I found this comet in Cassiopeia the other night (August 24) near the colourful double star Struve 3053 and thought it made a nice composition. As I observed over the course of an hour I was surprised to see how quickly the comet moved against the background stars from the position I first sketched it at 11:15 local time to the position indicated by the X at about 12:10. The observations were made with a 120mm F/8.3 refractor at 42x in a 68 degree eyepiece from my Orleans, Ontario backyard.
* Object Name: C/2014 E2 (Jacques)
* Object Type: comet
* Location: Castres (Tarn – France) N43.35 E2.14
* Date: August 27th 2014 21h35 to 22h55 UT
* Media: pencil HB + 2B, white drawing paper, scanned + inverted & colorized with PhotoPaint
Conditions: humidity 80%, 18°C, no wind.
Excellent transparency and pretty good seing
No Moon
Equipment:
– Dobson Orion XT12 (300 x 1500mm => F/D 5)
– Eyepiece Televue Panoptic 15mm (mag x 100)
– no filter
While watching at this nice comet, close to Cephei, I got stunned seing the velociy of this object.
After only 5 minutes, I could notice a change in it’s location at only x100 magnification.
So I decided to take my scratchbook to report its moving path during a couple of hours.
There was no visible tail, I just could detect a slight dissimetry on the coma.
I was stargazing in (small) town, in my garden, with some lights around, so this was not the best condition.
The nucleus is not so bright as last Lovejoy’s one, and the green colour is fainter than the representation I made (just a little cheat:)
The magnitude is difficult to estimate on these objects, but I guess it was about 7 or better.
The comet was on Aug. 27th the closest from earth (about 0,56UA) and it is also reaching these days it’s peak of activity.
NOTE : On Aug 31th 0:00 to 2:00 don’t miss the conjunction with Mu Cephei (the beautiful Herschel’s Garnet Star) even maybe an occultation by the comet!
Thanks for your interest.
Jean-Marc Saliou
APAM astroclub – France
Webmaster’s note: ASOD viewers have probably noticed that Comet Jacques has been the focus of the last few days. This reflects the great number of excellent sketches submitted of this comet.
– Object name: C / 2014 E2 Jacques
– Subject Type: Comet
– Location: Pueblonuevo Bullaque; Ciudad Real (Spain)
– Date: 08/24/2014 Time: 00:30 TU
– Media: 0.5b graphite pencil, HB 2.5; Dither and processed for inverting black with GIMP 2.8 software
– Telescope: achromatic refractor; 152mm lens; 1200mm focal length; focal ratio F / 7.9
– Mount: HEQ5 Pro goto equatorial
– Eye: 25mm William Optics 2 “48X with 1.5 ° real field
– Observing conditions: wind calm; 4/5 stability; 4/5 transparency and an approximate limiting magnitude, at first glance at the zenith of 6
Greetings and thank you very much
Web: http://elportaldelaastronomia.wordpress.com/
Francisco José Caleya
Object Name: M13
Object Type: Globular Cluster
Location: Leioa (Bizkaia) – Spain
Date: 2014-07-30 / 23h 00m U.T.
Media: White paper, 4B, 2B y HB graphite pencil and difuminio, scanned and inverted with Photoshop
Telescope: Skywatcher Heritage 76/300mm (MiniDobson 3”)
Eyepiece: TS-HR 6mm + Lente Barlow (66X)
Transparency: Clear, City Skies.
Location Constellation: Hercules
Assessments: The cumulus appears as a fuzzy patch of gray, more or less circular, more blurred around the edges and more defined (bright) to the center, can not resolve stars.
For more details of my observation you can visit my blog:
http://juannava64.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/observacion-cumulo-globular-m13/
Thank you and best regards.
