Category: Inverted

The Talkin Horse

B33, NGC 2023, IC 434
B33, NGC 2023, IC 434

Aloha!

The evening of December 4th (morning of the 5th) was a beautiful night at one of my favorite spots 8 miles from my home on the road to Haleakala National Park. Very clear & very dark. I am finishing up my Planetary Nebula project with Astronomical League and at midnight decided to take a break & try for the Horsehead Nebula again while I was totally dark adapted. Last year I was elated to locate it from my driveway but didn’t sketch it at the time. This year I hoped from a darker location it would be even better, but I decided to just look and not get my hopes up.

After enjoying views of the Flame Nebula I placed Alnitak out of my field of view to the north. Using my 27mm & Narrow Pass Band filter I then placed NGC 2023 to the north inside my view and looked for the 2 – 10th & 13th magnitude guide stars to follow into the Horsehead.
I could see a dim dark patch with averted vision, hood over my head and an eyepatch on the opposite eye. After a short time I could make out the thumbprint of the head with some brightness around the rim and with longer observation a notch appeared to the NW. Some tiny stars also present themselves around the head as well as a linear brightness running N/S through IC 434. I then changed to a 20mm with h-beta filter and more light and dark details of IC 434 appeared, though overall it appeared darker. I got to work sketching & writing up details.

As I was finishing my sketch I heard a “whinnying” sound nearby. I froze because it sounded close and I was all alone. After a moment I realized its an app my daughter has on my iPad that makes horse sounds periodically. It just happened to do so while I was observing the “Horse”! I giggled and ended the night there. What could top that!

B33, IC 434, NGC 2023
Dark Nebula, Emission Nebula, Reflection Nebula
Haleakala Highway 6,000 ft el, Maui, Hawaii
12/5/13 12:00pm, 10:00 UTC
12.5” Portaball, h-Beta & NPB filters, 20mm 76x
Charcoal pencil, charcoal with brush technique, white paper
Inverted with Photoscape software

Cindy (Thia) Krach
Haleakala Amateur Astronomers

Vega and Epsilon Lyrae

Vega and Epsilon Lyrae
Vega and Epsilon Lyrae

I chose Vega in the constellation of Lyra as my first sketch study, as it was the brightest star in my visible night sky (… and 3rd brightest star in the Northern hemisphere night sky after Sirius and Arcturus). I threw the towel in on several sketches before arriving to this one. It sure is different to sketch in the dark! My first attempts had severely mis-plotted star fields, and even though a sketch of the night sky is never 100% perfect, it wasn’t even looking close to what I was seeing in my field of view! An hour and a half later, I was satisfied enough to call this one my first.

I was able to spot the famous “double double” stars of Epsilon Lyrae very easily, as well as a light blue tint to Vega, and some various stars with a light tint of orange. Even though winter is coming along, I could still see part of the “Summer Triangle” asterism with Altair and Deneb.

Object: Vega in constellation Lyra
Date: November 15th, 2013 – 6:30 – 7pm CT
Location: New Braunfels, Texas – back yard
Conditions: 62°F, Clear
Instruments: 10×50 Wide-Angle Binoculars
Medium: Graphite on white sketch paper, inverted
(see the original sketch)

Thank You,
Jen Bishop

Stars of Jen
http://stars.jenbishop.com

Comet ISON: Incoming

Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) - October-November, 2013
Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) – October-November, 2013

Object Name: Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON)
Object Type: Sun-grazing Comet
Location: Near Grant, AL, USA
Dates: October 8 & 26, November 2 & 11, Before Sunrise
Media: Graphite Pencil on Strathmore Tracing Paper
Equipment: 20″ F/5 Newtonian with 13mm Ethos, 35mm Plossl (Russell Optics), 35mm Deep View (Orion), “Red Light Box” software, i-Pad (for backlighting the tracing paper).
Weather: Excellent Transparency and Seeing on all dates.

These four sketches show the evolution of Comet ISON over time during October-November 2013. At first, the comet was barely visible. No nucleus or dust tail could be discerned, but over time they became apparent. Each drawing is a stack of individual black and white sketches using the indicated filters. They were edited and stacked using Photofiltre and Canvas software.

–James M.

Messier 78

Messier 78
Messier 78

Object Name: Messier 78
Object Type: Reflection Nebula
Location Observatorio Municipal de Mercedes “Ingeniero Ángel Di Palma”, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date 23/11/2013
Media graphite pencil, white paper, Photoshop
Reflector Newt 6″ (130-900), Ocular BST 12 MM, 75X
Seeing (1-6) 3.
Constelation :Orion.
Local Time: 23:30
Mag: 8.0
Sebastian Castagna
Estación Vientos del Sur
Mi Colección de Meteoritos

C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) – December 4, 2013

C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) - December 4, 2013
C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) – December 4, 2013

Hi Asod! Last night I woke up at 5.00am to observe Comet Lovejoy. I couldn’t see it with naked eye (I think because I observed from city), but it was very bright! I observed it at 90x and 42x and this was the best magnification; nucleus was very compact and more bright than tail. It’s the first comet I’ve ever seen, just wonderful!

