richardhandy – Page 136 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Grand gathering of ancients

Although the light pollution from my residence severely limits deep sky observing;
I took advantage of unusually transparent seeing conditions to observe some bright
galaxies, globular clusters and planetary nebula. My favorite globular cluster
targets are M-5, M-92 and M-15. On this evening M-5 was well positioned for
observing just after dark. The appeal of M-5 for me is the bright glowing egg
shaped core with arching sprinkles of stars curving out from the center. As you
move out from the core the star density gradually drops off creating a very
pleasing view.

M-5 glows at magnitude 5.6 and is located about 20 minutes of arc north and west
from 5 Serpentis. This globular is approximately 13 billion years old at a
distance of 24,500 ly from us. The distance across this great ball of tens of
thousands of stars is about 165 ly.

Sketch:
Date and Time: 6-9-2007, 315-3:45 UT
Scope: 18” f/5 Dobsonian. 12mm eyepiece 167X
8”x12” white sketching paper, 4B soft charcoal pencil,
blending stump, scanned and inverted
Seeing: Pickering 8/10
Transparency: Excellent 4/5
Nelm: 4.8

Frank McCabe
Oak Forest, Il.

A work in progress

The Orion nebula may be one of the most challenging objects in the sky to observe.
The amount of subtle detail it displays is astonishing and it is perhaps one of the
most difficult nebula to sketch.

Edward Holden’s monograph on the central area of M42 (Central Parts of the Nebula of
Orion, Washington Astronomical Observations for 1878, Appendix I) inspired me to
attempt to follow the footsteps of great visual observers of the the past — the
Herschels, Lassell, Rosse, Bond, etc.– and try to capture the wealth of details
seen in my 18″ reflector. I might add that my sketch is a composite drawing made
with apertures ranging from 70mm to a 20″ reflector. A separate drawing was made on
each evening of observing and combined into a single rendering. The Dearborn
Observatory star maps (claimed to go down to the 18th magnitude) were used to insure
the proper “placing” of the details noted with the various telescopes. The
(unfinished) drawing is still a work in progress after two years of observing.
Magnifications on my 18″ reflector ranged from ~60X (40 mm Pentax) to ~460X (5mm
Radian). The lowest power used: 12X with my Pronto 70mm refractor!

I settled on using a graphite pencil after experimenting with charcoal and soft
lead pencils. Nothing fancy here — just graphite on regular (economy) typing
paper from Office Depot. The drawing was color-inverted using my HP scanner and
tinted with the Paint program.

An extended observing session revealed details I hadn’t noticed before. The
remarkable D’Arrest “comets” were visible only when the transparency was good. The
prominent dark “globule” W1 was seen so well through a 24″ reflector one evening
that my first impression was that there was a bit of dirt on the field lens of my
eyepiece!

I hope that in another two years I can finish the drawing.

Dave Riddle

The “Seeing Beater” versus the Jovial Giant

For observers in the northern hemisphere this opposition of Jupiter is not
a good one. This complex and fascinating gaseous world won’t manage
to rise above above the troubled horizon so views are going to be compromised during most if not all observations we attempt.

Having said this, Jupiter offers much to the observer seeking detail, OK it’s not
as sharp or as plentiful as we are used to during higher oppositions but it is
still worth recording with our sketch pads.

Increasingly I have been using my long focal length F15 Antares 105mm Achromatic
refractor for sketching observations, leaving the larger Newtonian for those rarer
steady nights. The long refractor is proving to be a bit of a “Seeing Beater”.

On the evening of June 1st/2nd 2007 I made such and observation and sketch and
hope you will agree it was worth the effort with some nice detail in the belts
evident and a couple of fine ovals too.

Start 00.00 end 00.15…. 2/6/07
Antares 105mm F15 refractor working at 163x with a Denk binoviewer, enhanced star
diagonal. Sketch made onto white paper with pre-drawn circles and black surround
using Derwent watercolour and pastel pencils. Image scanned but not enhanced.

