Object name: Thebit, Purbach, Regiomontanus and Walter
Type object: lunar crater
Graphite pencil on white paper
hebit Purbach Regiomontanus Walter
Category: Paper
Messier 79
Object: Messier 79 (globular cluster, Lepus)
Date: 14. 01. 2012.
UT.: 19h34m-20h37m
Equipment: 305/1525 Dobsonian telescope
Mag.: 218x
FOV: 12’
S = 4/10 T = 4/5
Observer: János Gábor Kernya
Location: Sükösd, Hungary
Venus and Mercury After Sunset
Venus and Mercury were putting on a great show over several days at my location.
You didn’t need optical aid to enjoy the view of the sky to the southwest. Distant tropospheric clouds are likely responsible for the separate pink/violet pillars clearly visible after sunset for a brief time.
Venus was visible before sunset but Mercury required a darker sky to shine through for naked eye visibility.
Sketching:
Location: Mesa, Arizona
Date and Time: January 6, 2015, 18:15 pm local time
Temperature: 19° C (67° F)
Venus visual magnitude -3.9; distance from Earth 1.6 au
Mercury visual magnitude -0.8; distance from Earth 1.2 au
Assorted color pencils and pastel crayons, blue construction paper cut to size to fit my clipboard,
blending stumps and facial tissue paper for blending, white Pearl eraser.
Frank McCabe
Thor’s Helmet – a Magnificent Apparition
Hello all,
One thing all astronomers chase is ideal atmospheric conditions. An apparently clear night can present poor transparency or poor seeing due to thermal energy high up in the atmosphere. But every now and then, ideal or even very close to ideal conditions do present themselves, and it gives us the finest view of the heavens.
Such conditions presented themselves to me on the night of January 18.
My first view of Thor’s Helmet, NGC 2359, was four years ago during the Ice In Space Astro Camp. My view of it seemed to me to be a fine one. So much so it inspired me to sketch it straight away! Four years later, presented with a night of exceptional transparency, I revisited Thor’s Helmet as it was right on zenith for me.
WOW! What an image! This night Thor’s Helmet had nebulosity extending in four different directions, not just the two from my first view. So much more structure was apparent, and the nebulosity extended so much further, and so many more stars were visible too.
I’ve also included an image of the sketch I did of Thor’s Helmet in 2011 for comparison. It is this way that the full impact of the differences in conditions between the two nights can be appreciated.
I hope you enjoy this sketch.
Alex.
Object: Thor’s Helmet, NGC 2359
Scope: 17.5” push-pull Karee dob
Gear: 30mm 82° Explore Scientific, 91X, OIII filter
Date: 18th January, 2015
Location: Katoomba Airfield, Australia
Media: White soft pastel, charcoal and white ink on A4 size black paper
Duration: approx. 1hr.
C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) – 24 January 2015
Object Name: 2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
Object Type: Comet
Location: Deventer, The Netherlands
Date: Januari 24, 2015
Media: Graphite pencil on white paper
Could it be any better? A nearly finished newly built telescope, clear skies after a full week of clouds, a bright comet visible from my backyard practically made for a scope this size…
I made a sketch of comet Lovejoy through my 150mm f/4 Dobsonian. At first sight I couldn’t spot the tail, but as my eyes became more and more dark adapted, a faint tail began to grow larger and larger. It remained faint but the shape was well visible: quite narrow, slightly brighter near the coma, and gradually widening towards the east. Unfortunately I did not detect the greenish color some reported. In the sketch north is up, east is left.
Clear Skies!
Roel Weijenberg
www.roelblog.nl
Prominence Extraordinaire! H-alpha Prominence 1-10-15
Aloha!
I think what I like best about solar observing is you never know what you will find going on! This large prominence at the eastern limb appeared extraordinary in its detailed and lacey appearance. Seeing was very good and at higher magnification a network of bright areas appeared, much like a picture of a neuron cell with branching filaments extending in all directions. Tilting Sun Graphics are used to denote prominence location.
