Category: Media Combinations

A Humorum Aside

Gassendi

Lunar crater Gassendi on the shores of Mare Humorum
Sketch and Details by Richard Handy

One hundred and fourteen kilometers in diameter, filled with rilles and a rich variety of terrain, Nectarian era Gassendi sits on the northwestern shores of Mare Humorum in the South West Quadrant of the Moon. Gassendi is a great example of a FFC (Floor Fractured Crater). Why is it fractured? Well, the real lowdown on the rilles is that they are created by magma that finds its way to the surface through weaknesses and fissures in the breccia beneath Gassendi. As the magma fills these volumes, it pushes up on the material on the crater floor causing these characteristic fractures in the surface and in the process providing a vent for lavas. The really amazing thing was the number of rilles on the floor that were bifurcated, some seemly splitting at obtuse angles while others paralleled the rim. I could sense that there was a level of detail hidden by the seeing, a larger population of smaller rilles awaiting that moment of perfect clarity to reveal themselves. However with Antoniadi III as my average, it wasn’t going to be tonight. On the northwestern wall of Gassendi resting on its northwestern margin, much as Gassendi is to Humorum, is 33 km Copernican era, Gassendi A. Above and to the northwest is the 26 km flat floored Gassendi B. I wonder how much is floor fill is from his bigger and (younger?) brother to the south, the result of slow and steady mass wasting or a carpeting of material from a larger event. The whole area to the north and west of Gassendi seemed to be filled with these arcuate grooves. Towards the southern sunken rim of Gassendi, the northwest part of a Basin rim seemed elevated above the Mare as it rose to meet a collapsed section of Gassendi’s rim in the middle of the western outer wall. I could tell the area to the west of this arc had a different texture to the terrain, as if they were only partially submerged in the mare lavas. There were arcuate rilles here as well, paralleling the Basin. I hoped you all enjoyed this, I know I had a rille wonderful time sketching this one and sharing it with you.

Here are the sketch details:

Subject: Gassendi and environs Atlas: Rukl 52
Date: 9-3-06 Start time 4:20 UT Ending time: 5:56UT
Seeing: Antoniadi III with moments of II every 3-5 min, Weather: clear to partly cloudy
Lunation: 11.38 days Colongitude 46 deg Phase: 49.9 deg
Illumination: 82.2 % Lib. in Lat. : +6 deg 28 min Lib. in Long.: – 6 deg 53 min
Telescope: 12″ Meade SCT F10
Binoviewer: W.O. Bino-P with 1.6X Nosepiece
Eyepieces: W.O. 20mm WA Plossls
Magnification: 244X
Sketch medium: White and black Conte’ on Black textured Conte’ paper
Sketch size: 18″ x 24″

Swing Dancing Galaxies

M51

M51 (NGC 5194 and 5195)
Sketch and Details by Jeremy Perez

This amazing galaxy pair deserves much more attention than I gave it nearly 4 years ago. This time, I had the benefit of my 8″ Dob and Pentax 10XW to help improve the view from the dark sky at Sunset Crater National Monument. A first glance revealed the two glowing galaxy cores to be surrounded by unevenly illuminated halos. The primary galaxy, NGC 5194, was filled with beckoning structure. It was subtle, but it responded well to averted vision and gradually over the course of about an hour of sketching, it revealed a beautiful spiral structure. The most prominent areas in NGC 5194 were brighter arcs to the southwest and east-southeast. Less prominent whisps revealed themselves next, curving around the external periphery of the galaxy. Some of the inner portions of these arcs took more time and attention to discern, but the more I glimpsed them, the easier they were to re-acquire. It was fascinating to see a kink in the outer southeast arm take shape as I built the sketch up.

NGC 5195 also had some nice details to explore. It possessed a bar-shaped core that pointed slightly east of the core of NGC 5194. The western half of its halo appeared brighter, while the eastern half displayed a comma-like arc curving outward from its northern side. This comma extension is created by a heavy dust lane reaching out from it’s larger neighbor, and is what forms the visual bridge between the galaxies so often seen in photographs. While this extension, and the eastern outer arm of NGC 5194 both reached out toward each other, I could not detect an actual connection between them.

The view hinted at even further mottling within the arms themselves, and I think that will be a good reason to return to M51 again in the future for an extended visit and see what else I can pull from it. Until then, I’m really pleased with what a great galactic feast the Pinwheel served up.

