Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake)

Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake), observations of the inner coma -March 24 and 25, 1996
Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake), observations of the inner coma -March 24 and 25, 1996

Hey ASOD!

Interesting structures was observed in B2 (Hyakutake) on two nights 24. and 25. March 1996
in high power of the inner coma! My two sketches shows the fragmenting of the nucleus over
2 days. I used my 20.3 cm. SCT. F/ 10 at 166x.
Some days before, on 20. March, the false nucleus was stellar with no structures observed.
On 21. March, I could see a 2 arcmin. very thin spine tailward. Read my info on sketches!
I used colorcrayons on black paper.
Loc.: Trondheim, Norway.

Have a nice X- mas and happy new year with clear skies ! Per-Jonny Bremseth.

Lunar craters Aristoteles and Mitchell

Lunar craters Aristoteles and and Mitchell - November 28, 2014
Lunar craters Aristoteles and and Mitchell – November 28, 2014

Hi,

Tonight I could do yet another lunar crater sketch:

Object Name: Aristoteles and Mitchell
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Germany, Dusseldorf area
Date: 2014-11-28, 1910-1940 CET
Media: chalk pencil and charcoal pencil on black sketching cardbox
Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT
Eyepiece: TS HR Planetary 7mm
Clear skies!

Achim

Elvis Spotting! Elvis rocks out on the lunar terminator

"Lunar Rock Star", a pattern of shadow and light play that resembles Elvis Presley- November 28, 2014
“Lunar Rock Star”, a pattern of shadow and light play that resembles Elvis Presley- November 28, 2014
Lunar elvis labeled
Lunar elvis labeled
"Lunar Elvis" captured with an iphone - November 28, 2014
“Lunar Elvis” captured with an iphone – November 28, 2014

Aloha!

A somewhat cloudy night but the Moon beckoned so I set up my ES102ED. Whoa, whats that? Its Elvis rocking out on the lunar terminator! What a fun surprise to find the dark outline of a figure standing wide appearing to play a guitar! A friend had told me about this phenomenon as well as some of the lunar alphabet visible at certain times on the terminator. I have tried to observe this before but was either too late or too cloudy. This time it was by complete surprise that I found it. I sketched at the eyepiece and cleaned up the sketch later in better light. I was also able to capture “The King” with my iPhone.
The interesting thing is that Elvis (aka Lunar V) is only visible for a short 1-2 hour window of time every month. This perfect angle of light shows not only Lunar V but also Lunar X a few hours after the first quarter. Lunar V is visible at the terminator between Mare Vaporum and Sinus Medii near Crater Ukert. Other landmarks are Hyginus Rille and Crater Triesnecker.

Glenn Chaple wrote about “Elvis and the Alphabet” in the August 2013 issue of Astronomy Magazine. Very interesting to find these “little jewels hiding in plain site” as one reader wrote.

Cindy (Thia) Krach
Haleakala Amateur Astronomers
SV102ED
Black paper, white & black charcoal pencils
2145- 2245 HST 11/28/14
0745- 0845 UT 11/29/14

Lunar craters Snellius and Stevinus

Lunar craters Snellius and Stevinius - November 25, 2014
Lunar craters Snellius and Stevinius – November 25, 2014

Hi,

yesterday evening, I got the opportunity to do another chalk/charcoal sketch of the moon. Here we go with my sketch of craters Snellius and Stevinus. Due to the bad seeing, I couldn’t go beyond the 10mm eyepiece this time.
Object Name: Snellius and Stevinus
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Germany, Dusseldorf area
Date: 2014-11-25, 1715-1745 CET
Media: chalk pencil and charcoal pencil on black sketching cardbox
Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT
Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm
Clear skies!

Achim

Rabbit on the Moon

The Rabbit on the Moon, a naked eye sketch showing a commonly recognized pattern - November 5, 2014
The Rabbit on the Moon, a naked eye sketch showing a commonly recognized pattern – November 5, 2014

Rabbit On The Moon
Lunar Observing Pattern
Pilanesberg Game Reserve South Africa
5th November
Jet Black Canford Paper with White Pastel Pencil. Used a smartphone to take a picture and crop.
Sketched on holiday in South Africa – The ‘Rabbit on the Moon’ pattern really jumps out at you from Southern Skies and creates a whole new observing experience if you are used to the Northern hemisphere.