Solar Prominence
1/10/15
h-alpha 60mm Lunt
Maui, Hawaii
0945-1020 HST (1945-2020 UT)
Black Canson paper, white & black charcoal pencil, watercolor pencil & Conte’ Crayon
Tilting Sun Graphics
Cindy (Thia ) L. Krach
Haleakala Amateur Astronomers
Webmaster’s note: ASOD is experiencing problems with sketch submissions where the file size exceeds the limit of the ASOD WordPress programs capability to process the file. Please be aware that when this occurs, although we do have some graphic editing programs, large files will result in two or three iterations of resizing, that may still result in a sketch that cannot be downloaded to the ASOD template. Due to the fact that I have a day job, I often put these pages together late at night, and being very tired I have difficulty trying to bring these posts together. Please be aware that we would prefer receiving files that are no bigger than 800 pixels wide. We will always resize your sketch image to 650 pixels to fit on all the the standard protocols for tablets and smart phones. Please make sure the image file size (the number of bytes the image file) contains does not exceed 500 Kilobytes. This will guarantee that your sketch is published in it’s entirety, and on time. If there are any questions, please feel free to contact us here at ASOD, we will be happy to help with any problems that are troubling you with image size issues.
Keep up the great work,
Jeremy Perez
Rich Handy
ASOD webmasters
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
Nombre de objeto Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2)
Tipo de objeto:Cometa
Fecha:16/01/2015
Ubicacion: Observatorio Astronomico Orion-San Agustin del Pozo-Zamora-España
Medios: (lápiz de grafito, papel blanco ,Photosop,
Today the clear night with a north wind and cold stayed and had to take before they come clouds in the coming days to observe this comet that can already be seen with the naked eye in the constellation of Taurus and soon passed north .
Today was much better appreciated his tail and was a joy to watch is 30mm eyepiece. With 1.6º field.
Asin and all the drawing I’ve had to make split it did not fit into the eyepiece 1.6º.
Its nucleus is bright star with a magnitude of 4.0 and its tail and 3rd round long.
Vos advise that you observe when you can these days because every day and be farther from Earth.
These are the ephemeris for the remainder of the month.
Fecha AR declinacion r delta mag Elong
——————————————————————————————————
17 Ene 2015 03h20m30.44s +18 34′ 32.5″ 1.3054 0.5287 5.0 116.0
18 Ene 2015 03h15m12.93s +20 31′ 33.2″ 1.3032 0.5408 5.1 114.3
19 Ene 2015 03h10m06.31s +22 22′ 57.2″ 1.3012 0.5537 5.1 112.6
20 Ene 2015 03h05m10.54s +24 08′ 47.3″ 1.2993 0.5674 5.2 110.9
21 Ene 2015 03h00m25.57s +25 49′ 10.7″ 1.2976 0.5818 5.2 109.2
22 Ene 2015 02h55m51.27s +27 24′ 17.5″ 1.2961 0.5968 5.2 107.6
23 Ene 2015 02h51m27.46s +28 54′ 20.1″ 1.2948 0.6124 5.3 106.0
24 Ene 2015 02h47m13.96s +30 19′ 32.5″ 1.2936 0.6286 5.3 104.5
25 Ene 2015 02h43m10.50s +31 40′ 09.7″ 1.2926 0.6452 5.4 103.0
26 Ene 2015 02h39m16.85s +32 56′ 27.0″ 1.2918 0.6623 5.4 101.5
27 Ene 2015 02h35m32.71s +34 08′ 40.0″ 1.2912 0.6797 5.5 100.1
28 Ene 2015 02h31m57.80s +35 17′ 04.0″ 1.2907 0.6975 5.5 98.8
29 Ene 2015 02h28m31.82s +36 21′ 53.9″ 1.2905 0.7156 5.6 97.5
30 Ene 2015 02h25m14.46s +37 23′ 24.2″ 1.2904 0.7339 5.7 96.2
31 Ene 2015 02h22m05.44s +38 21′ 48.4″ 1.2904 0.7525 5.7 95.0
J.Tapioles
C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
– January 17, 2015
Hello,
From the looks of the ASOD webpage, Comet Q2 Lovejoy is getting the attention it deserves from observers around the globe. Some really fine sketches are here.
I did this high magnification study of the comet using my 35cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope under the dark, transparent skies of wintertime rural Appalachia. Even using my lowest magnification eyepiece to give the widest field of view. the head of the comet and the beginning of the ion tail and the dust tail filled the field.
The short fan shaped dust tail stretched from about PA 100° to 170° and was hard to differentiate from the coma. The longer ion tail at PA 80° was highlighted with streamers and extended outwards for several fields. The very bright pseudo-nucleus was flanked by two background stars.