Dale Holt

One prom times twelve

The flare activity this morning (June 9th, 2007) had pretty much subsided by the time my session took place. Yes, I was disappointed, but AR0960 was still showy
with AR0959 accessorizing it nicely. There was a thin little plage
marking 959 as well as plage just East of the center of the disk, and
plage also very thinly following the path of a long slender filament just
inside the Eastern limb. Add the remarkable plage details in AR0960 to
that, and you have a straight line of interrupted plage going from East to
West.

The two spots within 960 were easy to spot as black dots. There was a
third dot just North of them that I first thought was another spot to that
region. But I’m pretty sure it was a little piece of filament having
compared my sketches to other images afterward.

When tuning, I could easily pick out several other filaments across the
disk even though they were very slender and short, almost like little
crooked crosshairs of an eyepiece. There were five definite prominences
with a few little hints of others on the limb. The huge prominence that
was evident on the NW limb earlier this morning was no longer there that I
could see. However, the “pick of my pleasure” prominence was the presence
of an “m” shaped faint one on the NE limb. And this, my friends, became
the start of a three and a half hour project for me today. It made no
matter that I had lots of chores to do. Astronomy comes first…at least
today.

The series for this one prom was rendered in two sessions. An hour with 1
minute intervals, an hour and a half break so that I could at least get
the riding mower part of the grass cutting done, and then another hour
session with 10 minute intervals again. I would have loved to spend the
entire day doing this, but I was starting to get sunburn on my farmer’s
tan legs and feet that today sported sandals instead of sneakers.
Nevertheless, perhaps 12 sketches of the same prominence were enough to
show how dynamic the Sun is over such a short period of time. Or could I
have really stopped because I didn’t want to be known as the eccentric
prom lady that latched on to only one prom, sketching it over and over
again with a strange fixation…you can chose, if you like.

Sketches were done with black Strathmore paper and colored Conte’ crayons
for the full disk, white Conte’ for the prominence sequence.

Erika Rix
Zanesville, Ohio

This is a delightful video version of full disk and the prom sequence sketches that Erika created: http://www.photoshow.com/watch/gA4ky6wN check it out!

Gibbous Goddess

If you live in the temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere, you’ve probably
noticed brilliant Venus high in the west at twilight–indeed, it’s hard to miss.
Apart from the phase, little detail is normally visible in the cloudtops of Venus,
due to the glare and low altitude of our “sister planet”.

This year presents the observer with a very favorable apparition because Venus
reaches greatest eastern elongation near the spring equinox. If an observer uses
filters and gets out during early twilight (or even before sunset) while the planet
is still above the atmospheric murk on the horizon, subtle detail can be seen on
Venus.

Even though it is our closest neighbor (next to the Luna) and has been visited by
spacecraft, there is still much that is unknown about Venus. Iti s a worthy target
for any observer, especially during a favorable apparition.

This sketch was made using a 2B and HB graphite pencil, black ink, and a loaded
stump. The sketch was done from an eyepiece diagram based on an intensity scale
where 0.0 = darkest and 10.0 = brightest.

Michael Rosolina
Friars Hill, WV USA

Of cloisters, comets and clusters

Back in the late spring of 2004 I had the opportunity to attend an astronomy
evening at the old Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO) at Herstmonceux in
Sussex, England. The weather was dreadful, stormy and rainy, when the
evening began, but by the time the lecture had finished the skies were
clearing rapidly and we were able to catch sight of Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT),
a fleeting visitor gracing the region of the ‘Beehive’ cluster (M44) at this
time. The comet was just visible as a naked eye object, but binoculars gave
the best view. This is a reworked pastel and acrylic sketch from my
original, very hastily scribbled graphite binocular sketch. One of the
distinctive copper observatory domes provides foreground interest.

