blue color is due to measurable amounts of methane.
The discovery of Neptune was done by calculation. Neptune was co-discovered by John Crouch Adams beginning in 1843 and independently by Urbain LeVerrier in 1846. It was the perturbance of the orbit of Uranus in its revolution about the sun that led these astronomers to predicting the location of plant eight in the sky.
Currently the planet Neptune is in the constellation of Capricornus and is 29.1 astronomical units from earth. Its angular size is small at 2.3 arcseconds and at magnitude 7.8 it is not visible to the naked eye as Uranus (mag. 5.8) is from a dark sky site. It is positioned in northeastern Capricornus near several bright stars and therefore is easily located. Neptune reaches opposition in just a few weeks and makes a great target for any size telescope. If your scope can reach magnitude 13.5 try for Neptune’s moon Triton which can be found using the on-line Sky and Telescope’s Triton Tracker and a good high power ocular.
Sketching:
9”x11” white sketching paper; 4B, HB graphite pencils, light brown drawing pencil for Neptune and a blending stump; Scanned and inverted after cutting the sketch from the drawing paper and placing it against a brown paper background.
Scope: 10” f/5.7 Dobsonian: 24 mm widefield eyepiece 60x and 12 mm eyepiece 121x
Date and Time: 7-24-2008, 5:50-6:30 UT
Seeing: Pickering 7/10
Transparency: partly cloudy, Average 3/5
NELM: 4.3
Frank McCabe
Lagoon Nebula and Vicinity
Sketch and Details by Carlos Hernandez
My South Florida weather cleared temporarily on July 30, 2008 (04:00 U.T.) and allowed me to tour the Milky Way with my Oberwerk 11 x 56 binoculars. Many targets were visible but the Lagoon Nebula (M8) and Trifid Nebula (M20), as well as M21 and M28 caught my eye. The Lagoon Nebula (M8, NGC 6523) was visible as an elongated nebulosity which included clumps of stars (NGC 6530). The Trifid Nebula (M20, NGC 6514). The open cluster M21 was visible north of the Trifid Nebula and M28 towards the east (left).
A digital rendering made using Photoshop CS3.
Carlos