If you subscribe to Astronomy Now or occasionally pick it up at the book store, check out the April 2009 issue. It contains an illustrated 2-page article I prepared that describes the observing and sketching process for this view of M51. I hope it’s educational, and I look forward to any questions, suggestions or criticisms on the column.

Object Information:

M51 is a spiral galaxy that is a member of a small group of galaxies including M63 and 6 other less prominent members. This group is estimated to lie about 37 million light years away (with a more recent estimate of 31 million light years from STScI). Under present theory, the pronounced spiral structure of the galaxy is due to an ongoing interaction with neighboring NGC 5195. This interaction would have disturbed gasses in M51, causing a burst of star formation in the galactic arms.

M51 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1773. The catalog description says, “It is double, each has a bright center, which are separated 4’35”. The two ‘atmospheres’ touch each other, the one is even fainter than the other.” William Herschel assigned NGC 5195 its own number (H I.186). M51 is the first galaxy in which spiral structure was discovered, in 1845 by Lord Rosse. His meticulous and beautiful painting of the galaxy gave rise to the moniker “Lord Rosse’s Question Mark”.

Supernova 2005cs was discovered June 27, 2005 by Wolfgang Kloehr, an amateur astronomer from Germany. It was mag 13.5 and rising at the time. It was classified as a type II supernova, based on analysis of its spectrum.

Subject M51 (NGC 5194 and NGC 5195)
Classification Spiral Galaxy (Type Sc)
Position* Canes Venatici [RA: 13:29.9 / Dec: +47:12]
Size* 11′ x 7′
Brightness* 8.4
Date/Time JAN 28, 2009 – 05:00 AM (JAN 28, 2009 – 12:00 UT)
Observing Loc. Cinder Hills Overlook, Sunset Crater National Monument, Arizona
Instrument Orion SkyQuest XT8 Dobsonian (203 mm dia./1200 mm F/L)
Eyepieces/Mag. Pentax XW10 (120X)
Conditions Clear, calm
Seeing 5/10
Transparency Mag 7+ NELM
*Sources SEDS

A Stunning Leo Triplet

Leo Triplet

The Leo Triplet: NGC 3628, M65, M66
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

Last week using the 14″ Newt & Watec Camera, I sketched each member of the Leo Triplet individually. There is only a very small FOV using the camera with this scope but the detailed revealed is quite incredible. Have made 3 individual sketches I asked my very good friend & accomplished planetary imager Simon Kidd if he could make up a composite for me in Photoshop and add some field stars. He duly did this (something I couldn’t contemplate doing myself!)

If I do say so myself the result is pretty impressive, what do you guys think?

Sketches made using black conte pastel & blending stumps on white cartridge paper, scanned and inverted to white on black. All the magic is then carried out by simon 🙂

Let me know what you think? Dale

Saturn in mid-March 2009

Saturn

Planet Saturn and moons: Tethys, Rhea and Dione
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

With the rings nearly edge on but opening just slightly, I felt it was time to record another sketch of the ringed giant. To begin the sketch I used a white Conte’ crayon and compass to draw a circle on black paper. I then used a mechanical drawing tool called a French curve to convert the circle into an ellipse after plotting a few points to create an equatorial bulge. When the shape looked alright for the bulging globe, I sketched the rings and then the globe while looking through a 4 mm orthoscopic eyepiece (magnification 362 x).

I observed Saturn for 40 minutes before beginning the sketch which took about 50 minutes to complete. I made note of the positions of the moons I could see and added Tethys (10.3) and Rhea (9.9) to the west of the planet and Dione (10.6) to the east. Titan was well beyond the planet to the west and Iapetus was visible above the planet to the south. Both of these moons were beyond the boundaries of the sketching area. The planets equatorial zone and the north and south temperate zones were bright and distinct. The darker regions over the remainder of the disk were less distinct through the polarizing filter I was using.
Although the transparency was only average at 3/5, the seeing however was exceptional at Pickering 8.5. The stars were rock steady for long intervals.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 6”x 16”, and white and black Conte’pastel pencils and Conte’ crayons. The globe of Saturn is about 2.5” inches in diameter. Brightness was slightly decreased (-3) and contrast increased (+3) after capturing the sketch using a digital camera.

Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 4mm eyepiece 362x, single polarizing filter
Date: 3-15-2009 4:20 – 5:10 UT
Temperature: 0°C (32°F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Pickering 8.5

Frank McCabe

Venus Near to the Sun

Venus

Planet Venus near to the Sun
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

At about 2 pm local time my sky had cleared well enough to make an attempt to track planet Venus down during this early afternoon. The low humidity high pressure atmosphere that was overhead made this observation possible. Venus was about 13° North and 3° to the East of the sun and I knew I could safely block the sun from reaching my eyepiece using a large pine tree to block out the solar disk. Venus at the time of the observation was about -4th magnitude and 2.5 % illuminated. The disk of the planet was about 59” of arc in diameter and only 0.29 AU (27 million miles) from earth.

Sketching:

4.25″f/6 Newtonian 6mm eyepiece 107x
For this sketch I used: blue construction paper, 11″x 9″, a white Conte’ pastel crayon and a blending stump, for templating the planet as a circle I used a lens cap. Brightness and contrast were slightly increased (+2) after scanning.

Date: 3-21-2009 7:00-7:15 UT
clear skies, few clouds
Large numbers of greater sandhill cranes flying north

Frank McCabe

Here Comes the Sun

Solar proms 030509

Solar Prominences on March 5th, 2009
Sketch and Details by Jeff Young

The sun has finally risen out of the murk here at 54°N, and I was very happy to get the white pencils and black paper out again. I did one sketch on the first of March, but, well… we’ll just chalk that one up to getting back into shape. The weather was somewhat brisk for this one, and my sketchpad even blew off my knee and into the wet grass at one point, but I was still much happier with the final result. 😉

Solar prominence in h-alpha, March 5, 2009 (seeing 2/5)

Solarscope SF70 on Tele Vue Pronto @f/23, with 19mm Panoptics in Baader MkV binoviewer (85X)

White Derwent Graphitint pencil on black Strathmore Artagain paper.

— Jeff.

Big Moon Illusion

Big Moon

Moon Illusion
Sketch and Details Mark Seibold

Technical info:

After observing the moon rising in September 2008 from Downtown Portland between high buildings, I returned home to observe the surface features through my 10.1″ Newtonian reflector telescope. I rendered the details in pastel chalk on 19″ X 25″ Black Canson pastel paper for a two hour period. Then from memory, I returned inside to add the perspective of downtown buildings and pedestrian silhouettes on the sidewalk.

-Mark Seibold

Faint and Whispy or Very Tiny

Proms 022409

Solar Prominences in H-alpha Eastern Limb
Sketch and Details by Erika Rix

2009 Feb 24, 1510UT – 1600UT

Solar prominences in h-alpha, eastern limb

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA
Erika Rix

DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell
Sketch created scopeside with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, white Prang watercolor pencil.

Temp: -5.2° C, Humidity 74%
Seeing: Wilson 4, Transparency: very poor with improvement
Cirrus to the south, winds 5mph SE
Alt: 33.6, Az: 143.9

The eastern hemisphere, especially east to the northeast, was scattered with prominences. As transparency improved, details of these little prominences came to light. The most obvious set was around 90° position angle and then a squat hedgerow one around 40°. I stopped my first sketch midway and began a fresh one with a larger limb span to include the majority of them, most which were faint and whispy or very tiny.

I counted 8 more small slender ones that weren’t included in this sketch. I’m sure that given a little more time (or perhaps ambition to stay out there longer) the improvement in transparency would have revealed a few more. There was a very sharp small plage about 20 degrees in from the north limb as well as a few very hair-like filaments, particularly west, south, and east. It is reported by another solar observer that there are two new spots in that same location, indicating a new AR.

Prominence Prayer

Prayer Prom

Solar Prominences February 23, 2009
Sketch and Details by Erika Rix

Solar prominences in h-alpha, eastern limb

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA
Erika Rix

DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell
Sketch created scopeside with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, white Prang watercolor pencil.

Temp: -2.6° C, Humidity 66%
Seeing: Wilson 4, Transparency: very poor
Partly cloudy, winds 13mph from NW
Alt: 33.2, Az: 144.1

A fairly tall prominence stood out on the eastern limb that looked like a pair of hands loosely pressed together in prayer. Par for the course on these larger delicate features, they look almost detached until you concentrate on that area for a more in depth look. This is the prominence I concentrated on for the observation sketch. There was another smaller prom just north on the western limb close to a position angle of 290-300 degrees. It consisted of two arches messed together with small spikes on the limb next to them. Another slender prominence worth mentioning was located on the southern limb.

A thick, squat filament was just inside the limb about 45 degrees further south than the sketched prominence on the eastern limb.