Please find attached 2 of my recent Mars observations from this week rendered with Watercolour paints.
I used my 153mm Triplet F9 refractor, binoviewer and neodymium filter, 15mm Tele vue panoptic eyepieces yielding 215x.
I hope that they are of interest. Seeing was difficult on both occasions, but I have enjoyed seeing the bright clouds which the refractor has shown ably.
PanSTARRS C/2012 K1 and STF1758 from the Olivier Planchon Observatory located near the nice small village of Bauduen, France. May 1, 2014PanSTARRS C/2012 K1 and STF1758 – May 1, 2014
Object Name (PanSTARRS C/2012 K1 and STF1758)
Object Type (Comet and Double Star)
Location (OAB – Observatoire Astronomique de Bauduen)
Date (May 1st, 2014)
Media (graphite pencil, watercolor, white 300gr paper)
Ahhh, this night I really enjoyed myself! Imagine a unlikely place of beauty, the St. Croix lake, with the emerald waters of the “gorges du Verdon” and just above a sky of dream.
Between the two: the Olivier Planchon Observatory located near the nice small village of Bauduen. In the observatory a heavy reflector holding a main mirror of 24″ (620mm) f/d 3.3, a series of brand new Ethos eyepieces and voila.
My pencils show the target of the moment: another comet PanSTARRS, still quite small, but just near the comet a very pretty double star.
My friend “Apilaure” a specialist of double stars, talks about this double:
– It is also called STF1758, a Struve of 1830. The separation was 3.4” in 2010. It is more than likely a physical double because Hipparcos gives the same parallax for A and B, so a distance of 279 light year. The couple turns slowly, 15° in almost 2 centuries.
This is undoubtedly the superb material and this nice double, that I was deprived of the sight of the ion tail, I will return in this observatory, that’s more than sure!
•Object Name (Mars)
•Object Type (Planet)
•Location (Artignosc sur Verdon – France)
•Date (April 15th)
•Media (Watercolour on white paper, digital tools Paint.Net for the text)
I use my 4” refractor (achromatic) f/10 – 200x to make the initial sketch; sadly the 12” Dobson give me less contrast for this target. Although the full Moon was very bright, (maybe more bright because of the clear sky of my new small village of Artignosc), details on Mars were easy to watch.
After making the first sketch, some locals came in my backyard to have a look, I like that, and sharing beauty is so easy to do.
For this image I use watercolour, on a very humid 300gr paper, I let the pigment floating as I saw the planet colours. The water helps me to give a natural look and feel. Of course this image has no any scientific value; this is just to keep a souvenir of this Mars close passage. Don’t try to compare the little details of my watercolour with reality; I let that to my astrophotography friends, they are so good today!
Crater Lambert, Mons La Hire and Dorsum Zirkel – February 9, 2014
Made this sketch of crater Lambert, Mons La Hire and Dorsum Zirkel and surrounding areas this evening, using my 505mm mirror and Watec video camera on its least sensitive setting. The view on the monitor was delightful and one I shared with optical designer and engineer Mr Es Reid of Cambridge, all very civilized and enjoyable.
The sketch was made on black A5 220gm art paper using Conte hard pastels and acrylic paint for bright highlights and deep shadow.
Hello here is my submission. This painting started as a sketch. -Greg Wing
Object Name (Rosette Nebula & NGC 2244)
Object Type (Emission Nebula and Open Cluster in the Constellation Monoceros)
Location (Viewed from Landis Arboretum in Esperance, NY. Painting created in my art studio)
Date (January, 2013)
Media (graphite pencil sketch on canvas overlaid with oil paints)
For some time I was only able to observe the beautiful open cluster NGC 2244 which is centrally associated with the Rosette Nebula using my modified 10″ f/4.7 dob. Then using an OIII filter, there it was! This open cluster is so visually stunning that I wanted to preserve its beauty and rather than using a rosey color for painting the nebulosity, I was influenced by the so-called “Hubble Palette”. I try to accurately position the main stars.
My Astro Paintings convey my memory transformed, a mood, an experience that can be seen and renewed with subsequent viewings. Rather than a representation, the painting is an impressions of what I have seen with my telescope, read about and seen in images made with large telescopes. Painting in my studio after observing an object not only gives me something to do on all those cloudy nights, it helps me understand and experience the object further. http://astropaintings.weebly.com
Object Name (SN 2014J in M82)
Object Type (Supernova in galaxy)
Location (Provence – France)
Date (Feb 2nd 2014)
Media (graphite pencil, watercolour on white paper)
Hello sketchers, here is my contribution to the observation of SN 2014J.
From Jan. 23rd till Feb. 11th I spend a lot of good time with the M82 supernova. Sketching the galaxy, estimate the visual magnitude and made watercolour of the sceneries.
Sometime I observed with friends and their materials, sometime I’m alone on the middle of no where, between the Provencal wild nature and the dark sky. Here in south France the temperature is quite high for the season but wind blows, so, often I place my car to protect the 12” Dobson from the mistral.
Attached is a kind of “auto portrait” (yes, that’s me!), from a photo I take tonight. On the basis I add the AAVSO curve with my own visual observations (blue cross is DMIB).
The technique used is inverted watercolour, so I invert the colours of the sketch while scanning. For the galaxy this is common sketch black on white – inverted.
Thanks to read this, clear sky to you all !
Michel
Object Name (Geminids)
Object Type (Meteor shower )
Location (Provence France)
Date (14 dec 2013)
Media (graphite pencil, watercolor, white paper, digital inversion )
From 4UT just after the moonset, I was observing one hour looking around the Leo area.
I begin to sketch the sky region where I was looking, +/- 45° from the radiant. We can see the Leo and the red Mars underneath.
Each time a meteor was burning out I put the trace on my white paper link with the estimated magnitude. Let says one minute after, because already years ago, I realized that sometime a meteor is following shortly by another one, just on the same track, like a double meteor. This morning I saw 42 Geminids and 2 sporadic’s, I don’t sketch the sporadic meteor here. The speed was quite low and the magnitudes quite brilliant.
The small village where I’m don’t care about light pollution, ok then, I use this to sketch the Christmas street decoration like it is.
Here follows my result of the watch,
December 14, 2013 (Val d’Issole, France)
Longitude 006 degrees 05′ 25″ East,
Latitude 43 degrees 18′ 15″ North.
UT Period Field Teff LM GEM SPO
4:00-5:05 60SSE 1.00 5.20 42 2
Object Type (comet)
Location (Provence France)
Date (3/12/2013)
Media (watercolor on paper 65cm/25cm)
This very morning, early, from Néoules, a nice dark sky area, I made 5 sketches with :
a 80/400mm refractor (10x) for the large field and the long tail,
a Dobson 12”, 58x and 150x for the coma around the nucleus
and a 102/1000 refractor (25x and 100x) for the intermediate view.
I used miscellaneous EP from 40mm to 10mm Delos, sometime with UHC filter.
I made this watercolor today 3 December at home, the idea was to put together the different magnifications on a single view.
Oh yes, something funny, to sketch the tail, I used a light sand paper to take away the pigment from place to place; this sand feels like real comet dust : scale 1/1…
Object Name (Moon)
Object Type (Satellite)
Location (Gołkowice,Silesia/Poland)
Date (5 grudnia 2012)
Media (White/black acrylic/black ink/)
Add info:
The painting was made when i bought my first telescope (70/900 skylux) and i was very delighted with the beauty of the moon. So I study it for couple of nights, and with a bit of help of moon photos from the internet and map with the moon i painted two moon’s. This is the first one. And it took me two weeks to complete it fully.
size”120x80cm
