Media Combinations – Page 38 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Lady Luna meets the Lord of the Rings

Saturn Occultation May 22nd 2007

I was not expecting to catch a glimpse of Saturn in a daylight sky, no way was I ready for that amazing vision. In my first look there was the white ringed planet right in front of me, in a blue blue sky heading into the invisible limb of the moon.

I just had to try to capture it, in some way, so I drew it quickly on black paper and then watched and waited until she began to vanish into nothing!!

I set up my easel and I began to sketch the moon through wispy cloud while I waited for Saturn to emerge from behind the lunar sphere. As she reappeared one hour or so later there was a wonderful change in her color against the darker sky. She was so tangerine, she was so beautiful. Saturn and her invisible icy orbs appeared to be flying along as our moon moved and glided out of her majestic way.

Deirdre Kelleghan

Bray, Co Wicklow Ireland

200mm Reflector/10mm eyepiece – 120X 19:01UT

200mm Reflector/ Binoviewer 20mm eyepieces/2X Barlow – 120X 20:09 UT

300gm paper/Soft Pastels/Quiling Needle

On the shores of a Stormy Ocean

Hevelius & neighbours

Sketched on the 29th May 2007 from my home observatory using a Antares 105mm F15
Achromatic refractor. Working at 163x through a Denk binoviewer.

Sketch made on a black spiral bound Daler-Rowney 6″x6″ sketch pad using a
combination of Conte sticks, watercolour and pastel pencils. Image scanned in
Greyscale but unprocessed.

Dale Holt

View from a high point

Walled Plain Craters Hipparchus and Albateginius

Close to the visible center of the lunar nearside are the north-south crater pair
Hipparchus and Albateginius. On this evening from my observing site they were on
the sunrise terminator. Hipparchus at 150 km. in diameter is the largest and
oldest of the pair dating from the pre-Nectarian period (4 billion years ago). At
and internal to the northeast rim of Hipparchus lies crater Horrocks (30 km.) with
its bright rim and the deep dark center.

Just beyond the Hipparchus crater rim to the southeast is the young, small (15
km.) crater Pickering also with a well illuminated rim. Near the center of
Hipparchus crater Hipparchus X is visible and between it and Horrocks a small
narrow rille was easily seen which is parallel to Rima Reaumur lying out beyond
the Hipparchus rim to the northwest (not sketched). Between Hipparchus and
Albateginius are the old craters Halley (37 km.) and Hind (31 km.). Most of the
rim of crater Albateginius (139 km.) is brightly illuminated by the sun as are two
high points within the “well of darkness”. The illuminated point closest to the
center is the top of a central peak. The other bright point closer to the rim is
the high point on the margin of crater Klein (44km) sitting in darkness. At the
beginning of the sketch these two points were not visible but appeared about 45
minutes after I started.

I tried to picture in my mind what the view would be like if you could stand on
either of these high points and look out and down. Wouldn’t that be a sight?

Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a blending stump. Contrast was slightly increased after scanning.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 241X
Date: 5-24-2007 2:05-3:20 UT
Temperature: 23° C (74° F)
Partly cloudy with haze, light winds
Seeing: Antoniadi II
Colongitude 356.7 °
Lunation 7.28 days
Illumination 52 %

Frank McCabe

A Trip Down Memory Lane

As with all Galaxies, looking at Messier 81 is another trip down the
collective memory lane of the Universe. Twelve million years – that’s
the age of the light reaching us from Bode’s Galaxy and by cosmical
standards that’s not even really old.

Just like M 82, its edge-on partner galaxy, M 81 is well worth a closer
look, even though the number of visible detail is by far smaller than in
M 82.

What you can actually see is a bright core and a diffuse halo, quickly
dropping of in brightness from the center to the edges and with only
undefined detail visible.

Still Bode’s Galaxy belongs to the brightest and most fascinating
objects of its kind, a must-see for any astronomer out there in search
of a good view.

