Media Combinations – Page 17 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Childrens Hubble Drawings

Children’s Hubble Drawings
Sketches by Students of St Peters National School Walkinstown Dublin
Photo by Bernard Kelleghan • Details by Deirdre Kelleghan

Gallery of the Individual Drawings

The 20th Anniversary of the launch of The Hubble Space Telescope was celebrated in St Peters National School Walkinstown Dublin 12 on April 23rd. ESA sent me an enormous print of the Carina nebula, the celebration image for public outreach. A drawing workshop to inspire and educate was the way to go. That morning the boys of 5th class at St Peters listened very carefully to my simple explanation of this visually powerful image. The boys used soft pastels on black paper and lovely blending and feathering drawing methods to capture the swirling clouds of gas and dust 7,500 light years from this planet. Great energy and use of color produced some beautiful drawings, it was a very special event. One child said ‘Its amazing to draw this huge thing on my small page’

Deirdre

2010 Mar 26 Full Solar Disk

Solar H-Alpha – AR11057
Sketch and Details by Erika Rix

*2010 March 26, 2033 UT.
Solar h-alpha, AR11057.

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA – Erika Rix.

DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell.
H-alpha sketch created scopeside with black Canson paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, white Prang watercolor pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil.

SW prominence at first glance looked detached. Increasing mag and waiting for steady seeing, I could make out fainter portions of the prominence that reached the limb. There were a few brighter prominence regions scattered about, but nothing of great significance, especially after the magnificent NW prominence last week.

AR 11057 stood out immediately with two dark areas and bright plage. Panning the FOV brought out another bright plage area on the WNW area just 10 deg in from limb. This could possibly be a remnant of 11056. Toward the southern-middle of the disk, brighter little clusters of plage scattered the area, as well a plage to the NW about 40 deg in from the limb. There were a few filaments but the one that really caught my eye was a wide V-shaped one to the SE. I had to tweak the Etalons to bring out the full structure of what first appeared as a single line of filament.

Rising Prominence

Prominence – April 10, 2010
Sketch and Details by Les Cowley

For at least three days April 8-10, 2010 a large and ever-changing prominence rotated into view over the Sun’s NE limb. Its extent in solar longitude must therefore be considerable. Here is its appearance 09:00 UT on 10th April. Sketched directly at the eyepiece of a Solarmax 60 single stacked H-alpha scope 50 – 80X. Daler Watercolour, Studio and Drawing pencils on black Camford paper.

Les Cowley

Mysterious Rupes Recta

Thebit crater & Rupes Recta
Aleksander Cieśla (Wimmer)

Object: Moon. Thebit crater & Rupes Recta
Date: January 23th, 2010
Place: Poland, Wrocław
Equipment: Schmidt-Cassegrain 5″ with S-W SWA58 9mm + barlow 2x
Filter: Moon & Skyglow
Seeing: 4/5
Transparency: 3/5
Weather: Very cold. Light wind.
Technique: Pastels on black paper
Oserver: Aleksander Cieśla (Wimmer)

NGC 5291 – The Seashell

NGC 5291

Sketch and Details by Scott Mellish

NGC 5291/”Seashell Galaxy” MCG -5-33-5
Interacting galaxies
Centaurus
Ilford NSW Australia
21/02/10
56cm f5.0 Dobsonian telescope
Field: 15′
Magnification: 314x
Sky Quality Meter reading: 21:60

Black Canford paper
White pen
White pastel chalk
Soft white pencil
White oil pencil

This strange little pair of galaxies first came to my attention many years ago when I purchased the lovely coffee table book “Exploring The Southern Sky” by Laustsen-Madsen-West. On page 106 there is a lovely negative image showing why the companion to NGC 5291 is called the “Seashell”.

In my 56cm dob it is a struggle to discern any hint of the unusual shape of this object even with averted vision. However this is a very interesting tight pairing and they both viewed quite easily in the 56cm dob.

Both objects I believe are classed as disturbed S0 type.
MCG-5-33-5 is the object to the left of the brighter NGC 5291 as seen in the sketch.

Also of note is the very faint galaxy PGC 4887, this galaxy can be barely seen about 7′ further to the left of NGC 5291/Seashell almost to the edge of the field.

The whole region surrounding this pair is strewn with numerous galaxies of varying brightness and size, all of which are part of the IC 4329 cluster.

I recommend those interested visit the CDS or NED databases if you wish to view the “Seashell” in greater detail.

Scott Mellish

2010 March 18 Prominence

Solar h-alpha, Active regions 1054, 1056
Sketch and Details by Erika Rix

DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell
H-alpha sketch created scope-side with black Canson paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, white Prang watercolor pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil.