The Sagittarius stellar cloud, also known as M24, is one of the most dense patches of the Milky Way. It’s 600 lightyears across and some of the stars you can perceive through a decent pair of binoculars lie more than 10.000 lightyears deep into our galaxy, straight towards its core. It would have been impossible to draw all individual stars. Not just because there were so many that they rather appeared like a genuine cloud across my field of view but also because they were so faint that you’d constantly wonder whether you’d seen an individual star or not. A nice detail is the pretty little cluster M18 by the top border of the field of view, another one of these “jewel boxes” in the sky.
I made this sketch in my backyard in the Italian mountains with my Nexus 100 binoculars and a pair of Siebert 21mm Ultrawide eyepieces (24x). Pencil on white paper and then processed in Photoshop.
Cheers!
Peter
Object Name: NGC 6445 – “Box Nebula”.
Object Type: Planetary Nebula.
Location: San Miguel, Buenos Aires Argentina.
Date: 18/08/14.
Media: HB, 2H, blend stump and PS for green color (OIII). Averted vision.
Telescope: Meade LB 12″ on equatorial tracking platform.
Eyepiece: Plössl 6.3mm + Astronomik OIII filter.
Hi community ASOD, in holidays past summer I had the opportunity to travel to a great place with black skies. A goal Iris nebula in the constellation Cepheus. Easily detected at low power and lose contrast and light passing 100x. The star of magnitude about 7 something brighter northern main oval, followed by gaseous envelope that covers most of extension. In the south 2 star within the gas cloud, leading to the isosceles triangle with the brightest star. A magnificent object late summer.
Best Regards.
Roberto.
Object name: NGC7023
Object type: Reflection Nebula
Location: Cazorla Natural Park Granada ( Spain )
Date: 28 July 2014
Hour: 02:45 < 03:30
Media: Graphite pencil, processed and inverted gimp 2.8
Optical equipment: Dobsonian telescope Meade Lightbridge 10'' F/5 Eye piece Ethos 13mm
Magnification 97x True field 1°
Sky conditions: Calm wind, transparency 4/5 Seeing 4/5. Temperature 12,6°C / RH 58% SQM 21,72 Bortle 2/9
Object: Messier 15 (globular cluster, Pegasus)
Date: 12. 30. 2012.
UT.: 16h18m-17h46m
Equipment: 305/1525 Dobsonian telescope
Mag.: 218x
FOV: 12’
S = 8 / 10 T = 4 / 5
Observer: János Gábor Kernya
Location: Sükösd, Hungary
Object Name – Messier 57, The Ring Nebula
Object Type – Planetary Nebula
Location – Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Ireland
Date – 06 August 2014
Media – Graphite pencil on white paper (Image inverted)
This is my first sketch of M57. Observations were made using an Orion XT10i and a 17mm Wide Angle (65° FOV) lens.
The seeing conditions were average, however i made the sketch from my back garden under light polluted skies. There was also a half moon present which added to the skyglow.
I used averted vision to notice the subtle features of the slightly elongated nebula. The central star was not seen in my telescope.
Observations were made with and without a DMC Narrow Band Pass Nebula filter. The filter slightly increased the contrast of the nebula while obscuring the background stars.
Overall I am very happy with how it came out.
I would like to show, through this drawing, how the seeing is important to observe and describe very little objects.
Object: NGC 1999
Object type: reflection nebula and globule
Constellation: Ori
Date of observation: 2011 10 01
Length of observation: 60 min
Height of object above horizon: 28.5°
Observing site: Observatoire des Baronnies Provençales (Southern French Alps)
Observing conditions; exceptionally good, mag limit 6.7v, SQM 21.50, FWMH 0.9” !!!
Instrument: Dobson Obsession 25”
Eypiece: Ethos 6mm, without filter, power 520x
Notes: I am astonished: at the eyepiece, I have in front of me a delta winged aircraft, perfectly clean. Extremities of wings are curved, the “head” of the craft easely detailleable. The encreasing of bright nebulosities around the head and at the back of the wings have also been noticed.
The caracteristic blue color of reflection nebulae is obvious.
Much more details can be found at www.deepsky-drawings.com
Cheers
Bertrand