Sketch details:

10 x 50 Zeiss binoculars

16th May 2004, 23.05 UT

RGO, Herstmonceux, Sussex, England

Coloured and white chalk pastel (plus white acrylic for the cometary nucleus
and star images) on black Canford card

Sketch size 8″ x 10″

Sally Russell

Berkshire, England

Lady Luna meets the Lord of the Rings

Saturn Occultation May 22nd 2007

I was not expecting to catch a glimpse of Saturn in a daylight sky, no way was I ready for that amazing vision. In my first look there was the white ringed planet right in front of me, in a blue blue sky heading into the invisible limb of the moon.

I just had to try to capture it, in some way, so I drew it quickly on black paper and then watched and waited until she began to vanish into nothing!!

I set up my easel and I began to sketch the moon through wispy cloud while I waited for Saturn to emerge from behind the lunar sphere. As she reappeared one hour or so later there was a wonderful change in her color against the darker sky. She was so tangerine, she was so beautiful. Saturn and her invisible icy orbs appeared to be flying along as our moon moved and glided out of her majestic way.

Deirdre Kelleghan

Bray, Co Wicklow Ireland

200mm Reflector/10mm eyepiece – 120X 19:01UT

200mm Reflector/ Binoviewer 20mm eyepieces/2X Barlow – 120X 20:09 UT

300gm paper/Soft Pastels/Quiling Needle

19th Century Contemporaries

“Imagination is as vital to any advance in science as learning and precision are
essential for starting points.”
-Percival Lowell


Percival Lowell (1855-1916) was fairly new to astronomy in 1894. After leaving the
family business in Boston and traveling and working in Asia, he spent the last 23
years of his life in astronomy. The observatory on “Mars Hill” in Flagstaff,
Arizona was ready in 1894 for the great Mars opposition that year thanks to the
assistance of William Pickering and Andrew Douglass. Quickly erected mountings and
housings for two loaner refractors (12 inch and 18 inch) were in place for this
event in 1894. The sketches by Lowell above are centered on the Hesperia region in
all three drawings and are separate by about 3 month intervals in time. The first
drawing shows the large south polar cap and was made June 7, 1894 note the gibbous
phase here 5 months before opposition.

“It is quite possible we may have formed entirely erroneous ideas of what we
actually see. The greenish gray patches may not be seas at all, or the ruddy
continents, solid land. Neither may the obscuring patches be clouds of vapor. “
-Edward E. Barnard

At the same time nearly 1000 miles away at Mount Hamilton’s (Lick Observatory)
eagle eyed Edward Emerson Barnard (1857-1923) was observing and sketching Mars
during his last year at Lick Observatory before taking a position at the
University of Chicago and Yerkes Observatory (Williams Bay, Wisconsin). Most of
his observing time was spent using the 36 inch Clark refractor but other scopes on
the mountain were used when telescope time on the large refractor was not
available. Barnard never saw the “canals” described and drawn by Schiaparelli and
Lowell. This sequence of drawings by Barnard shows the shrinkage of the south
polar cap from May to December 1894.

Frank McCabe

On the shores of a Stormy Ocean

Hevelius & neighbours

Sketched on the 29th May 2007 from my home observatory using a Antares 105mm F15
Achromatic refractor. Working at 163x through a Denk binoviewer.

Sketch made on a black spiral bound Daler-Rowney 6″x6″ sketch pad using a
combination of Conte sticks, watercolour and pastel pencils. Image scanned in
Greyscale but unprocessed.

Dale Holt

Four days in the life of a sunspot

Here is a small sequence of observations of sunspot 0953 made during 4 days. 0953
turned out to be one of the bigger sunspots of recent time.

Time : see sketches
Scope : ETX 105/1470
Vixen LV Zoom eyepiece at 8mm
Power : 183
Filter : Baader AstroSolar filter.
Seeing : 2/5

Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with a digital tablet and PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Rony De Laet

http://www.geocities.com/rodelaet, my personal website.