Media Combinations – Page 10 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Our Star Animated

2011 06 01, 1500 UT – 1630 UT
Solar h-alpha, prominences

PCW Memorial Observatory, Ohio USA – Erika Rix, www.pcwobservatory.com
Temp: 32.3°C, Humidity 42%, SE winds 5mph
Seeing: Wilson 4, Transparency: 2/6

DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell

Sketch created scopeside with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil

There were six active regions on the Sun, but a western prominence region caught my eye as a possible CME that took place during my observation. If it was simply an erupting prominence, it was the brightest I’ve witnessed as such. I’ve created an animation of my sketch sequence that I recorded during the observation at 5-minute intervals.

Magnetic Fields and Plasma Trees

– Object Name: the Sun
– Object Type: Star
– Location: Lith, the Netherlands
– Date: 7-5-2011
– Media: red pastel pencil, black paper, photoshop

The sky was clear today, so i aimed my new solartelescope at the Sun to see some Solar Flares. There where pretty much of those flares visible today. As you can see on the sketch, three huge flares where visible on the leftcorner of the sun.
Our Sun reaches the Solar Maximum in 2013, so it will become more and more active. This is the time to buy a solartelescope!

– Weather: hot and dry
– Seeing: (very) bad
– Telescope: Coronado P.S.T.

I’m ready for the Solar Maximum!

Rutger Teule
www.rutgerteule.com

A Nebulous Study

Hi all,

Sydney’s skies have been terrible for a long time. Finally tonight we got a clear, cloudless and dewless night. And I wasn’t going to let a little Moonlight get in the way.

As Sydney’s skies are also loaded with light pollution, the full potential of the Eta Carina nebula isn’t realized. The Homunculus Nebula isn’t visible at 29X – it’s too small. However, its distinctive colour is visible, it is the bright, orangeish star.

This sketch was more a case of blowing out some cobwebs from my pencil case. Modest gear, short time, and a refreshing ale. A target I wish to revisit in the coming New Moon from a dark site.

Object: NGC 3372, Eta Carina Nebula
Type: Emission nebula
Scope: 8” f/4 Newtonian, dob mounted
Gear: RKE 28mm (29X) and OIII filter
Location: Sydney
Date: 23rd March, 2011
Conditions: Awful Sydney sky + last ¼ Moon.
Media: White pastel, black & white charcoal, white and coloured ink on black paper

Cheers,

Alex M.

New Active Region

2011 05 09, 1429UT-1550UT
Solar NOAA 11203, 11204, ??, 11209, 11208

www.pcwobservatory.com

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA – Erika Rix
DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell, ETX70 AT w/tilt plate and white light glass filter.

All sketches done scopeside and flipped in Photoshop to match standard orientation. H-alpha sketch created with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil. White light sketch created on photocopy paper with 0.5mm mechanical pencil and #2 pencil.

Transparency made it nearly impossible to view prominences at the start of the session with the thin layer of cirrus creating a milky white sky. There were small breaks that allowed me to sketch in some of the detail on a western prominence, that later as the transparency improved, showed an abundance of thin whispy structure that wasn’t captured on paper. By that time, I was already working on a full disk sketch in h-alpha. Seeing was terrific until I started on the white light observation, but had I set up the ETX at the beginning of the session to let the scope adjust to the warmth, it would have been much better by the time I observed with it. As it was, I observed in the observatory for protection of the wind as I view with a shade attached to the objective and wanted to avoid vibration.

There is a possible new active region between 1209 and 1208 that, while observing in white light, had several little spots forming an elliptical shape with pointed ends like a football. I noticed facula around 1208, but the seeing was so bad that I couldn’t make out a definite shape. The umbra of the preceding spot in that region was displaced, as was the preceding spot in 1203. I didn’t notice any sunspots in 1209 during my observation, but that may have been the result of the seeing.

The band of active regions is still putting on a nice show in h-alpha with more-defined plage around them.

Craters Posidonius at Sunrise

A rare clear evening this spring got me to the eyepiece of my scope to view and sketch the moon. The Apollo 11 landing site was just receiving first light as was crater Posidonius some distance to the south. I have sketched Posidonius at sunset but never at sunrise and this was my opportunity.

The narrow sharp edge wall of 95 km. diameter Posidonius was reflecting much light at the time of this observation. The floor fractures were not well illuminated at the time of this viewing but the central crater A (11 km.) was prominent. Posidonius is an Upper Imbrian period crater that formed by impact at the time lava flooding was occurring in Mare Serenitatis.

Other craters visible at the time of this sketch include from south to north Chacornac (51 km.), on the north rim of Posidonius you see partly illuminated Posidonius B (14 km.), then J (22km.), M (10 km.), Daniell (26km.), and P (15 km.) out beyond the terminator shadow.