Date: April 12, 2007
Location: Kegelhaus, Erbendorf, Bavaria, Germany
Instrument: Dobsonian 8″ f/6
Constellation: Ursa major
Seeing: II of VI
Transparency: II of VI
NELM: 6m0
Magnification: 133x

Sebastian Lehner

Celestial Cigar

Wow, taking a closer look at the Cigar is really worth the effort. After
a drawing of M 82 together with its companion M 81, I took the advice to
have a closer look seriously and I haven’t regretted it in the least.
Just look at how much detail becomes visible after only half an hour of
observation, it might definitely be worth another visit anytime soon to
work up further features of this wonderful object. A bright core, light
and dark lanes, circular structures, it’s all there, ready to be
discovered by the avid eye of the observer.

Date: April 12, 2007
Location: Kegelhaus, Erbendorf, Bavaria, Germany
Instrument: Dobsonian 8″ f/6
Constellation: Ursa major
Seeing: II of VI
Transparency: II of VI
NELM: 6m0
Magnification: 133x

Sebastian Lehner

Cup of nectar

Crater Bohnenberger in Eastern Mare Nectaris

From my location, this evening presented the best observing conditions since June
of last year. As the sun set in the west-northwest the crescent moon was riding
about 55° above the horizon, so I spent about hour looking for potential targets
to sketch. Crater Taruntius presented an interesting sketching target with its
central peak and unusual wall but I wanted to sketch closer to the terminator. I
finally settled on crater Bohnenberger just west of the Lunar Pyrenees Mountains
that define the eastern edge of the Sea of Nectar.

Bohnenberger is an old Pre-Imbrium crater 33 km diameter. Bohnenberger has a pair
of broad central peaks, a break in its northern wall and a crater on its western
floor. Crater Bohnenberger A about the same size (30 km) with a bright, shallow,
flat floor can be seen to the south with 12 km crater G between them. Some 100 km
to the west of Bohnenberger A, crater Rosse could be seen among the lunar ridges
in the Sea of Nectar. The high walls of Rosse were brightly lit against the dark
frozen lava of the mare. The dark shallow crater about the same size as Rosse at
the bottom of the sketch is crater Gaudibert H. Within the region of the sketch a
great deal more could be seen but was beyond my ability to record in a reasonable
time as the shadows and light continued to change.

Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9”x12”, white and
black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump.
Before submitting I changed slightly the contrast using Imageenhance software
Telesccope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 241X
Date: 4-22-2007 1:35-2:40 UT
Temperature: 20° C (69° F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi I-II
Colongitude 325.7 °
Lunation 4.5 days
Illumination 27.5 %

Frank McCabe

Heavy light

Cardanus, Krafft, Eddington,Seleucus,Briggs, Briggs B, W Oceanus Procellarum
South Telescope build by Grubb Dublin 1868

Fl ? 18Ft 10.7inches/Objective 11.75 inches

Eyepiece? Objective by Cauchoix 1829
Dunsink Observatory Dublin
53° 22′ 60N 6° 19′ 60W
April 30th 2007
20:50UT – 21:57UT
Lunation 13.43 days
Illumination 98%
Seeing 1-2
T poor/hazy
300gm Daler Paper/Daler Soft Pastels/Conte Crayons/ Quilling
needle/Blending stick

I was fourteen years when old I first looked through the South Telescope in Dunsink Observatory. I had pestered my dad to bring me out there, a bit of a long drive in those days, before motorways.

Jupiter was on view that evening, it was crystal clear. The planet must have been quite high as I could look through the Grubb standing up.

I had my own little Tasco scope on a plastic tripod at the time not much to see in it, but the moon always got a look. Ever since I wanted to revisit that moment and look once again through the eyepiece of this well constructed classic telescope. Over the years I paid several visits to the observatory public nights, but always cloud or rain or both.

I got an idea in my head a few months ago, I asked for time to sketch something through the eyepiece this request yielded a positive answer, but it took time to set up.

April 30th 2007 I got a phone call from, let’s say my host in Dunsink “would you like to try tonight”? I was out the door and on the M50 with my gear in less then 10 minutes, an hour’s drive to the Observatory.

I was greeted warmly and the dome was opened, the scope set up, the steps in place.

My position for the next hour and ten minutes was probably the most uncomfortable sketching position in which I had ever worked. I was neither seated or standing, no tracking, and a big telescope to move.

The Grubb was so well balanced, easy to use, a joy to hold, and a privilege to use.

Left alone for the most part I quickly got into my zoned in or zoned out

(depends on your point view) sketching mode.

