Object Name: NGC40 (also Caldwell 2)
Object Type: Planetary Nebula in Constellation Cepheus
Observing Location: Sudelfeld, Bavaria, Germany
Date: 16. November 2012, 11:50 PM
Observer: Christian Rausch
Telescope: 12inch/F5 Dobson (Hofheim Instruments)
Used Filters: none
Power: 300x (Nagler 5mm)
Conditions: SQML = 21,45 mag/arcsec*2, seeing good, transparency very good, Temp. +3C, rel. humidity 40%
Media: Chalk pencil on black paper
The night from the 16. to the 17. of November was exceptional here in southern Bavaria. A very good transparency combined with good seeing conditions is very rare in our area. In addition the fog down in the valley damped the artificial lights.
Stock 2
Object Type: Open Cluster
Location: Barcelona – Spain
Easy for small telescopes and binoculars, Stock 2 is a wide open cluster situated in Cassiopeia. Is a good target after a visit to the famous Perseus Double Cluster. Don?t forget STTA 26, a double star with twins components (yellow and white) in the same Stock 2 field of view.
Stock 2 – Open Cluster
Date and Time: 2012-11-15, 21h 55m UT
Telescope: SC Celestron Nexstar 5i (127mm) with Celestron focal reducer f6.3.
Eyepiece: Hyperion Aspheric 31mm (25.40x)
White paper, HB2 graphite pencil, and scanned and inverted with Photoshop
Seeing: 4/5 (5 the best)
Transparency: Clear. A little light pollution.
Location Constellation: Cassiopeia
Position: R.A. 02 h 15 min
Dec. +59° 16′
Open cluster in the constellation Scorpius containing 80 stars, Tr Type I 3 r, 017h 53.9m, -34deg49´, 80´, m3.3v, distance 820 ly, diameter ~20 ly.
In the 2nd century A.D., Ptolemy noted M7 and M6 as little clouds (unaided eye). Charles Messier cataloged it in June 1764. It’s located as a brightened haze between the “sting of Scorpius” and the handle of the teapot asterism in Sagittarius, just SE of M6.
M7 was fairly low on the horizon just above the sky glow from Austin to the south. Altitude was 28 degrees at the beginning of the sketch then lowered to 19 degrees by the end of the observation. The wide FOV of the 38mm Titan gave wonderful views nonetheless. The faintest stars were difficult to see and I detected them with averted vision. Once they were located, I could see them straight on. The center of the open cluster was “cross-shaped” at first site. Once the fainter stars were plotted in the sketch, the cross turned into two arcs touching in the middle (one facing north, the other south) with opened ends pointed away from each other. I wish I could say that star color was noted, but other than a couple that perhaps had slight orange tinges, they were all fairly similar color-wise to me.
Sketch created with AL template, #2 graphite pencil, super-fine Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen “S”, 0.5mm mechanical pencil.
object Name – sombrero galaxy. M104
Date – 2012-04-11. pm 23:40 ~ 00:25(04-12)
Location – Yangpyeong, South korea
Media – Sharp,pencil, white paper
Equipment : XQ 10′ Dob / Explore 9mm 100′
This is the first sketch of my daughter Juliette, 10 years old.
Félicitations Juju!!
Object Name : The Sun
Object Type : Star (!)
Location : Gatineau, Qc, Canada
Date : November 16 2012
Media : graphite pencil on white paper
Baader AstroSolar filter on a Sky-Watcher 80 ED with a 8mm Orion Stratus eyepiece.
Last night (November 18) Io was transiting Jupiter. I made a sketch of the event from 19:30 – 20:00 UT. The telescope used was an Astrosib 250 mm f/8 Ritchey-Chretien, with magnifications between 91x and 370x (Vixen LVW 13 & 22 mm + Barlow). The sketch has been made behind the telescope and drawn with a 3B graphite pencil. However, I played with it in Photoshop (CS4) to mimic the seeing.
Notes:
More than 25 individual members of this impressive Galaxy Cluster could be observed in a rich Perseus milkyway starfield and were recorded on this sketch during a timespan of more than 3 hours.
In particular the area around the massife Seyfert galaxy NGC 1275 was a visual adventure with faint galaxies popping up in the eyepiece!
For more details on the observation & overview of the individual galaxies: check www.deepskylog.be
Clear skies!
Tom
Hi all! I present to You a sketch made by a 9yo child, Her name is Wiktoria Janowska. I met Her at the Zelow Observatory a couple days ago. She’s very, very clever n lovely little woman. Well, sometimes her fantasy dominated over realism. She saw a lot of details, maybe a little too much 😀
I hope You like it 🙂
Wiktoria Janowska, 9yo
14.11.2012, 14:30-14:41UT
Zelow, Central Poland
White watercolor crayon on black paper
Coronado PST DS (with Lunt etalon filter)+ Baader Zoom MARK III
Best Wishes!
Wiktoria Janowska & Damian Kępiński (ASTROOKIE)
Object: Latysev 2 (possible moving cluster, UMa)
Date: 14. March 2007.
UT.: –
Equipment: 10×80 TZK binocular
Mag.: 10x
FOV: 6˚ x 6˚
Observer: János Gábor Kernya
Location: Sükösd, Hungary
Latysev 2:
„This is a possible moving cluster of seven stars, first suggested by Latyshev (1977). It was identified by considering the space motion of several nearby (GJ, or Gliese Catalogue) stars in this area. The stars cover an area of 3˚ by 3,5˚, including primarily the line of four bright stars between ζ UMa (Mizar and Alcor) and the galaxy M101. These are 81, 83, 84 and 86 UMa. The other 3 stars are HR 5169, HD 234064, and HD 234073. The magnitude range is from V = 4.66 (83 UMa) to V = 10.3 (HD 234073), summing to V = 3.67 and B = 4.05.
Brent A. Archinal – Steven J. Hynes: Star Clusters
(Willmann-Bell, Inc.)
A brief window to observe the deeper sky was taken tonight as it was clear, dark early and with the moon not due to interfere until around 20.30ut.
As has become the norm, I was intent to grab another of the 100 Hickson groups, but before I did this and as Altair (Alpha Aquilae) was a stop off on my hopping progress up into Pegasus I took a look into Mark Bratton’s excellent Guide to the Herschel Objects to see what was local. I picked up on NGC 6781 which is a beautiful mag 11.8 planetary in Aquila with plenty of exquisite detail to enjoy. Compared to M57 the Ring Nebula in Lyra it is relatively large and faint, yet not so faint that it isn’t visible in smaller, say 8” telescopes, I feel it is more akin to the Helix nebula, though considerably smaller at 2.0′ diameter.
At 16.8 magnitude, the central star (a white dwarf) is clearly seen just off centre in my sketch, made using the 500mm mirror, Watec 120N+ video camera of course! Sketched in pencil on white and then inverted on the computer.
No time to spare, one sketch in the bag, yeeha!, with the Moon getting ever closer to the horizon, I pushed onto Hickson 99 there are 5 members in this group which is located just SW of Alpha Andromedae (Alpheratz) in the square of Pegasus.
(A) member UGC12897 mag 14.8 is extended N-S with a star on its southern tip. (B) UGC12899 is round fairly bright at mag 14.7 with a brighter nucleus. I find (C) PGC 58 to be the most interesting, it is a barred spiral and despite being only mag 15.6 I was able to see and capture arm structure in my sketch, amazing J (D) & (E) members PGC 60 & PGC 57 respectively at mag 17.1 & 17.6 are merely tiny smudges to the south of the 3 main members.
I was very pleased with this short and productive observing session, time to close up and return to the family & gardeners world indoors!
Dale