Sketching Information

Posidonius crater on ebony black Canson paper using white and black Conte’ pastel pencils
Sketch Date: May 8, 2011, using a 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian telescope riding on an equatorial platform with a 6mm eyepiece for 241x at 01:15-02:30 UT
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Weather clear, breezy, 55 degrees F (12 degrees C)
Lunation 4.8 days
Moon 21.5% illuminated
Colongitude 331.6°
Rükl Atlas Pl 14

Frank McCabe

Our Star Revealed

2011 05 05, 1230 UT – 1515 UT
Solar h-alpha, NOAAs 11203, 11204, 11205, 11207 and prominences

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA – Erika Rix, www.pcwobservatory.com
Temp: 22.5°C, Humidity 38%
Seeing: Wilson 4, Transparency: 3/6

DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell, ETX70 AT w/tilt plate and white light glass filter.

H-alpha sketch created scopeside with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil. White light sketch created on photocopy paper with 0.5mm mechanical pencil and #2 pencil.

The Sun was a little too low in the observatory for me to stay inside at the beginning of the session, so I pulled all my gear onto the grass. It was probably the best move anyway, since it warmed up quite a bit during the session.

I started off with the Maxscope for an overall view. The prominence at the western limb caught my eye initially, but it was the prominence on the eastern limb that really put on a show. It was nearly three times taller than the other and had the faintest wisps of filament reaching out connecting the brightest three areas of that prominence section.

The h-alpha full disk was filled with filaments and plage within the band of active regions. I’ve flipped the views of both the white light and h-alpha full disk sketches to match the standard view (at least a little more so as I didn’t rotate it completely) for comparisons with SOHO views. In white light, there were three distinct areas of faculae, one each on the western and eastern limbs and one around AR 11207. I couldn’t detect 1205 in white light and although the Sun had rotated slightly, I’m fairly sure 1207 is indeed that designation in my sketch and not 1205. Prenumbrae were noted around the preceding spots in 1204 and around the entirety of 1203.

Crater Lambert on Mare Imbrium

Lambert crater is a smallish complex crater of 30 kilometers diameter resting on the floor of Mare Imbrium. This Eratosthenian crater must be some 2.5 billion years old. Its outer rampart is impressive, as is its floor, which unfortunately was not seen on this occasion due to morning shadowing.The ghost crater Lambert R was detectable but is best seen closer to the terminator as sunset approaches during the waning crescent phase. Further south from Lambert and Lambert R, crater Pytheas (20 km.) was also visible. Closer to the sunrise terminator Mons La Hire was casting long shadows while crater Euler (29 km) was just catching light on its eastern rim.
To the north of Lambert, Dorsa Stille and Dorsum Zirkel were easily visible along with many small craters.

Sketching Information

Lambert crater on ebony black Canson paper using white and black Conte’ pastel pencils
Sketch Date: April 13, 2011, using a 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian telescope riding on an equatorial platform with a 6mm eyepiece for 241x at 03:00-04:10 UT
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Weather clear, calm, 50 degrees F (10 degrees C)
Lunation 9.5 days
Moon 67.9% illuminated
Colongitude 27.7°
Rükl Atlas Pl 20

Frank McCabe

Sunrise at Rainbow Bay

Object Name Sinus Iridium
Object Type Lava plain on the Moon
Location Deventer, the Netherlands
Date April 13, 2011
Media White pastel on black paper

I have made a pastel sketch of one of the features on the Moon which beauty always strikes me whenever it’s visible: Sinus Iridium (Bay of Rainbows). It is a very large feature and always looks very nice in even the smallest telescopes. On that evening of April 13 the Sun’s angle was just right to give the surface that gradient view: dark near Montes Jura with a gradual brightening towards the west. A few rilles were also visible. It was a very pretty sight through my 300mm f/4 truss Dob using a 5mm HR Planetary eyepiece (240x). The sky was a bit hazy while I made the sketch, but the seeing was great.

Kind regards,

Roel Weijenberg
www.roelblog.nl

Galaxy with a Grand Design

NGC 2997
Galaxy
Antlia
01/01/11
Iford NSW Australia
56cm f5 dobsonian telescope
Field: 27′
Magnification: 218x
Sky quality meter reading: 21:70

Black Canford paper
White pen
White pastel pencil
White pastel chalk
Blending stump
Paint brush

NGC 2997 has a certain sentimental value for me. Many years ago when I
first got a chance to look through a large dobsonian telescope it just
happened to be the first galaxy
that I was able to see spiral structure in, goes to show that on some
occasions there is no substitute for sheer aperture.

The only drawback with trying to sketch this elegant galaxy from my
location is that when it is at the zenith it is right up in Dobson’s
hole, making for some very
precarious conditions for sketching atop my observing platform.

Despite the balancing act the sketch came out reasonably well. Subtle,
somewhat large and diffuse spirals can be tricky to portray accurately.

NGC 2997 was discovered by William Herschel in 1793, and it lies about
25million light years away.
The plane of the galaxy from our vantage point is about 45°, so imagine
the view if it was directly face on.

Scott Mellish