What Happened to the Great Red Spot?

Planet Jupiter and the Great Red Spot (GRS) - November 11, 1975
Planet Jupiter and the Great Red Spot (GRS) – November 11, 1975

Hey ASOD!

Why did the GRS get lighter and smaller after 1975?
As you see under my sketch, the GRS was brickred before a white spot became in
and passed the GRS on 9. nov. -75.
The GRS had allways a brick-red color before this happened, and since then, it
has been light red, orange or yellow!
The GRS was very easy to see on the disc of the planet before that!
Can anyone tell what happened?

I used color – pencils on black paper.
Loc.: Trondheim, Norway.

Best wishes Per-Jonny Bremseth.

H-alpha Solar Observation

A solar observation including prominences, a large active region with sunspots and filaments - October 26, 2014
An H-alpha solar observation including prominences, a large active region with sunspots and filaments – October 26, 2014

Aloha!

This week has been fascinating observing the giant sunspot region 2192 making its way across the solar disc. I was working today to demonstrate the details of the intricate swirls of magnetic activity around the sunspot and filament regions. I utilized the Tilting Sun graphic again for this observation though it is reversed from a standard view to demonstrate my view through the eyepiece.

Solar Observation 10-26-14
Maui, Hawaii
h-alpha Lunt PT 60mm 83X
Black paper, white charcoal, black and white oil pencils, wax pencils and watercolor pencils
Tilting Sun graphics added in Photoscape

Cindy (Thia) Krach

Two Big Prominences on the Edge

Two large solar prominences on the limb - October 4, 2014
Two large solar prominences on the limb – October 4, 2014

Object Name: Sun
Object Type: Solar prominence
Location: Deventer, The Netherlands
Date: October 4, 2014
Media: pastel pencils on black paper

As the days shorten rapidly and the sun gets more south every day, the warm afternoons are coming to an end in the Netherlands. On what could be the last sunny and warm day of the year, the active Sun was the obvious target for an astronomical sketch. I set up my modded 60mm Unitron/Polarex refractor and sketched two large prominences on the western edge of the solar disk. The prominences were of the “stable” and relatively long lasting type, but still a lot of internal swirling and changes in brightness could be seen in both at high magnifications. Due to seeing conditions magnifications were limited to about 80x-100x. I made two separate sketches, but got the idea of combining them in a composition when photographing them afterwards.

Kind regards,
Roel Weijenberg

Craters Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel

Lunar craters Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel -October 1, 2014
Lunar craters Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel -October 1, 2014

Hi,

Here’s my lunar sketch of today.
Object Name: Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel
Object Type Lunar Craters
Location: Home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany
Date: Oct 1st, 2014, 1930-2000 CEST
Media: charcoal and white pastel on black cardbox
Clear skies!

Achim

Brilliant Saturn at the Dark Lunar Limb

A conjunction of the Moon and the planet Saturn - September 27, 2014
A conjunction of the Moon and the planet Saturn – September 27, 2014

Aloha!

I had plans to go to the summit of Haleakala to observe the occultation of Saturn by the Moon, but clouds and wind kept me closer to home. I was delighted when a patch of sky opened up and I could observe the wonderful phenomenon from home.

As I was observing Saturn get closer to our Moon I was struck by how small it appeared in comparison, appearing the size of some of the smaller lunar craters. I began sketching in the details of the Moon and noticed a few stars I wanted to include. I needed to do some erasures because one of the stars was occulted ~15 minutes before Saturn, an unexpected treat. Once Saturn made it to the limb I could not clearly time the initial ingress as conditions began to deteriorate. It was however brilliantly lit in comparison to the dark lunar limb. I noted time as 19:41:36 HAST when all evidence of Saturn disappeared. My sketch is as Saturn had partially slipped past the limb. I was unable to view egress as the Moon had slipped behind clouds by this time.

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon
Maui, Hawaii
4,000el
SV102ED 79x
9/27/14
Black paper, white & black charcoal
Photoscape to clean up sketch

Cindy (Thia) Krach