Pencil – Page 191 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

“Like M42 on steroids!”

The Eta Carina Nebula
By Rob Esson

10B Graphite pencil on white sketch paper with blending stump. 18in f/4.5 Obsession
Dob with 17mm Nagler, giving a 0.7 degree field of view and magnification of 121x.
Sketched at the Deepest South Texas Star Party held at the Warrumbungles Mountain
Lodge in New South Wales, Australia on March 22, 2007.

I thought that I would follow up Jeremy Perez’ drawing of the Eta Carinae region
with binoculars (11/29/07) with a more detailed telescopic view. The Eta Carinae
region of nebulosity goes on – seemingly – for ever. This is merely a sketch around
the middle, and due to clouds coming in, is not as detailed as I might have liked if
I had had more time. The ‘blob’ about 2/3rds of the way towards about 12:30 on the
sketch is the Eta Carinae homunculus. Words are difficult to find to describe this
sight: it is probably the most impressive area in the sky. Although this sketch was
made using a Dob, binoculars or a wide field telescope are needed to take in the
nebula in its entirety. The Hubble pictures are no doubt fun to look at with all
their false colors, but the visual effect through the telescope, when the photons
are extinguishing on your own retinas as opposed to a ccd, is one of absolute
wonder: there are just numerous areas crying out to be examined in detail, like M42
on steroids!

Rob Esson, Kansas City MO

Shadow of the Goddess

The transit of Venus June 4th, 2007
By Michael Rosolina

While listening to the McDonald Observatory’s StarDate, I was surprised to hear that
this week marks the 125th anniversary of the 1882 transit of Venus. In my mind I
was transported back to June, 2004 eagerly anticipating the first Venus transit
since 1882. No one living at that time had ever seen such an event.

The transit would be nearing its end when the Sun rose at my location so I set up my
small, portable Astroscan telescope equipped with a homemade white light filter on
the mountaintop behind my home. I wanted my wife to see this rare event too, so I
lured her out by saying I needed her to watch my back for bears (not entirely
untrue–it was mating season and the black bears were very active).

As the Sun rose, we were completely enveloped in a cloud but soon the mist thinned
and we could see the small black dot against the solar disk with the unaided eye.
As conditions improved, we employed filters on the scope and on a pair of 10×50
binoculars to track the progress of Venus towards the Sun’s limb.

During egress, I was fortunate to detect the aureole created by the planet’s
atmosphere. This halo was first seen during the 1761 transit by Russian scientist
Mikhail Lomonosov, who rightly concluded that Venus had an atmosphere. The egress
created some interesting contrast effects which I have tried to render as I saw
them.

I later discovered that there was indeed a small sunspot group near the Sun’s
central meridian, but I could not see it because of the poor transparency.

The sketch was done in the field with 2B and HB graphite pencils on Strathmore
paper. I used a 4 inch template for the Sun and a penny to make the template for
the inset.

Seeing the transit was a peak experience for me (my wife was glued to the binoculars
through the whole thing, too). It was also very gratifying to see how the event
brought the global amateur astronomy community together as we shared sketches and
images via the Internet.

The next Transit of Venus will be June 6th, 2012. Clear skies to all in 2012–there
won’t be another transit for over a hundred years.

Surreal Juxtaposition

IC 1633

Elliptical Galaxy (cD) in Phoenix

Parks Astrolight EQ6 • 6″ f/6 Newtonian Reflector
7.5mm Parks Gold Series Plössl • 120x, 26′ Field of View
11 October 2007 • 06:30-07:15 UT

IC 1633 is the antithesis of NGC 55. It is located 1° northeast of 3rd-magnitude Beta (β) Phoenicis, half the distance between that star and 5th-magnitude Nu (ν) Phe. Small, and faint, its feeble glow is best detected with averted vision. In the eyepiece it is completely featureless. In reality, IC 1633 is a gargantuan elliptical galaxy lurking in the heart of galaxy cluster Abell 2877 (of which it is by far the most prominent member). Its distance from Earth is estimated at 325 million light-years! That fact alone, made this observation worthwhile.

As I observed this pale mist of ancient photons (and futilely scanned the field for other cluster members – or even a few more field stars), IC 1633 became entangled in the fire-blackened boughs of an oak tree victimized by the 2003 Cedar Fire. On a whim (and growing a little bored with my fruitless search for anything else to add to my sketch) I hastily added the twisted limbs to the drawing, providing a surreal juxtaposition of objects near and far.