Object Name: C/2013 R1 Lovejoy
Object Type: Comet
Location: Copertino (LE), Italy
Date: 4/12/2013
Media: Pencil on White Paper; inverted by Computer

Meeting with a Green Comet

C2013/R1 (Lovejoy) - December 2, 2013
C2013/R1 (Lovejoy) – December 2, 2013

Hi,

In attachment you can find sketch of comet C2013/R1 Lovejoy

Short description:

Object Name C2013/R1 Lovejoy
Object Type comet
Location Budy Dłutowskie – small village in central Poland
Date 02.12.2013
Media graphite pencil, white paper, color invert
Telescope Sky Watcher refractor 120/600 + Meade 8,8mm + Lumicon Swan Band
Seeing 2/5 (good)
Transparency 2/5 (good)
NELM 5,4 mag

We don’t have so many good weather in Poland last weeks. So when I realised that night from 2nd to 3rd of December will be good I decided to wake up early morning to observe comet C2013/R1 Lovejoy. And it was really good observation night. Comet looks great. It is visible even with naked eye. When you use binocular, you can observe really condensed core with delicate tail. With “stronger” telescope you can see the green colour of the comet and bigger part of really long tail.

I used SW 120/600 refracotr with special comet filter Lumicon Swan Band mounted on Meade UWA 8,8mm eyepiece. It is really good filter designed to see details in gasous comets even in weak sky conditions. When you use this filter sky background is really dark and comet shine stongly with high contrast. It is also possible to see delicate structures inside the tail (close to head).

If you dudn’t see this comet, you must try it. It is really worth to observe.

Clear Sky
Łukasz

Comète C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) – November 28, 2013

C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy)
C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy)

Bonjour,

Voici un dessin de la comète Lovejoy, réaliser avec un dobson de 345mm et un oculaire de 40mm (grossissement 37 fois).

Elle est sublime ! Le noyau très ponctuel et bien brillant. La queue est large et fait au moins 2° de long.

Le ciel était stable.

Fait à Fayssac dans le sud de la France le 28 novembre 2013 à 5h20 Local. Club d’astronomie APAM.

David Antao

French-English translation by Google Translate:

Hello,

Here is a drawing of comet Lovejoy, achieved with a dobson of 345mm and a 40mm eyepiece (magnification 37 times).

It is sublime! Very punctual and very bright nucleus. The tail is made ​​wide and at least 2° long.

The sky was stable.

Fayssac made ​​in the south of France November 28, 2013 at 5:20 Local. Astronomy Club APAM.

David Antao

C/2012 S1 (ISON) – November 20, 2013

C/2012 S1 (ISON) - November 20, 2013
C/2012 S1 (ISON) – November 20, 2013

Object Name : C/2012 S1 ISON
Object Type : comet
Location : Béziers, south-west France
Date : November 20 2013
Media : graphite pencil, white paper + PhotoPaint

Comments :
The moon was almost full, the sky was not dark enough, so the tail was shade off and fairly not visible.
Only a bright star could be seen in this area.
The turquoise colour of ISON comet was (R.I.P.) very nice, with a very bright dot as shown on the skectch.

Equipment : 300mm Telescope + 24mm Ultra Wide Angle eyepiece
Sketch was made with pencil on white paper while observing the comet on the road side before sunrise.
A bit of image processing was used to invert the image and give it some colour.

Jean-Marc SALIOU
A.P.A.M. astronomy
http://www.astrosurf.com/apam

The Cat’s Paw

NGC 6334 (Cat's Paw Nebula)
NGC 6334 (Cat’s Paw Nebula)

Bonjour

pour l’ASOD, je te propose la nébuleuse de “la patte de chat” NGC6334 observée en août 2013 au Chili, désert de l’Atacama au pied du VLT, avec le T400 de voyage en carbone (15kg), ethos 8 et 13mm.
Quasi inexistante sans artifice, elle se révèle sans pareil avec un H-béta, d’où cette idée d’une colorisation L, Rouge (H-béta), Vert (OIII).
Dessin en négatif couleur au crayon sur papier blanc.

—————————-

je profite de cet envoi pour t’informer de la parrution début décembre de notre ouvrage collectif :
“ASTRODESSIN, Observation & Dessin en astronomie”
fruit d’un remarquable travail d’équipe qui s’est étallé sur plus de 3 ans.

je te propose de découvrir et (si tu le souhaite) de faire figurer sur ton site ASOD le lien vers le site du livre :
http://www.astrodessin.com/

bien amicalement

Serge

PS : désolé pour mon manque en anglais !

[ French to English translation by Google Translate]

Hello

For ASOD, I offer the “Cat Paw” Nebula observed in August 2013 in Chile, the Atacama Desert at the foot of the VLT, with the T400 travel carbon (15kg) NGC6334, 8 and 13mm ethos.
Almost nonexistent without artifice, she reveals unmatched with an H-beta, hence the idea of ​​a coloring L, Red (H-beta), Green (OIII).
Drawing negative color pencil on white paper.

—————————-

I take this dispatch to inform you of the beginning of December parrution our collective work:
“ASTRODESSIN, Astronomical Observation & Sketching”
result of an outstanding team that ETALLE over 3 years work.

I suggest you to discover and (if you wish) to include on your website ASOD the link to the book site:
http://www.astrodessin.com/

Best wishes,

Serge

PS: sorry for my lack in English!