The moonless night was chilly, 21°F (-6°C), so I did the sketch from field notes immediately after coming indoors. A blending stump loaded with 2B or HB graphite was used for the coma and tail with additional blending with my finger. The stars were made with an HB pencil. I tweaked the gamma when scanning and flipped the drawing during processing to give the correct image view (north up/west to the right).
I expect astrosketchers will continue to have fun with this comet–it’s a nice one.
C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
Comet
Twin Sugars Observatory Friars Hill, West Virginia USA
17 January 2015 0130 UT
Graphite on white paper inverted digitally
Regards,
Michael Rosolina
C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
Nombre de objeto
C/ 2014 Q2 Lovejoy
Tipo de objeto
Cometa
Ubicación
Observatorio Orion -San Agustin del Pozo – Zamora – España
Date
14/01/2015
Media
(lápiz de grafito, papel blanco, escaneado y invertido el color.
Esta tarde estaba medio despejado y había que aprovechar antes de que se acercaran mas las nubes y que en los prosimos días no nos dejaran observar.
Hoy prepare los bártulos para dibujar al C2014 Q2 Lovejoy y me puse sobre las 19:15 TU a observar el cometa con el 12″ primeramente su núcleo y su gran coma que tiene unos 17 minutos de arco con el ocular de 8mm ES para ver si había algo raro en su núcleo por si empiezan a salir chorros como fue en el caso del Halo Boop, que disfrutamos muchos aficionados ya en el año 1997, si ya ha pasado mucho tiempo pero yo aun recuerdo esos chorros de gas saliendo en espiral del núcleo del cometa.
Bueno en fin que no se veía nada raro a no ser por un pequeño tono azulado verdoso que parece desprenderse de su núcleo y después de captar este pequeño detalle empece a dibujar por partes el cometa empezando por su núcleo y coma y mirando aun por el 8mm ES, es una gozada estar dibujando y que el objeto no se te marche de parranda luego gracias al picgoto de Angel Caparros.
Dibujar la coma es mas o menos facil, pero otra cosa a sido su cola.
Primero tuve que cambiar de ocular para poder abarcar todo el campo que me permitiera y lo masimo lo logro con el 30mm ES – 1.6º por lo que hay que dibujar la cola por partes pues 2.6º de cola es mucha cola para este ocular y este telescopio de 12″ F4.8.
Primero estoy un rato moviendo el tubo en altura para arriba y para abajo pera ver mejor hasta donde llega la salida de la cola y me refiero a su anchura pegando al cometa.
Los detalles son muy sutiles por lo que antes de plasmar algo en el papel hay que asegurarse desde donde a donde llega esa cola a su salida del núcleo y asín lo tuve que hacer durante 3 veces hasta conseguir plasmar toda su cola.
He de decir que los detalles son muy sutiles y hay que estar mas de 2 minutos observando detenidamente para que esos pocos fotones de luz se queden en el cerebro para luego plasmar eso en el papel.
Cuando he terminado me doy cuenta que el cometa se ha movido unos 5 minutos de arco desde que empece el dibujo, osea que mas o menos he estado con el 1 hora.
El cometa esta en Mg 4.0 viéndose perfectamente a simple vista desde mi observatorio que la calidad del cielo ronda la Mg 6 en visual.
Parece que hoy he tenido mucha suerte ya que terminado de plasmar el cometa en el papel ya empezaron a meterse nubes.
Como veréis el cometa esta dibujado sobre una carta estelar del GUIDE 9.0 pues no me gusta dibujar tanta estrella cuando lo que quiero es plasmar un cometa.
Espero que vos guste.
J.Tapioles
http://pastorgalactico.blogspot.com.es/
http://pastorgalactico.16mb.com/
Attachments area
Google translate:
Object Name
C / 2014 Q2 Lovejoy
Object Type
comet
location
Orion Observatory -San Agustin del Pozo – Zamora – Spain
Date
01/14/2015
average
(graphite pencil, white paper, scanned and inverted color.
This afternoon was half cleared and had to take before they come out more clouds and in the days Forthcoming not let us observe.
Today prepare gear for drawing the C2014 Q2 Lovejoy and got about 19:15 TU to observe the comet with 12 “first nucleus and large eat has about 17 arcmin with ES 8mm eyepiece to see if there was something strange in your kernel if they start out jets as was in the case of Halo Boop, who enjoyed many fans already in 1997, if it has been a long time but I still remember those gas jets out spiral core comet.
