richardhandy – Page 122 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

The Great Black Lake of Johannes Hevelius

Plato
By Frank McCabe

After 3 weeks of cloudy nights I was anxious to get out in the moonlight to attempt some moon and Mars observing. The seeing was too poor for a good view of Mars but with the moon just past first quarter many targets were available for examination and sketching.

The selected region along the terminator for this sketch is walled plain crater Plato. Since I am viewing through a Newtonian telescope the drawing is inverted from the direct view. Plato is a beautiful 100 kilometer diameter crater with a dark, flat, thick, lava covered floor. Normally in average seeing four of the craterlets across the dark flat floor are visible but not on this night with the poor seeing conditions. Shadows of peaks created by the 2 kilometer high irregular eastern crater rim stood out across the crater floor. The enormous amount of lava flooding the crater floor has completely buried the central peaks. Although the impacting rock that created Plato more than three billion years ago came later than the much larger Imbrium impactor, the lava flooding of the region was subsequent to both events. The triangular massif on the western rim (right side) of the crater was difficult to see clearly because of the poor seeing. To the southwest of Plato across the Imbrium basin floor stands the sentinel peak Pico and on further towards the terminator westward the Teneriffe peaks. A small portion of Mare Frigoris can be seen north (below) of crater Plato.


Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 12”x 9”, white and
black Conte’pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased
after scanning.

Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 12-16-2007 2:30-4:00 UT
Temperature: -6°C (21°F)
partly cloudy, windy
Seeing: Antoniadi IV
Co longitude: 15°
Lunation: 8.4 days
Illumination: 58 %

Frank McCabe

Surreal Juxtaposition

IC 1633

Elliptical Galaxy (cD) in Phoenix

Parks Astrolight EQ6 • 6″ f/6 Newtonian Reflector
7.5mm Parks Gold Series Plössl • 120x, 26′ Field of View
11 October 2007 • 06:30-07:15 UT

IC 1633 is the antithesis of NGC 55. It is located 1° northeast of 3rd-magnitude Beta (β) Phoenicis, half the distance between that star and 5th-magnitude Nu (ν) Phe. Small, and faint, its feeble glow is best detected with averted vision. In the eyepiece it is completely featureless. In reality, IC 1633 is a gargantuan elliptical galaxy lurking in the heart of galaxy cluster Abell 2877 (of which it is by far the most prominent member). Its distance from Earth is estimated at 325 million light-years! That fact alone, made this observation worthwhile.

As I observed this pale mist of ancient photons (and futilely scanned the field for other cluster members – or even a few more field stars), IC 1633 became entangled in the fire-blackened boughs of an oak tree victimized by the 2003 Cedar Fire. On a whim (and growing a little bored with my fruitless search for anything else to add to my sketch) I hastily added the twisted limbs to the drawing, providing a surreal juxtaposition of objects near and far.

James Dunlop apparently discovered IC 1633 during the 1820’s from the Brisbane Observatory at Paramatta, New South Wales, Australia. As this object failed to appear in the NGC, we may presume it was one of the (many) objects discovered by Dunlop that could not be recovered by John Herschel. In the Second Index Catalogue, DeLisle Stewart and Lewis Swift share credit for the discovery (or “re-discovery”) of IC 1633.

Floor Fractured Crater: Furnerius

Just two days past full moon, floor fractured crater Furnerius (125 km.) was well
placed relative to the sunset terminator to show off its interesting features.
This crater is one of the four large walled plain craters along the 60° E.
longitude line. Furnerius is the southern most of the four and placed not far from
the southeastern lunar limb. The other three which were visible at the eyepiece
from south to north but not sketched here are Petavius, Vendelinus and Langrenus.
Crater Furnerius is a pre-Nectarian crater and thus very ancient. It predates the
formation of the Nectaris basin. Basin debris and secondary impacts are scattered
across the floor and rim of this old battered crater. On the north side of the
crater floor a rille of 50 kilometers called Rima Furnerius can be seen. It
crosses the floor to the southeast and climbs the inner crater rim. Darker
smoother lava flooded areas can be seen on parts of the crater floor between the
rubble strewn regions created
by the basin impact. Inner wall terraces and central peaks are completely absent
from this crater but large crater Furnerius B(22 km.) is clearly visible on the
floor. On the glacis of this crater to the north a bright young 12 km. crater
called Fernerius A can be viewed in line with Rima Furnerius. To the northwest a 75
km. Copernican era crater Stevinus, stands impressively with its sharp rim, central
mountain peak and low hills. South of Furnerius a smaller yet equally ancient
crater Fraunhofer (57 km.) was showing a dark flat half shadowed floor. On the
northwestern rim of this crater Fraunhofer V (24 km.) could be identified by a
small sliver of light striking its inner southeast rim.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 9”x12”, white and
black Conte’pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased
after scanning.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6mm eyepiece 241x
Date: 10-28-2007 6:05-7:45 UT
Temperature: 0.7°C (33°F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III- IV mostly poor
Co longitude: 115.4°
Lunation: 17 days
Illumination: 93.7 %

