Paper – Page 20 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Gassendi at Terminator

Lunar crater Gassendi - October 4, 2014 — Lunar crater Gassendi – October 4, 2014

Object Name: Gassendi
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Dunboyne Ireland
Date: 4th October 2014
Media: Graphite pencil H2, H3 & B6 with standard white stock and technical drawing equipment.

This is actually sketched as observed through the eyepiece with a 15mm on a 9.25 SCT rather than from the phone screen. The seeing was fair but a weather front was fast approaching and just managed to observe long enough to capture this detail. At the same time I took some snapshots through the eyepiece with my smartphone for a smartphone astronomy site – so got to do both before the clouds rolled in. Adding the phone to the sketch allows me to add a technical drawing into the mix which I not (only) enjoy but also allows me to capture the evenings activities and optical equipment used during the session.

Many Thanks

Kevin

Cheeseburger Anyone?

NGC 7026, "The Cheeseburger Nebula", a planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus — NGC 7026, “The Cheeseburger Nebula”, a planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus

Hi,

This is my sketch of the Cheesburger Nebula, NGC 7026, a Planetary Nebula in Cygnus. I did the sketch in my Orleans, Ontario backyard using graphite on white paper on Sept 23, 2014, a night of great seeing. It was cleaned up and inverted in Paint Shop Pro. The nebula is quite small, fairly bright with two diffuse nuclei and a hint of darkness between them. Even at 300x in my 12 inch dob I couldn’t confirm if the Cheeseburger has a pickle!

Clear skies,

Gordon

Rupes Recta on the Moon

Rupes Recta, "The Straight Wall", a linear fault - March 15, 2008 — Rupes Recta, “The Straight Wall”, a linear fault – March 15, 2008

Object Name: Rupes Recta on the Moon
Object Type: Moon crater
Location: Chiba Japan
Date: 2008/3/15
Media Black graphite pencil on a white paper. Contrast adjusted with PC.

Equipments:: Telescope: Televue 85, Eyepiece: Pentax XW-10 with Power mate 2.5x

After outlining major features using solid lines, dotted lines and numbers(1-9) are used to express gradation in brightness(right). The numbers are replaced with “real” darkness after the lines are copied on another paper (left).

Thanks.

Takeshi

Small Magellanic Cloud

Object: Small Magellanic Cloud

Date: 01. 06. 2013.

UT.: 22h51m-23h42m

Equipment: 120/600 Sky-Watcher achromatic refractor, star diagonal

Mag.: 15x

FOV: 8˚ x 8˚

S = 8 / 10 T = 5 / 5

Observer: János Gábor Kernya

Location: Farm Isabis – Red house (Namibia)

Two Big Prominences on the Edge

Two large solar prominences on the limb - October 4, 2014 — Two large solar prominences on the limb – October 4, 2014

Object Name: Sun
Object Type: Solar prominence
Location: Deventer, The Netherlands
Date: October 4, 2014
Media: pastel pencils on black paper

As the days shorten rapidly and the sun gets more south every day, the warm afternoons are coming to an end in the Netherlands. On what could be the last sunny and warm day of the year, the active Sun was the obvious target for an astronomical sketch. I set up my modded 60mm Unitron/Polarex refractor and sketched two large prominences on the western edge of the solar disk. The prominences were of the “stable” and relatively long lasting type, but still a lot of internal swirling and changes in brightness could be seen in both at high magnifications. Due to seeing conditions magnifications were limited to about 80x-100x. I made two separate sketches, but got the idea of combining them in a composition when photographing them afterwards.

Kind regards,
Roel Weijenberg

Craters Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel

Hi,

Here’s my lunar sketch of today.
Object Name: Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel
Object Type Lunar Craters
Location: Home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany
Date: Oct 1st, 2014, 1930-2000 CEST
Media: charcoal and white pastel on black cardbox
Clear skies!

Achim

NGC 7293 Helix Nebula

NGC 7293, "The Helix Nebula" a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius — NGC 7293, “The Helix Nebula” a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius

Hi,

After 4 years of “try & error” with a faint NGC 7293 in the horizon haze of central Europe I finally finished “my Helix”, using the 24” Dobson at Hakos Guestfarm in Namibia. No haze, but 70 degrees high in the sky, the Helix was an impressive beacon, details were easy to report. I wasn’t prepared to see the halo, my template was too small to sketch it, so I had to use a second sheet. Seeing was moderate, I didn’t see the faint background galaxy 2MASX, but… nevertheless I enjoyed it!

Data:
Object Name: NGC 7293, the Helix Nebula
Object type: Planetary Nebula
Location: Hakos Guestfarm, Namib Naukluft, Namibia
Date: June 4th, 2014 (about 2 hours total of sketching)
Media: Pastel and graphite pencils
Optics: 24” Dobson f 4.0
Filter: OIII

Additional aspects:
Field is about 30’ wide, east is up. To concentrate on object (and not on dimensions) I used a pattern of stars printed from Guide 9 as a template. Pinpoint stars added by image processing software (to replace printed and sketched stars)

More sketches:

http://www.astrosketching.com

Clear Skies!
Rainer

H alpha Sun sketch

Active regions, prominences, sunspots and plages on the Sun - September 28, 2014 — Active regions, prominences, sunspots and plages on the Sun – September 28, 2014

Object Name Sun
Object Type H alpha with PST, XW-10
Location Tokyo japan
Date 2014/9/28
Media Black/red pencils on a white paper. Contrast adjusted with PC.

This my first submission to the site. I hope it is acceptable.
An M-class flare has erupterd at #2172 about one hour after this sketch. I could already see some active regions between the two sun spots.

Thanks.

Caroline’s Rose

Hi,

Please accept my sketch of NGC7789, Caroline’s Rose. It is a wonderful open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. This is one of my first objects sketched for the Astronomical League’s new sketching observing program. The program requires you to make 75 sketches from a list of about 114 objects. The sketch was made from a fellow club member’s observing field near Green Bay, WI using my 10” Discovery Dobsonian telescope at 80x. For those of you belonging to the AL, I would highly recommend you taking a look at this program. For this sketch I used white paper with HB and 2B graphite pencils and blending stumps to smooth. Image colors were inverted using Paint.NET. I hope you enjoy it.

Object Name – NGC7789
Object Type – Open Cluster
Location – Near Green Bay, WI US
Date – 9/23/2014
Media – graphite pencil, blending stumps and white paper. Image colors inverted using Paint.net

Brilliant Saturn at the Dark Lunar Limb

A conjunction of the Moon and the planet Saturn - September 27, 2014 — A conjunction of the Moon and the planet Saturn – September 27, 2014

Aloha!

I had plans to go to the summit of Haleakala to observe the occultation of Saturn by the Moon, but clouds and wind kept me closer to home. I was delighted when a patch of sky opened up and I could observe the wonderful phenomenon from home.

As I was observing Saturn get closer to our Moon I was struck by how small it appeared in comparison, appearing the size of some of the smaller lunar craters. I began sketching in the details of the Moon and noticed a few stars I wanted to include. I needed to do some erasures because one of the stars was occulted ~15 minutes before Saturn, an unexpected treat. Once Saturn made it to the limb I could not clearly time the initial ingress as conditions began to deteriorate. It was however brilliantly lit in comparison to the dark lunar limb. I noted time as 19:41:36 HAST when all evidence of Saturn disappeared. My sketch is as Saturn had partially slipped past the limb. I was unable to view egress as the Moon had slipped behind clouds by this time.

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon
Maui, Hawaii
4,000el
SV102ED 79x
9/27/14
Black paper, white & black charcoal
Photoscape to clean up sketch

Cindy (Thia) Krach