James Dunlop apparently discovered IC 1633 during the 1820’s from the Brisbane Observatory at Paramatta, New South Wales, Australia. As this object failed to appear in the NGC, we may presume it was one of the (many) objects discovered by Dunlop that could not be recovered by John Herschel. In the Second Index Catalogue, DeLisle Stewart and Lewis Swift share credit for the discovery (or “re-discovery”) of IC 1633.

A Trio of Leo’s Finest

The Leo Triplet – M65, M66 and NGC 3628
By Michael Vlasov

This striking deep sky trio lies some 35 million light years away and consists of three spiral galaxies. Their varied appearance is due to the different angles they present to our point of view.

NGC 3628, at the top of Michael’s sketch, is seen edge-on and displays a bisecting dust lane. Deep astrophotography shows that the outer edges of this dust lane are strongly distorted by gravitational interactions with its other two neighbors.

M65 (lower right) is a normal Sa type spiral galaxy with tightly wound arms, a prominent central lens, and dust lane. There are some knots visible near the dust lane which may be areas of star formation. Although it appears to be gravitationally bound to it’s neighbors in the Leo Triplet (M66 and NGC 3628), it does not appear to have been structurally disturbed by any interactions.

M66 (lower left) is a spiral galaxy whose shape has been distorted by interactions with its Leo Triplet companions, giving the appearance that the arms are raising above the plane of the galaxy. There are many emission and reflective nebulae evident, showing active star forming regions. The dust in the core of M66 is thought to be heated by older stars, as opposed to younger stars as is usually the case.

Sources: SEDS – NGC 3628, M65, M66.

On a personal note: my sincere appreciation and thanks go to Jeremy Perez for his wonderful job of maintaining ASOD in my absence, as well as those contributors who have submitted their sketches and reports to this website while I was away. You folks are great.

Rich Handy- ASOD Webmaster

The Astounding Geometry of Clavius

Clavius Crater and Craterlets
By Serge Vieillard

Clavius is the 3rd largest crater on the earth-facing side of the moon (225 km in diameter), and was formed during the Nectarian period about 4 billion years ago. It is most famous for the arc of craterlets arrayed across its floor in counterclockwise order of descending size.

Serge created this sketch on August 14, 2006, during a trip to Southern Italy. He observed the moon with his Strock 250, plotting finer details during brief moments of steadier seeing.

A Brooch in the Horns of the Bull

NGC 1647
By Jeremy Perez

Observation Notes:
I first noticed NGC 1647 between the horns of Taurus in a wide-field astro photo I shot of the area in November 2005. I had been meaning to observe and sketch it since then. At 37.5X magnification, the cluster appeared large, bright and sparse. Two colorful yellow and yellow-orange stars rested at the south side of the cluster. I noted several doubles within. The diameter of the main body of the cluster appeared to be about 30 arc minutes. Several bright Orionids graced the sky and caught my attention during the observation and sketch.

Object Information
NGC 654 was discovered by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel in 1784. According to Catalogue of open cluster parameters from UBV-data. (Loktin+, 1994), the cluster is about 509 parsecs distant (1,660 light years). Star Clusters and Associations, Selected Data (Alter+ 1970) lists a distance of 550 parsecs (1,790 ly). The cluster is also catalogued as Cr 54, Mel 26, OCL 457, Lund 139, H VIII-8, GC 896.

Tuttle’s Steady March

Comet 8P/Tuttle
By Martin Mc Kenna

8P/Tuttle Sketch on Dec 10/11th 2007 using a 8.5″ F/7 reflector with 32mm 1.25″ eyepiece. Tuttle was very high in the circumpolar sky within Cepheus approximately 1.5 degrees from Gamma Cephei – the naked eye star which marks the ‘roof’ of this house-shaped constellation. This sketch shows the position of Tuttle with respect to a triangle of bright field stars at 18.20, 20.13 and 21.55 UT. The comets rapid NE motion is very obvious. This is slow compared to how fast it will be moving when closest to the Earth during late December when it will be a faint naked eye object. The comet is a short period object with prograde motion meaning it moves around the Sun in its orbit in the same direction as the planets and main belt asteroids. The icy nucleus of this comet is several kilometers in diameter. If it hit the Earth it would most likely cause a near extinction event!.
Martin Mc Kenna

Grucian Propeller

NGC 7496
By Eiji Kato

NGC 7496 is an 11th magnitude Seyfert Galaxy in Grus that displays a barred spiral structure. It is a member of the IC 1459 Grus Group and weighs in at about 80 Billion Solar Masses. This galaxy was discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1834 at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope.

