NGC147 (Caldwell 17)
The medium used: graphite pencil,
The equipment used: 8″ f/10 SCT. Date: 14-10-2006
Weather: very good conditions, clear and transparency. Very close to Molina
de Aragon (Guadalajara, Spain.)
Faint galaxy, perfectly elliptic. This galaxy in one of the Andromeda
satellites, located in the constellation of Cassiopea. Field rich in stars,
its better to observe it with adverted vision.
Leonor
M92 is near the top of the list for me when it comes to globular clusters. It takes
magnification extremely well, and many individual stars are clearly resolved around
a bright core. M92 would probably get more attention were it not for it’s
spectacular neighbor, M13.
This sketch was rendered on standard copy paper with a .5mm mechanical pencil. Post
processing was done with MGI Photosuite III.
Jason Aldridge
North Port, FL
This was the first time that I had used my new (to me) Superscopes 6″ F9 triplet
refractor for a sketch. As per usual I sketch what my eye is most drawn to and
then research the area after.
In this case I struggled to match up the craters that I had captured with any of
my many books & atlases. In the end I got a best match from an excellent free
down load picture Atlas/portfolio by Alan Chu. I decided that it must be the
Sirsalis region although the stunning illumination I enjoyed wasn’t captured in
any thing that I had in my library.
I used the following:
Superscopes 150mm F9 triplet refractor, Denk binoviewer with 2.5x lens, 2x 23mm
Celestron Axiom eyepieces straight through so no diagonal delivering 146x.
6″x8″ (150mm x 200mm) light black card of unknown origin
Derwent watercolour pencils, Derwent pastel pencils, conte sticks & blending stumps
25.8.07, 21.30UT sketch time 10minutes.
Location: Chippingdale observatory, Chipping Nr Buntingford, Hertfordshire, England.
Dale Holt
Arp 263 Pencil on white paper, inverted in Photoshop. I was at the 2006 Texas
Star Party and using a 30″ Dobsonian for this observation. This type of observing
really sums up an event like TSP for me – extreme deep sky observing under superb
conditions. What I really love about this observation was all the faint galaxies
also visible in the field.
Date: 28 April 2006
Instrument: 30″ Starmaster Dobsonian, driven
Magnification: Not known
Location: Texas Star Party, Prude Ranch, Ft Davis, TX, USA
Conditions: Excellent, if a bit windy. Totally cloudless
NELM: Greater than 7.0
Notes: A nice field full of galaxies. Arp 263 (NGC 3229) is the brightest and most
obvious object in this field, and there are lots of smaller, fainter galaxies as
well, all with CGCG and MCG designations. The most obvious thing about Arp 263 is
the arm of material stretching away from it. Nice, and one of my favourite views
from TSP 2006.
Faith Jordan
Isle of Wight, England
M81 and M82 are a galactic pair that I found to be a rewarding target. Structure in
M81 was visible with averted vision, while M82 showed no detail. I always find it
nice to have more than one galaxy in my field of view.
This sketch was rendered on Strathmore Windpower Sketch paper with a .5mm mechanical
pencil. MGI Photosuite III was used for post processing.
Jason Aldridge
North Port, FL
You can see the effects of the magnetic fields through the long fingers of the
filaments holding the cooled dense gas in place. Although this observation is mainly
in the chromosphere and lower parts of the corona, the filaments are generally held
in place by regions of opposing magnetic polarity within the photosphere. Of course
this is also the case for the prominences, as prominences are filaments above the
limb where the gas is set in front of the black sky instead of the disk. Although
the filaments were very impressive on the disk itself, they were not so impressive
on the limb today. Having said that, take a look at the faint section of prominence
that appears to be floating off the limb in the WNW region.
NOAA 10969’s plage intertwined and reached out with crooked fingers.
The next observation was using a white light filter where over 99.999% of the Sun’s
light is blocked out, making it possible for me to view the photosphere. This is
called white light. You can see NOAA 10969 in the cooler layer. The chromosphere
becomes invisible to me again. The two dark sections of umbrae within the penumbra
of this action region were very prominent. I could see a darkened outline of the
penumbra and it had an almost rectangular shape with curved corners. Of particular
interest was the very faint darkened area to the right of the sunspot. This happens
to me fairly often, seeing little bonus features like this. I’m still not sure what
causes it. Normally I would think it was contrast from faculae that I was unable to
discern. Normally we can only see faculae closer to the darker limb regions. But
often I can see an outline of contrast suggesting faculae present when the active
region is toward the center of the disk.