The eyepiece was low powered generating most likely 125X, used for public viewing, other eyepieces maybe available if I get to repeat this astronomical adventure.

Apart from the difficult sketching position, I felt so at home in Dunsink Observatory, it felt so moreish. Up and down moving the steps, to follow the Moon as she charged along heading for her bed. My concentration waned after an hour, more work to do than in my garden. I was stiff the next morning but I was high as a kite, I got to do something with this instrument made so carefully many years ago in Dublin. A full circle moment in my life, moments that seem to happen with more frequency these days.

In brief periods, when the image was still I could see much more detail and fine tones of grey than in my Dob. Eddington gave me great shapes and that ridge was so so slender, only 2% of the Moon was in darkness and even a little of that was seeping through the blackness into the day.

I admire Arthur Stanley Eddington for his communication prowess during his life.

A poem he wrote came to mind on the way home,

“Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate
One thing at least is certain, light has weight
One thing is certain and the rest debate
Light rays, when near the Sun, do not go straight. “ A.S.Eddington

Apart from this poem being about gravitational lensing, the phrase “light has weight” sticks out to me as an artist. Drawing in the sunlit wall on the western side of Eddington, 138km or so of sunlit weight, which was up till that lunation invisible, non existing until our sun made it so.

A bright note in his Music of the the Spheres

Crater Kepler and its Rays

At nearly 12 days into the current lunation sunlight is bathing young crater
Kepler and its extensive ray system. Kepler falls into the category of a smallish
complex crater (31 km in diameter and 2.75 km deep) with a low peak rising from an
otherwise small flat central floor. Most of the floor is covered with slumped wall
debris. A small part of the inner wall appeared terraced. Crater Kepler lies
between the Oceanus Procellarum and the Mare Insularum both of which are made of
dark lavas. Very prominent rays extend from the rampart and ejecta blanket well
beyond the crater rim for more than 300 km. Some of the rays, especially in the
east, overlap rays of other craters such as Copernicus.

Crater Kepler was named by the Jesuit astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli about
28 years after the death of Johannes Kepler. He also named Crater Tycho after
Tycho Brahe, the man with the accurate data measurements that helped make Kepler
famous.

West northwest of Kepler the large old crater close to the terminator is Marius.
Using a higher magnification ocular than that used in this drawing, I could see
several domes to the north of the crater in very good grazing light. Kepler is a
favorite crater target of mine as the moon approaches full phase.

Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9”x12”, white and
black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump.
Telesccope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 9 mm eyepiece 161X
Date: 4-29-2007 2:45-3:45 UT
Temperature: 18° C (65° F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 51.8 °
Lunation 11.6 days
Illumination 90.5 %

Frank McCabe

A Herald of Summer

In April, later a night, a bright star comes crawling above the horizon
in the East, dragging behind it a constellation, well-known to even the
youngest of astronomers, and all at once you know that Summer is
approaching again. Wega and with it the Constellation of Lyra is rising
again, bringing with it one of the most famous objects of the summer sky,
if not one of the most famous objects of the sky altogehter: M 57,
the Ring Nebula.

This was my second attempt at sketching it, this time I used an
OIII-filter and there is no way of telling what a difference it made.
The nebula, which had before just appeared as an even ring with a
somewhat milky center, suddenly started to reveal many details, darker
and lighter areas, an elongated halo – all of which convinced me that
apart from a good sky and obersving experience an OIII-filter is one of
the most powerful tools at the hands of an observer of planetary nebulae.

The drawing, which was done with white pastels on black cardboard again,
turned out pretty well.

Sebastian Lehner

Brightest Heliocentrist

When I visit the Moon with my telescope, unless I’m working with friends on a collaborative project, I like to see what takes my fancy when I reach the terminator. Invariably something catches your eye and just won’t let it go, that is what I go for, he who shouts the loudest. On the evening of Saturday April 28th it turned out to be Aristarchus magically illuminated along the terminator.

I used my Antares 105mm F14.3 refractor, viewing through a Denk binoviewer
yeilding 163x.

Using a black sketching pad and a mix of watercolour pencils, pastel pencils and
conte sticks after 15 minutes this was the result.

Dale Holt