Sources:
The Deepsky Observer’s Companion Website
Gas dynamics in barred spiral galaxies. II – NGC 7496 and 289
NGCIC.org

Solar Cornucopia

Solar Observation – November 23, 2007
PCW Memorial Observatory
By Erika Rix

Well the new active region doesn’t appear to have a designation yet (or even if it will), but I was able to make it outside for a few hours to observe. It was only scattered clouds during the observation and a little windy and chilly. But with the Sun at a very low altitude of approximately 27 degrees, it was still a struggle against time to observe in both h-alpha and white light before the trees obscured by view.

Paul opened up the observatory for me and by the time I got my scopes switched on the LXD, he was coming in with a cup of hot tea for me and Riser was curled up in a ball at my feet on his blanket.

The first thing I noticed in the Maxscope was a small bright plage area almost dead center in the solar disk. Bumping up the magnification, I found that it was actually broken off into two sections with fainter “arms” reaching to the east and west of it. There were hints of two darkened spots on either side of it, but I couldn’t confirm it in that bandwidth.

There were three areas of prominences on the Eastern limb, two that are included in the close-up sketches. On the western limb, there were just a few very tiny areas that looked like little spikes.

Just north of the prominence at approximately 90 degrees was a bright patch of plage, almost oblong with the western edge outlined a slightly darker hue. A very thin line of filament branched inward from the limb just north of the 90 degree mark, but could not see it extend outward off the limb against the dark background.

The prominence on the 140 degree mark had a fairly broad sectioned filament running north to south about 15 degrees inside the limb. It was broken into three obvious sections as well as a few very thin lines of filament in the same area.

After a brief few moments enjoying the countryside view from the drop down southern wall of the observatory, I grabbed my clipboard, a few pencils, my empty cup of tea and marched off to the house in my slippers and knitted hat, with Riser following close behind.

The ETX is stored in the house for a few reasons. The observatory isn’t quite big enough to house all the scopes plus it’s easy access for white light viewing to just drag the already set up scope outside from the living room.

Within minutes, I was sat behind the ETX with my sketchpad on my knee, recording what the new active region looked like in white light. There were two dominant smaller spots with an additional fainter spot just off of the larger one. Then, reaching out to the other side of the spots were long thin faint lines. I didn’t notice faculae, but I imagine the dark lines may have been the contrast of border from faculae.

The views were slightly softened today, so it was difficult to view granulation, but limb darkening was very noticeable.

h-alpha sketch media: black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white Conte’ crayon for disk surface

white light media: copy paper, number 2 and .5mm mechanical pencils

Wolf-Rayet in Vela

Gamma Velorum
By Rogerio Eirado

The brilliant Gamma Velorum system is composed of at least 6 stars. The primary star of this system is actually a spectroscopic binary that has been dubbed the Spectral Gem of the Southern Skies because its exotic spectrum is dominated by bright emission lines rather than dark absorption lines. It is composed of an O9 blue giant and a massive Wolf-Rayet star that are separated by 1 AU and orbit with a period of 78.5 days. The Wolf-Rayet star probably started its life at around 40 solar masses, but has blown most of that mass away and is now probably closer to 10 solar masses. Both stars in this pair have extremely powerful winds, and as these winds collide they produce X-Ray emissions. The Wolf-Rayet star is likely in the last stages of its path toward exploding as a Supernova. It’s companion will eventually follow suit. The B component seen in Rogerio’s sketch is a B-class subgiant and the C and D components (lined up above the A and B components in the sketch) are white A-class stars. The D component itself has a much fainter and challenging 13th magnitude companion separated from it by 1.8 arc seconds (the 6th star in the system).

Rogerio sketched this beautiful multiple star using pencil on white paper. The sketch was then scanned, inverted to a positive image, and digital methods were used to enhance and add observed color to the stars. His sketch gallery can be found here: A vida, o universo e tudo o mais.

Sources: Burnham’s Celestial Handbook, Jim Kaler’s ‘Regor’, Wikipedia