Frank McCabe

Outburst of Comet Holmes

Many veteran comet observers regard the outburst of Comet Holmes (17P)
as one of the oddest sights they have seen. Not only was the sudden
brightening unprecedented in modern times, but the perspective we have
of this distant comet gave it an appearance all its own. From night to
night you can see it growing in size and yet, due to the dimming of the
expanding coma, it maintains a fairly constant brightness when viewed
naked eye.

Initially, the first images of this comet online indicate that is
difficult to capture the visual appearance with our imaging technology
and sketching is proving to be a satisfactory way to convey the visual
perspective at the eyepiece. I quickly opted for the sketching option,
but soon found that I had trouble getting a perfectly round coma that
also conveyed the contrasty ‘pop’ that this comet presented that first
night after announcement of the outburst. So instead of just using
image processing programs to get my onscreen-sketch looking like my
on-paper sketch, I decided to try to do more than embellish it and do
the sketch entirely with the image processing program. I refer to this
as digi-sketching.

So here is a series three ‘sketches’. The first is my original ‘paper
sketch’ captured and rendered to reflect what I had on paper. It was
graphite on paper with the colour added digitally.   It was
disappointing to me in that the brightness, contrast and the colourful
‘pop’ factor of this weird sight in northern Perseus was not entirely
captured.   The second sketch is my digi-sketch version of that same
night based on my original sketch. I soon appreciated that I could
quickly and easily correct some failings of the original.   The third
sketch is from three days later and is done to the same scale showing
the dramatic changes that took place in this short span of time. The
image processing program that I used for teh last two images is a PC
version of iPhoto that came with an old scanner. This makes me wonder
what is possible with some of the newer and more capable image
processing programs.

All three sketches were done from my view through a 12.5 inch home-made
Dobsonian using a Discovery mirror.   Binoviewers 23mm eyepieces and a
2x barlow gave a magnification of something well over 250x.    The first
two sketches are a result of my observations on the night of October
24th at around 10:45 CDT (UT 3:45 Oct 25th 2007).   The third sketch was
done on October 27 CDT at 11 PM (UT 4:00 on Oct. 28th 2007).   Note the
two 11th magnitude stars that could be seen shining through a relatively
colourless coma in this third sketch (bottom/south part of the coma
about 1/4 the way in). Since the equipment is constant for both nights,
the images can be directly compared for size and this gives one an idea
of just how quickly this comet grew in size.

This has to be one of the oddest and most unusual events in comet watching.

Gerry Smerchanski

Approaching Sunset at Posidonius Crater

On this night I watched the sunset terminator move slowly toward ring-plain crater
Posidonius while I sketched the crater and nearby features on the floor of 750 km.
diameter Mare Serenitatis. Posidonius (99km.) is an old upper Imbrian era impact
reminant. Its age is betrayed by the way shadows penetrate the rim at numerous
points as the sun continued to set. The highest part of the rim is on the
terminator side of this crater. Sunlight was still reaching part of Posidonius A
and two other high points on ridges including one on the inner ring. Beyond this
crater to the west and south the great serpentine ridge could be seen in best
light. This ridge is made up of dorsa Smirnov and dorsa Lister just north of
crater Plinius (44 km.). Smaller and younger crater Dawes (19km.) could be seen
casting a shadow eastward which was growing in length throughout the sketch
interval.

Sketching:

2H graphite pencil, black felt tip marker on white copy paper, gum eraser
Date: 12-10-2006 8:05 to 8:40 UT
10 inch f / 5.7 Dobsonian 9mm ortho ocular 161X
Temperature: 3°C (37° F)
Clear, calm
Antoniadi: III-IV
Colongitude: 150.1°
Lunation: 19.4 days
Illumination: 71.2 %

Frank McCabe

Necre Hearted Visitor

Comet 17/P Holmes

I just couldn’t resist doing a quickie of this very unexpected object. As you may know, comet 17/P Holmes went from an unobscure magnitude 17 to 2.8 in just a little more than 24 hours…which it is now easily seen naked-eye in the constellation Perseus!! The coma is very bright and just a tad off-center, and the surrounding gases are emitting a slight off-yellow color. This comet does not (at present time) display the familiar “tail” that we are used to seeing with other comets, but this is still spectacular to see. Grab your scopes and head outside to see this beauty!!!

