Category: Inverted

The Lord’s Ring

Messier 57
Messier 57
Sketch and Details by Tomás Ruiz Lara

I’m a lovely fan of the trilogy “The Lord of The Rings”, written by J.R.R. Tolkien. When I’m observing this nebula I always remember Gandalf and his pipe. This is a precious nebula, my favourite planetary nebula, easy to locate, easy to observe and lovely. This Sketch was done with a common pencil and with cotton to sketch the nebula and the stars was created with the program Gimp 2.6.7.
Equipment used, 260 mm newtonian reflector f/6 with a 21 mm eyepiece and a 2x Barlow (Barlow 2x Vixen Deluxe) (149x).
Seeing: 2/5
Phase of the Moon: Crescent but not visible.

Blazing Ball of Diamond-like Stars

Messier 5
Messier 5
Sketch and Details by Michael Geldorp

From: geldorpmh@hotmail.com
To: webmaster@asod.info
Subject: ASOD: “Messier 5”–”Michael Geldorp”.
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:04:06 -0700

Submission for ASOD:

Object Name (Messier 5 (NGC 5904))
Object Type (Globular Cluster)
Location (Alphen a/d Rijn, Netherlands)
Date (6/25/1998)

This sketch was made using an 8″ Dobsonian (F/6) at 244X magnification under fairly clear skies. I used pencils of various hardness on quality printer paper. The sketch was then scanned into the computer and inverted white-on-black.

My notes for that night read:
“49X: Easily found. Few stars resolved at this power with one star very obvious in the center.
98X: Partially resolved with a grainy core.
203X: Blazing ball of diamond like stars with a bright star to the SSW.
244X: Fully resolved at 244X. Beautiful sight! Stars are seen right across the cluster including in the core. Large round bright center. Stars appear to form arms radiating outward from the center, almost forming circles around the cluster.”

It was the first sketch (first night out in fact) made using the 8″ Dobsonian telescope.

For more information and other sketches please visit http://milou.blackapplehost.com/Astrohomepage/htmlfiles/index2.html

Michael Geldorp

Vesta visits the neck of the Lion

Vesta
Vesta and Algieba
Sketch and Details by Jef De Wit

Asteroid 4 Vesta reaches opposition on 20 February when it will be opposite the Sun in the sky, making it well placed for observation. At mag. +6.1, this 530 km-diameter space rock is right on the threshold of naked eye visibility from a site with very dark and clear skies (not the case for my backyard L).
Vesta looks just like a star when seen through a telescope and is easily confused with other stars in the area. But on 16 February the asteroid was very easy to spot. It passed almost exactly between Algieba (gamma Leonis) and the fainter 40 Leonis (mag. +4.8) that lies just to the south.
Algieba is nice double star (mag. +2.2 and +3.5, separated by 4.4”) that was easily split. I had trouble seeing colour in the double star. Although both stars are reported as yellow, only the western part looked a little bit yellow to me. The eastern star looked rather bluish.

Source: Sky at Night, February 2010

Clear skies
Jef De Wit

Object Name: Vesta
Object Type: asteroid
Location: Hove, Belgium (51°09’ north lat. 4°28’ east long.)
Date and time: 16 February 2010 around 22.30 UT
Equipment: Orion Optics UK 12” Dobson
Eyepiece: 13mm Nagler T6 (magnification 92x)
FOV sketch: approx 25’
NELM: 4,5 mag
Medium: graphite pencil HB/n°2, printing paper, scanned and inverted, some cleaning up was made with Paint

Autumn Giant of South

NGC 253
NGC 253
Sketch and Details by Gábor Sánta

Object: NGC 253
Date/Time: 25 Sep 2009
Location: Szeged, Hungary
Intsr.: 8″ f/5 Newtonian
Mag.: 67x
FOV: 52′

This drawing was made by an 8″ f/5 Newtonian from a dark place next to
Szeged, Hungary. It was a very vlear early-autumn night, but cold wind
blown. After sketching some Messiers I targeted the huge and bright
giant NGC 253 in Sculptor. This is one of my favourite galaxies, so I
wanted to see it after a year-round missing. It was relatively low
above the horizon, but the sky vas really clear – and the galaxy was
very stunning. I picked up my drawing set and started to sketch.
Studied it with different magnifications and combined my impressions.
Lot of details was seemed: a bright nucleus, a short central bar,
parts of the spiral arms, and knots. I think it was one of my best
evenings.