Well in order not seen nothing unusual except for a small greenish blue tint that appears from its core and then to capture this small detail parts started to draw by starting the comet nucleus and coma and looking even by 8mm it is a joy to be drawing the object and do not leave out partying then thanks to picgoto Angel Caparros.
Draw the comma is more or less easy, but otherwise been his tail.
First I had to change eye to cover the whole field to allow me and masimo I succeed with 30mm ES – 1.6º so you have to draw the line for parts as 2.6º tail is long queue for this eye and this 12 “telescope F4.8.
First I’m a bit by moving the tube height up and down pear see better far off the tail comes and I mean width hitting the comet.
The details are very subtle so before translating something on paper make sure from where to where that queue reaches its core outlet and asynchronous I had to do for 3 times until capture all his tail.
I have to say that the details are very subtle and we must be more than two minutes watching carefully for those few photons of light left in the brain and then translate that into the paper.
When I’m done I realize that the comet has moved about 5 arcmin since I started drawing, I mean that more or less have been with the 1 hour.
The comet was added to 4.0 Mg looking perfectly at first sight from my observatory sky quality round the Mg 6 in visual.
It seems that today I have been very lucky as finished translating the comet on paper already started to get cloudy.
As you will see the comet is drawn on a star chart GUIDE 9.0 because I do not like to draw so many stars when what I want is to capture a comet.
I hope you like it.
J.Tapioles
http://pastorgalactico.blogspot.com.es/
http://pastorgalactico.16mb.com/
Attachments area
Lovejoy for Charlie
Object Name (C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy)
Object Type (Comet in Eridan)
Location (Verdon river in France)
Date (Jan. 11th 2015)
Media (watercolor on white paper, inverted after scan via paint.net)
During the “Charlie Hebdo” event we had to keep the pencil in hand, to prove that life goes on and is beautiful and that cretinism can’t win, ever. Today, poverty of spirit associated with force no longer have a voice in civilized countries !
The Lovejoy expedition.
Four of my good friends astronomers propose to come and enjoy the dark sky of the region. Appointment is made on 8 January in the early evening. The day before I found a good ground for observing this beautiful comet without too many trees in the view. Near the small village of Saint-Laurent, a platform overlooking the north side of the Lake of Artignosc on the Verdon river. First I will make some sketches and (yes I know… sorry guys) photographs of the landscape and material that will serve my watercolor the day after.
The photo of the sky taken on Jan. the 7th (Pentax K50 3.5 – 3sec 25600 ISO -18mm) shows the comet as a brillant green star equivalent magnitude to Pi ORI +/- 4.0. But I’m not here to make photo ! it just allow me to position the stars on the sky background on my future painting.
The evening of Jan. 8th everyone is there, my friends Vincent, Antoine, Yvan and Jean-Bernard, made the trip from Brignoles, La Garde, Forcalqueiret and Salon. It’s cold, the wind and the news from Paris make us shiver.
The comet is visible to the unaided eye, even in direct vision. During the previous night, a tail departure was barely noticeable in my Dobson 12ˮ f 5. Today we are three of us observing a double tail, a very short first part is attached to the hair while another, a sort of fine filament spreading further.
It was extremely difficult to see that tail, face this huge ball of light that is the coma of Comet Lovejoy.
Through a set of 2ˮ filters provided by Vincent (CLS, OIII, UHC) we got to see something other than the coma. This is strangely due to the CLS filter that we have been able to detect some clarity in front of the dark sky. We had to get the coma out of the eyepiece to discern the low-contrast gradient between the black sky and the thin clouds of the tail. We are here at the border of the possibilities for the vision.
Dobson used was a 12ˮ f/d 5 and 2ˮ eyepieces Meade 24mm to Omegon 38mm, UWA. We deployed 80mm and 150mm refractors as well as quality binoculars: Echo and Swarovski.
The watercolor shows our group gathered for this “Lovejoy expedition” after two hours of dense observation.
So the final watercolor shows the views of the sky the day before, a view of the Dobson and -with a flash- portraits taken by the Vincent’s camera.
Observing is also meeting us for the same vibration, the same enthusiasm, and that night it was … it was … there was … something strong in the air!
Michel Deconinck