This time it is a little different. If I didn’t know any better, it looked like a
thick triangular cooler region next to the sunspot. By this I mean cooler than the
photosphere, hotter than the umbra, and only just slightly hotter than the
penumbrae.
2007 08 26, 1700-1928 UT
PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio
Equipment used:
Internally Double stacked Maxscope 60mm, WO Binoviewers, 20mm WO EP’s, LXD75.
Meade ETX70-AT, 21-7mm Zhumell, glass white light filter.
Seeing above average with only a few moments of quivering, transparency above average.
Temps 80.1 °F / 26.7 °C to 78.1 °F / 25.6 °C over course of observation.
Winds 4.6 mph – 6.9mph NNE/ 11.1 km/h.
Clear progressing to mostly cloudy by the end of the session.
Humidity 54%
H-alpha sketch was rendered using Prang colored pencils and Black Strathmore
Artagain paper. White light sketch was created with photocopy paper and a number 2
pencil.
Erika Rix
The Spiral Galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) in Canes Venatici
For the amateur M51 is easy and a showpiece if the sky is dark, but is quite
sensitive for light pollution which easily makes it fade in the background. Under
very good conditions, even suggestions of its spiral arms can be glanced with
telescopes starting from 4-inch. Low magnification is best for viewing this pair
Right Ascension:13 : 29.9 (h:m)
Declination: +47 : 12 (deg:m)
Distance: 37000 (kly)
Apparent Dimension:11×7 (arc min)
Sketch was made large on A4 black cartridge paper using white and colored pastels
and pencils after viewing an astrophotograph…
The sketch was then scanned and processed in Photoshop cs.
All the Best from Athens,
Peter
When I spied the glowing rims floating in a pool of pitch, I knew it was time that I
tried to render a lunar sketch with white pastel on black paper. I felt quite clumsy
while drawing Clavius with this foreign medium, but in the end I decided that the
result was acceptable. I know that I will require a good deal of practice before I
am comfortable sketching in this manner. Kudos to those of you who make such
wonderful lunar sketches in white on black!!! I hope you all enjoy my first attempt
at sketching with new tools.
Jason Aldridge
North Port, FL
10 Day Old Moon
I decided before dark that this was the night to try a whole moon sketch again.
August has been cloudy and rainy since the beginning of the month. It was clear
before sunset, but clouds and rain were due in by 10 pm local time. I attempted
this type of drawing at the beginning of the year and I was unhappy with the
result. The drawing at that time was too small and I rushed it. This time I
proceeded in a similar manner but I made the drawing larger and took my time. I
also re-read chapter one in Astronomical Sketching by Richard Handy, David Moody,
Jeremy Perez, Erika Rix and Sol Robbins before I started. Rich and Erika wrote
this chapter. I did this to make sure I didn’t forget something important. To make
this sketch I needed a small scope so I used the finder scope of my 18” which
doubles as a 4.25” f / 5 Dobsonian. Some of my favorite views of the moon have
occurred using telescopes of this aperture and smaller.
Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a blending stump and my index finger too. Brightness was
slightly adjusted after scanning.
Telescope: 4.25 inch f/ 5 Dobsonian and 21mm eyepiece 26x
Date: 8-23-2007 0:45-2:40 UT
Temperature: 30° C (86° F)
Partly cloudy, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude: 27.9 °
Lunation: 10 days
Illumination: 69.4 %
Frank McCabe
For this sketch I decided to focus on the crater Reinhold that is dwarfed by it’s
enormous neighbor, Copernicus. I could see lot’s of detail in it’s surrounding
environment including a craterlet in it’s ghostly companion Reinhold B. The hills
and rilles to the south and west of this pair of craters made for an irresistible
sketch opportunity. I hope you all enjoy my impression of Reinhold.
This sketch was rendered on Strathmore Windpower Sketch paper, with a #2 HB
Mechanical Pencil, and a General’s Extra Black Layout Pencil. MGI Photosuite III was
used for post processing.
Jason Aldridge
North Port, FL