Clear skies
Gábor Sánta
Szeged, Hungary
Columnist of ‘Deep-Sky Objects’ head in journal of the Hungarian
Astronomical Association called ‘Meteor’

Categories: white paper, graphite pencil, inverted, digital, galaxy, star burst

Broken Cigar

Broken Cigar

M81, NGC 3034, the “Cigar Galaxy”
Sketch and details by Miłosz Guzowski

Hi,

today I send you sketch of M82 – “broken cigar galaxy”.

Object name: M82

Object type: Galaxy

Location: Białuty (Poland)

Date: 21/22.08.2009

Scope: 10″ newtonian + ploosl 10mm (mag. 120x)

Medium : Graphite/blending stump on white paper + GIMP processing

Gazing at Swan

We are in another long stretch of cloudy weather here in the Appalachian Mountcentins, so here is an observation from clearer times (and when there were bright comets in the night sky).

In the telescopic view, Comet Swan was a very well defined visitor from the outer solar system. I was struck by the bright core and the streaky tail. Perhaps other observers also saw this comet around this time?

Gazing at Swan

This sketch was done at the eyepiece with graphite pencil and a stump on white paper. It was inverted after scanning and most of the text was then added. I used the little Astroscan reflector I keep for my students to use–it doesn’t have high end optics but it is easy to grab and has a wide field which is useful for observing comets.

Object Name: C/2006 M4 (SWAN)
Object Type: Comet
Location: Friars Hill, WV USA
Date: 26 October 2006

Michael Rosolina

A New Visitor to the River

A New Visitor to the River

Nova Eridani 2009
Sketch and Details by Jef De Wit

Nova Eridani 2009

A nova is a cataclysmic nuclear explosion caused by the accretion of hydrogen onto the surface of a white dwarf star. Novae are not to be confused with supernovae or luminous red novae.

Astronomers estimate that the Milky Way experiences roughly 30 to 60 novae per year, with a likely rate of about 40. The number of novae discovered in the Milky Way each year is much lower, about 10.

An 8th-magnitude nova was discovered on November 25, 2009, by Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan. The new star lies in northeastern Eridanus, 6.9° west-southwest of Rigel. Prediscovery images suggests the star became as bright magnitude 5.6 in mid-November. Unfortunately, nobody noticed it then.

I had no trouble in finding the nova by using a finder chart from the American Association of Variable Star Observers. This chart contains comparison stars for magnitude determinations. My guess is a magnitude of 9.4.

 

Clear skies

Jef De Wit

 

Sources: www.wikipedia.org and www.skyandtelescope.com

 

Object Name: Nova Eridani 2009

Object Type: nova

Location: Hove, Belgium (51°09’ north lat. 4°28’ east long.)

Date and time: 6 December 2009 around 22.15 UT

Equipment: Orion Optics UK 12” Dobson

Eyepiece: 35mm Celestron Ultima (FOV 77’ and magnification 34x)

NELM: 4,5 mag

Medium: graphite pencils HB/n°2 , printing paper, scanned and inverted, some cleaning up was made with Paint

Former moon of the Moon

Former moon of the Moon

Lunar crater Schiller
Sketch and Details by Árpád Szent-Andrássy

Object Name: Schiller crater
Object Type: Lunar crater
Location: Hungary, Debrecen
Date: 29th November 2009
Medium: white paper, graphite pencil.
Instrument: 5” Maksutov

Hi
This is my first sketch that I would like to share with you on ASOD. I used my 127/1500 Maksutov scope with a start diagonal to observe the Moon from my balcony, and finished the sketch next morning. After scanning, I slightly adjusted contrast and brightness of the image with Gimp, and that was all.

Best regards: Árpád

A Visitor to the Swan

A Visitor to the Swan

Comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen)
Sketch and Details by Diego González

Hello,

Comet Christensen (C/2006 W3) was probably one of the most interesting views I had last summer. Although not a bright comet, it was small and concentrated, making it easily visible from my moderately polluted backyard. On July 17th it had a size of about 3’ and a roundish shape, with a rather high surface brightness. The comet’s center is slightly brighter but not prominent. It was moving through constellation Cygnus, near Zeta Cygni, so the starfield in the eyepiece is very rich even at high powers. In summary, a small but beautiful comet for a summer night.

Sketch: 2HB graphite pencil on white paper, scanned and processed with Photoshop Elements 2.0
Object Name: Comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen)
Object Type: Comet
Location: Asturias, Spain
Date: July 17th, 2009
Instrument: 120mm f/8,3 refractor + BO/TMB Planetary 9mm eyepiece (111x)

Regards,
Diego González