That huge prom was an absolute beauty and I could have spent the entire day sketching it over and over for an animation. As it was, it nearly was so complex that a person could spend too much time on one sketch and end up chasing the changes and never actually complete the sketch.

Dawn Breaking across Crater Schickard

Crater Schickard
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

One of the many large and interesting craters on the visible lunar surface is this 230 km. diameter walled plain crater known as Schickard. This Pre-Nectarian crater is somewhat isolated from craters of equal size. It is the large, shallow floor of Schickard that presents its most interesting features and at the time of this sketch light was just beginning to spread across its floor. Tens of millions of years after this crater formed a much larger impact formed the Orientale basin, blanketing the crater with highland ejecta. This great crater can easily be seen in a modest telescope with good lighting one or two days before full moon.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: Black Canson sketching paper, 14”x 12”, White and black Conte’ pencils, a blending stump, plastic eraser. After scanning, contrast was increased (+1) using the scanner.

Telescope: 13.1 inch f/5.9 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 218x
Date: 2-26-2010, 1:45 – 2:30 UT
Temperature: 21° C (68° F) clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co-longitude: 57.5°
Lunation: 11.98 days
Illumination: 90.4 %

Observing Location:
+41°37′ +87° 47′
Oak Forest, Il.

Frank McCabe

Ramshackle in Reticulum

NGC 1313
Sketch and Details by Scott Mellish

NGC 1313
Star Burst Galaxy
Reticulum
12/12/09
Ilford NSW Australia
56cm f5 Dobsonian
Field: 17′
Magnification: 354x
Sky Quality Meter reading 21:67

Black Canford paper
White pen
White pastel
Soft white pencil
White oil pencil
Blending stump

I was not all that impressed with the quality of the observing conditions while I was sketching this impressive galaxy.
Waves of unsteady air were crossing the eyepiece field at intervals.

Still when there is a clear sky to be had then beggars cannot be choosers.

NGC 1313 is big and bright enough to hold its own in such conditions.
A noted Star Burst galaxy as is quite evident from its ramshackle appearance.

In a large dob this galaxy is a very rewarding sight.

Scott Mellish

Globular Cluster M 79 in Lepus

Messier 79
Sketch and Details by Kiminori Ikebe

M79 (NGC 1904) Difficulty level 2

Date of observation: 1997/11/02 02:10
Observing site: Kuju
Transparency/seeing/sky darkness: 3/3/3
Instruments: 32cm Dobsonian with TPL10.5 at 150x
Width of field: 0.3°

This is a mid-sized bright globular. At 150x it is finely resolved but the central region is not completely resolved. Even at 50x it is relatively well resolved. The level of concentration is rather weak. The bright central region looks pointed in three directions just like a maple leaf. The southeastern side of the center has not such extension but the outline is sharp with four stars shining outside it. A bright star off the northern side stands out. There is a conspicuous line of stars which encircles the edges of the globular and extends further to the south. This line of stars is clearly seen in photographs. This globular is full of interesting characteristics.

Goldschmidt Rays and the Moon’s North Limb

Plato, Goldschmidt and Northern Limb
Sketch and Details by Deirdre Kelleghan

February 28th / March 1st 2010 23:20 UT – 00 :35 UT
200 mm Dobsonian Telescope FL 1,200
8mm TVP eyepiece = 150X
Goldschmidt rays and the Moons North limb

South is up in this sketch because that is the way I viewed it and sketched it. Pastels & Conte on black paper.

Our beautiful Snow moon was 99 .9 % drenched in the suns light when I went observing on the last day in February 2010. Along the NW limb several craters were on view in the libration zone, it was my intention to make a sketch of these elusive features. They presented on the limb as dark deep long shadows edged with sharp bright lines against the blackness of space.

However while these were interesting, my eye was magnetized toward the brightness of Goldschmidt and its ejecta rays, giving great form to the area. Several of these long dark lines were also on view on the edge of the limb close to Goldschmidt and Herschel . It was so visually interesting to observe the contrasts on the limb when the moon was so full, a black and white merry dance of slow movement and rich structure.

Plato never looked so dark and flat ,its black floor absorbing the suns light when most of the surrounding area was throwing it toward my eye. I adored the tiny pure white rim sections singing in the light. My sketch wandered across part of Mare Frigoris , the area around Plato and includes part of Mons Teneriffe .

—
Deirdre Kelleghan
Vice Char IFAS
Outreach IFAS
National Coordinator Astronomers Without Borders Ireland .
http://www.irishastronomy.org/
http://www.deirdrekelleghan.com/
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