Category: Paper

A Conjunction with Some History

Conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Aldebaran
Conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Aldebaran

At the last day of October I sketched a beautiful conjunction between the Moon, Jupiter and Aldebaran. The building in the foreground was my holiday-resort (illuminated by a streetlight), a renovated farm from 1669. By chance: in the first months of 1669 Jupiter was also next to Aldebaran in the sky. So the first inhabitants could have witnessed a similar conjunction. To add some more history: the location was less than 10 km from Middelburg, the town where the telescope was invented!

Clear skies

Jef De Wit

Location: Biggekerke, Netherlands (51°29’ N 3°31’ E)
Date and time: 31 October 2012 around 19.30 UT
Equipment: naked eye
Medium: pastel pencils and soft pastels on black paper (A4), Jupiter and Aldebaran were brightened with Paint

M51 from Mauna Kea

Messier 51
Messier 51

M51 dessinée au T400, au sommet du Mauna Kea à 4200m d’altitude (Hawaii) juin 2012.
Une expérience rare, un seeing exceptionnel.

Amicalement

Serge

French-English translation by Google Translate

M51 T400 drawn at the top of Mauna Kea at 4,200 m altitude (Hawaii) in June 2012. A rare experience, an exceptional seeing.

Regards

Serge

Barnard’s Galaxy & Little Gem Nebula

Barnard's Galaxy & Little Gem Nebula (NGC 6822 / NGC 6818)
Barnard's Galaxy & Little Gem Nebula (NGC 6822 / NGC 6818)

Object Name – Barnard’s Galaxy & Little Gem Nebula (NGC 6822 / NGC 6818)
Object Type – Galaxy / Planetary Nebula
Location – Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, California
Date – August 7, 2012
Media – Graphite pencil, white paper
Equipment – 15″ reflector (103X)
Conditions – Transparency 5/10 (Saguaro), seeing 7/10 (Pickering)

Eta Carinae Nebula

Eta Carinae Nebula
Eta Carinae Nebula

Aloha!

I submit a recent sketch from 4/14/12 of the Eta Carinae Nebula. It was not much above the horizon this night, perhaps 10 degrees. I had to sit on the ground to observe it using my 12.5” Portaball. Well worth the dirt on my bottom. A gasp was all I could manage after seeing it for the first time. The night was superb, with no wind & excellent seeing.

The nebula is massive, ~4 times larger than the Orion Nebula covering about 3 degrees of sky. It also contains Eta Carinae, one of most luminous & massive stars known. If we could put this star the same distance as our sun it would appear 5 million times brighter. It is partly obscured by gas & dust making it appear dimmer than it actually is.

Eta Carinae Nebula in Carina NGC 3372
Diffuse Nebula
Haleakala, Maui Hawaii ~10,000 elevation
4/14/12
Charcoal pencil & white paper
Sketch inverted with Photoscape
12.5” Portaball, NPB filter
27mm Panoptic 56X

Eclipse in Tokyo

Annular Eclipse
Annular Eclipse

I went to Japan to observe a solar annular eclipse. (My hometown is Korea.)
This picture is the moment of annular eclipse, the gold ring and the surrounding landscape.

Location : Asakusa, Tokyo (The other side of the river, The world’s second tallest building ‘SkyTree’ tower is visible.)
Date : May 21, 2012
Equipment : Naked eye, Baader Solar Filter, 9*63 Finder (http://www.nightflight.or.kr/xe/files/attach/images/25489/324/058/3f36237ec11d646f99a6bd2e94c99a1c.JPG)
Media : White paper, Pastel, Colored pencil

An Array of July Doubles

Double Stars from July 2012
Double Stars from July 2012

Dear Asod,

I send you hereby my sketches of double stars mainly from Virgo, Aquila, Bootes and Lyra. I have observed these double (and multiple) systems on the 14th and on the 28th July. These are all different doubles (or multiples), with different separations from 1,5” to 200”, with different colours. But all can be observed with a small telescope like mine.

Equipment used: 130/650, 26x, 52x, 93x, 130x (different eyepieces).
Media: White paper, graphite pencil, inverted in Photoshop
Date: 14th and 28th July 2012
Place: Budapest, Hungary

Clear Skies,
Judit

Web: http://egmesek.blogspot.com

Ottawa Aurora

October 8, 2012 Aurora
October 8, 2012 Aurora

On Monday Oct 8, 2012, while on a security watch at my boat club on the Ottawa River not far from downtown Ottawa, I spotted a green glow just after sunset but it was quickly blocked out by a band of cloud. Fortunately the clouds cleared about 45 minutes later and I was treated to a lovely display of Northern Lights. I did this sketch in graphite then reversed it in Paint Shop Pro and added the colour.

Keep looking up and jotting down

Gordon