Category: Paper

Sunsketches on May 4th

The Sun - May 4, 2014
The Sun – May 4, 2014
My place for looking at the sun
My place for looking at the sun

Since I exchanged Belgium for Sweden last year, I am faced with lack of astronomical darkness since mid april. Astronomical darkness (sun below 18 degrees of horizon) will only return end of august. Therefore I will be concentrating drawing more suns and moons instead of deepsky. The positive side to this is that in Winter time it ‘s astronomical dark at 5.30PM already 🙂

I have used my 21 years old TeleVue 101 SDF apochromate refractor, teamed with an (also old) Daystar 0.7Ã… h-alfa filter. A Barlow is needed to reach the required f/30 focal length. I am using a TeleVue alt-az Gibraltar mount.

I have added a picture to show the observation location. I have reached SQM 21.6 a number of times already.
Hope you like it.

best regards
Erik van Woerkens

C/2013 R1(LOVEJOY) Dec 04 2013

Comet C2013R1 Lovejoy - December 4, 2013
Comet C2013R1 Lovejoy – December 4, 2013

Object Name : C/2013 R1 (LOVEJOY)
Object Type : comet
Location : Laprade lake (Aude), south-west France
Date : December 04 2013 4h45 TU
Media : graphite pencil, white paper + PhotoPaint

Comments :
The LOVEJOY coma is bright and light green colour. A darker ring surrounds the shiny nucleus.
The tail is wide and about 10° long. It is rather white.
I saw it easily with binocular 10×50 on the left of Boots constellation.

Condition : A very good and dark night, no moon, no wind, pretty good seeing.
I could report mag 7 to 12 starfield.
No significative named star in the field.

Equipment : 300mm Dobson Telescope + 24mm Ultra Wide Angle eyepiece (mag X64 FOV 1.3°)
Sketch was made with pencil on white paper while observing the comet before sunrise (-2°C)
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

Gassendi in Mare Humorum

Mare Humorum and Gassendi crater - March 12, 2014
Mare Humorum and Gassendi crater – March 12, 2014

Object name: Mare Humorum, Gassendi Crater
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Lisbon, Portugal ( 38º 44′ N 9º 30′ W)
Date: 12-03-2014
Media: graphite pencil

Equipment: ED doublet refractor, 80/720mm, (3.15″) F9; EP 9mm OR, 80x.
This was my third sketch, the first attempt was such an enjoyable expirience that I repeated it the following nights.
Fortunately I had 3 or 4 good nights in a row.

Clear skies
Bernardo Andrade

The Orion Nebula

The Great Nebula of Orion
The Great Nebula of Orion

Hi Friends,
Following with my drawings from a light-polluted place, this time I show you my own Orion Nebula (M42) version, from the center of Madrid. As you could see, the nebula becomes faintest than in a dark sky but you can still perceive the trapezium.

Siguiendo con mis dibujos en lugares contaminados lumínicamente, esta vez os envío mi versión de la nebulosa de Orion (M42) desde el centro de Madrid. Como veis se vuelve más difusa que un cielo oscuro, pero aun así es fácilmente distinguible el trapecio.

Object Name: M42 – NGC 1976
Object Type: Nebula
Constellation: Orion; R.A.: 05h 35m; Dec: −05° 23′
Location Madrid (City Center), Spain.
Date March 5th 2014 21:50 h.(CET)
Temperature: 9 ºC Seeing: 4/5
Telescope: Celestron nexstar 5′ S/C.
Eyepiece: 25 mm celestron + barlow 2x.
Magnification: 100x
Filter: Astronomik UHC-E.
Media: Graphite pencil on white paper.
Scanned and then inverted and processed image with GIMP

Clear skies!!

IC 4756

IC 4756 Open Cluster
IC 4756 Open Cluster

Object: IC 4756
Type: Open cluster
Date 9/16/2012
Instrument: 6″ F/5 dobsonian reflector
Sketch: Pencil on paper and then inverted after scanning into the computer.

This is a sketch of open cluster IC 4756 in Serpens made on September 16, 2012 with a 6″ F/5 dobsonian reflector. Very large cluster of stars near the pretty double Theta Serpentis. Some 30 – 50 stars were counted in the cluster which appears to have several concentrations of stars separated from one another by voids. the cluster fills the field at 75X.

Mars April 20, 2014

Mars - April 20, 2014
Mars – April 20, 2014

Hello, here is a picture of Mars made ​​with my Dobsonian Telescope 12 “equipped with a binocular , with a magnification of 500x. Viewing conditions were really excellent, which was rare in early spring … Many details were visible, including the famous Syrtis Major and Sinus Sabaeus visible right training up. I also observed a beautiful cloud formation on Elysium, left visible at sunset

Détails :
Object : Mars
Location : France (Vendée-Atlantic)
Date : 20/04/2014
Support : Mars Gabarit and Pencils Derwent Academy

Good reception and thank you for your interest
Best regard, Yohan Archambaud ( Vendée, France)

Mars April 19, 2014

Mars in color - April 19, 2014
Mars in color – April 19, 2014
Mars - April 19, 2014
Mars – April 19, 2014

Mars April 19 2014

Conditions were poor to average for viewing and sketching Mars. Mars is now at 15″ of arc and 0.62 A.U. from us. 99.4% of the disk is illuminated and shining at visual magnitude -1.4. The central meridian of Mars was centered at about 41.87° at the beginning time of the sketch.

Sinus Meridiani was visible near the limb on the preceding side. On this side clouds were visible over Eden. Mare Erythraeum, Margaritifer sinus and Aurorae sinus were all detectable to the south (up). Lighter Chryse could be seen at the equator with Niliacus Lacus, Mare Acidalium and Nilokeras blended together. Tharsis was under clouds on the following limb. The north polar cap is small in size and set apart by Mare Boreum.

Equipment and Sketching:

This is an eyepiece sketch made with a HB graphite pencil, blending stumps, White Pearl eraser on white sketching paper. The colorized sketch made indoors was completed using ground shavings of colored pencils (blue, orange, yellow, white)

Date 04/19/2014 – Time 05:00 – 05: 48 UT

Telescope: 13.1 inch f/5.9 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 218x with a single polarizing filter and Neodymium filter used together; An Equatorial platform was also used

Temperature: 3°C (37°F)

Clear, breezy

Transparency 4/5

Seeing: Antoniadi IV -III

Frank McCabe