Category: Paper

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

NGC 2525

NGC 2525, a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Puppis
NGC 2525, a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Puppis

Good afternoon all,

NGC2525 is love from my location in Puppis and is very attractive.

I was using the 505mm mirror, cooled Watec 120N+ video camera, sketching form the monitor image onto cartridge paper with draughtsman 0.3 ink pen for brighter star images, HB pencil for fainter ones, 3B pencil for galaxy detail which is then worked with a blending stump and eraser to achieve the desired match with the screen image, the whole sketch is then scanned and inverted to give a realistic view.

Hope these interest? Dale

Do you want to know more about my interest in astronomy? If so take a look at my Website: www.chippingdaleobservatory.com

Keep up to date with observations from Chippingdale Observatory by reading the Blog http://www.chippingdaleobservatory.com/blog/

Lost in the Small Magallanic Cloud

The Small Magellan Cloud, a dwarf irregular satellite galaxy of the Milky Way
The Small Magellan Cloud, a dwarf irregular satellite galaxy of the Milky Way

Object Name: Small Magallanic Cloud
Object Type: Galaxy
Location: Argentina, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Monasterio
Date: 22/11/2014 Time 22:30 Hs
Media (graphite pencil, white paper, digital tools.
Telescopio: Reflector 130-900 Eq2 motorizado.
Eyepiece: BST 18MM (50X)
Seeing: 6/10.
En esta epoca del Año, las Pequeña nube de Magallanes, se encuentra a un elevacion 50º, permitiendo una observacion muy comoda. La idea de la observacion era registrar e identificar diferentes objetos de la Nube Menor asi como tambien de sus alrededores.
Dentro de la Galaxia pude observar 4 objetos:
NGC 330 : Cumulo Globular.
NGC 346: Region H II.
NGC 371: Cumulo Abierto con nebulosidad.
Estos 3 objetos ubicados en la parte inferior izquierda de abajo hacia arriba.
Por otra parte, en la parte centrar de la galaxia, pude detectar una region compuesta por un Cumulo Abierto con Nebulosidad denominado N19.
Lo interesante de esta region en el cielo es que es muy rica en objetos, muy cerca de la Pequeña Nube de Magallanes, se encuentran dos Cumulos Globulares, NGC 104 y NGC 362, estos dos objetos, fueron incluidos en el Skech a pesar de que no entran en el campo del eyepiece, pero realmente es una zona del cielo muy rica en objetos y no podia dejarlos fuera del skech

Traslator Google:
Telescope: Reflector Eq2 motorized 130-900.
Eyepiece: BST 18MM (50X)
Seeing: 6/10.
This time of year, the Small Magellanic Cloud, is an elevation 50 °, allowing a very comfortable observation. The idea was to record the observation and identify different objects in the Cloud Minor as well as its surroundings.
Inside the Galaxy could see four items:
NGC 330: Globular Cumulo.
NGC 346: H II Region.
NGC 371: Cumulo Open with nebulosity.
These three objects located in the lower left bottom upwards.
Moreover, in the part center of the galaxy, I could detect a region composed of an Open Cumulo with Nebulosity called N19.
The interesting thing about this region in heaven is that it is very rich in objects near the Small Magellanic Cloud, are two Clusters Globular, NGC 104 and NGC 362, these two items were included in the Skech though do not enter the field eyepiece, but it really is an area rich sky objects and could not leave them out of skech.

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

Arp 206

Arp 206, an irregular galaxy in the constellation Leo Minor
Arp 206, an irregular galaxy in the constellation Leo Minor
Detail sketch showing the nomenclature and location of the components of the Arp 206 system
Detail sketch showing the nomenclature and location of the components of the Arp 206 system

Dear All,

I grabbed an observation of a real cracking Arp galaxy in Leo Minor before work this morning at 05.30am. The sky was the most transparent that I have enjoyed in 2014 thus far.
I hope that my sketch and detail map of Arp 206 are of interest?

Best wishes to all, Dale

Do you want to know more about my interest in astronomy? If so take a look at my Website: http:/www.chippingdaleobservatory.com/

Keep up to date with observations from Chippingdale Observatory by reading the Blog http://chippingdaleobservatory.com/blog/

Sun Super Spot – Unaided Eye

The naked eye view of the Sun through solar eclipse glasses and detailed view of AR 2214 through a refractor telescope with a white light filter - November 20, 2014
The naked eye view of the Sun through solar eclipse glasses and detailed view of AR 2214 through a refractor telescope with a white light filter – November 20, 2014

Object Name (Sun)
Object Type (Sun photosphere)
Location (Artignosc-sur-Verdon/France )
Date (2014/11/20)
Media (graphite pencil (sketrch down) and watercolor (full sun up) on white paper, Paint.net)
The old sunspot 2192 is now making its second pass across the face of our sun with a new number : 2214.
It’s the first time that I can see a spot naked-eye after a complete sun rotation. For the inverted watercolour shown here up, I use special glasses for eclipse, the orange color is this of my glasses, you can see some mist in the foreground meaning that the conditions were not perfect. For the telescope view I use a white light objective filter, I add an orange color layer after scanning.

Clear sky to you all !

Michel & Jannik Deconinck-Roosens

The Butterfly Cluster M6

Messier 6, "The Butterfly Cluster" in the constellation Scorpius
Messier 6, “The Butterfly Cluster” in the constellation Scorpius

Butterfly Cluster M6
Open Cluster
Hartesbeespoort Dam South Africa
28th October (2014)
Graphite Pencil, smartphone photo using the invert function on PS phone app.

In Southern Skies at the moment and made the most of the opportunity to sketch some really nice deep sky objects in and around the teapot including M7 and the Lagoon Nebula (with Mars adjacent to it)

Pacman Nebula

NGC 281, "The Pacman Nebula", an emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia
NGC 281, “The Pacman Nebula”, an emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia

We organised about one month ago a nice starparty on a location about 40 minutes driving east of Brussels. The skies cleared up (not common this time of the year …) and we enjoyed the splendid autumn sky under quite dark conditions.
My observation list included a mixture of IC, NGC and Hickson objects, with The Pacman Nebula (NGC 281) in Cassiopeia as main objective of the night. Hereby the results of more that one hour of observation and searching subtle details with averted vision in this beautiful object.

Details:
* Object Name : Pacman Nebula (NGC 281)
* Location : Meldert – Belgium
* Date : 18 October 2014 – 22h55 UT
* Optics: SCT C11 (279mm f/10) on CGEM mount – ES82 34mm (82x – FOV 50 arcm) – Astronomik UHC filter
* Sky conditions: NELM 5.9 – SQM 20.32 – Seeing 2/5 – Transp. 2/5 (Antoniadi)
* Media : Media: graphite pencil on white paper, scanned and inverted (GIMP2)

Observing notes:
Beautiful emission nebula complex, subtle but surprisingly easy visible. A bright oval patchy area is visible in the central area, just east of a smal rich star cluster. Averted vision brings a clear bright extension towards the west with a large subtle patchy glow in the northern area. At the southwestern side the nebula is less bright, with a faint glow extending towards the south. A dark lane can be detected using averted vision, resembling a “byte” in the central area and extending towards the west.