I will be observing this excellent and unexpected comet throughout the night and complete many sketches of this comet with differnt EP’s/magnifications. But for now, here is what it is looking like:

Wade V. Corbei
Lodi, California

A Promenade Through a Royale Garden

IC1396, a promenade through the Royale Garden.

One of the known highlights of Cepheus is Mu Cephei, a deep orange star. This night Mu Cephei served as the guiding light to IC1396. This region is a beautiful field of stars. There was something peaceful about this place. I felt like strolling through an exotic garden covered with haze. The place seemed majesticaly silent with Mu Cephei as a guard of honour at the border of the eyepiece. I don’t know if I saw IC1396 at all. I just noted all the light I could absorb in this field. A strange fact is that Mu Cephei kept his orange color through the UHC filter.

Date : October 13, 2007
Time : 21.00UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
Meade SP 26mm
Power : x20
FOV: 150′
Filter : Lumicon UHC
Seeing : 3.5/5
Transp. : 3/5
Nelm : 5.3
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Rony De Laet
Belgium

On the Tail of a Comet

I had a few failed attempts at spotting comet C/2007 Loneos before we finally met.

I caught up with it about 4 degrees below Arcturus in the evening twilight low in
the west to North western sky. With the Moon at around 50% on the eve of the 19th
October this didn’t help detection either. My village is in a hollow so to get a
good horizon I need to walk about half a mile along a track which runs up a hill
at the edge of the village ( Capon’s Hill). I used an old 6″ (150mm) F5 Helios
refractor on an alt-azimuth mount, slung it over my shoulder and set off. Equipped
with a couple of eyepieces and a BAA locator chart. I found it within a few
minutes of commencing the search. The tail was very hard to pick out in the orange
murk of the horizon although the head and coma with bright nucleus showed a hint
of a blue/green tinge. I nudged the scope to initiate movement and employed every
bit of averted vision I could must muster in an endeavour to detect what I felt
(at the time) to be a realistic interpretation.

The eyepiece I used was a 22mm Nagler so I feel the tail in the sketch equates to
around 0.75 of a degree. I tried again the following evening and located the comet
with a little more difficulty but couldn’t detect the tail at all, the 65% Moon
had washed it away.

Guess that I was lucky to have picked the interloper out when I did.

Sketch made in a A6 sketch pad with a HB Derwent pencil and blending stump,

scanned image turned into a negative in photo-shop.

Clear Skies,

Dale Holt, England

Oddly Fascinating

Now here is a Globular that struck me as fascinating and odd at the same time. Although the stars resolved quite well, it also appeared very dim for as well as it resolved…strange.

The digital sketch based on my original pencil drawing took a little time to depict accurately. I was either getting it too bright or too dim, and getting to the point of making the digital sketch appear as it looked to me through the EP was a task. I believe I had 5 or 6 dufferent layers with differing opacities and Guassian Blurs applied before I got it to resemble the actual EP view.

This Globular is framed nicely by background stars of varying brightness, and set off this Globular quite nicely. Here is how it appeared to me through the EP, I hope you enjoy it.

Wade V. Corbei

Hiding In the Open

I found M33 a hard to find object in the past. I used to observe with long focal scopes. M33 never showed up in the eyepiece. Last year, I could finally detect the central part of this galaxy with my ETX105. This night, I was studying the milkyway in the Cygnus region with the Skywatcher for an hour or so. I wanted to end the observing session with a different type of object. I made a quick peek at M15 and M2 and then I turned my head to Andromeda and Triangulum. I aimed the scope to that spot where I could never find M33, just for fun. And there it was, in the middle of the low power eyepiece! I discovered the soft oval glow of M33. That was not so hard with this scope. I could not resist the urge to make a sketch of the scene. The Baader Contrast Booster filter joined in as well.

Date : October 13, 2007
Time : 22.00UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
Meade SP 26mm
Power : x20
FOV: 150′
Filter : Baader Contrast Booster
Seeing : 3.5/5
Transp. : 3/5
Nelm : 5.4
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Rony De Laet
Belgium