Pencil – Page 202 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Celestial Pyramid

Hello friends!!
I have been busy a few months but I am back again :- )
I send you a sketch that I did last year showing the Zodiacal Light. It was
the first time I saw it in so good conditions and very clear.

The weather was perfect, transparency, very very clear skies. The Moon was
next to the plain horizon, thin as a sickle, the pyramid of light was
inclining towards the left side, becoming closer as it was climbing up to
the constellation of Geminis and Cancer. Incredibly luminous it was
contrasting against the black sky.

It is a naked eye sketch showing some trees on the horizon and the moon.

Date: April 29 (2006)
After the sunset looking to the west.

I hope you like it.
Leonor

Prominent Trio

Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catherina

This sketch of the trio Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catherina was done in about 15
minutes due to clouds coming in. to make the best of the limited time I tried to
focus only on the big shapes, shadows & lines. Then I worked the sketch out inside.
Below is the quick sketch done outside, and above the finished version.

Sketched on the 22th May 2007 from my home in Bornem, Belgium. I used my 8” f/5 dob
at 200x through a 5mm Baader Hyperion eyepiece.

The sketch was done on standard A4 printerpaper with pencils. I then scanned it and
adjusted the brightness/contrast levels a bit to make it stand out better.

Kris Smet

Twins Gems

Hi folks,

Here’s my first observation with the SkyWatcher. This rich field scope gives a whole
new perspective on deep-sky objects. With a SP 26mm EP, I get a whopping 2.7 degrees
field of view at a power of x19. I hope you like the view.

Date : March 8, 2007
Time : 20.30 UT
Seeing :2.5/5
Transp. 3/5

Digital sketch made with Photopaint, based on a raw pencil sketch made behind the EP.
N down, W left orientation.
Rony De Laet

http://www.geocities.com/rodelaet, my personal website.

Standing On The Shoulders of Giants

µ Cephei: Red Supergiant

µ Cephei, was first discovered by William Herschel and called Garnet
Star, because it appears to shine in garnet red due to its spectral
class of M2Ia. It is the reddest star visible with the naked eye and may
be one of the brightest and largest stars in our whole Galaxy.
It is a Red Supergiant in the last phase of its life, fusing helium into
carbon. Its radius is 1425 times the radius of the sun and it is 38000
times brighter – only thinking about those numbers can do your head in.
Sketching it was easy, however, more than once interrupted by passing
clouds.

Date: November 18, 2006
Location: Erbendorf, Bavaria, Germany
Instrument: Dobsonian 8″ f/6
Constellation: Cepheus
Seeing: II-III of VI
Transparency: III-IV of VI
NELM: 5m0
Magnification: 80x
Technique: pencil on white paper, digitally enhanced in Photoshop

Sebastian Lehner

Sunny Hawaii

A unique sunspot grouping, AR963, emerged this week and has been dubbed by some “the
Hawaiian Islands”. The large ‘island’ is about the size of Neptune and all the little ones are each about the size of Earth. Atmospheric conditions prevented anything but brief glimpses at the Sun through heavy clouds and gusty winds.

This grouping is definitely one to keep an eye on!

The Sun with AR963
100mm acromat refractor at 48x (25mm Plossl + 2x Barlow).
Graphite pencil on white paper, blending stumps.

Andrew English

Gibbous Ruby World

I had intended to catch up with Mars in June to begin my
observations and sketches of this exciting opposition.
Unfortunately a long run of poor weather in the UK prevented me
from doing this. Finally I caught up with the Red one early on the
morning of Sat 8th July. It was hard work but I sucked out some
detail in the end from the distant ruby planet.

Dale Holt

Here is the original SPA observation form with all the details about Dale’s sketch:

Edge-on galaxy

I was observing Melotte 111 with a richfield scope when I ran into this galaxy.
While being limited to a maximum power of x63, I tried to make the best of the
observation. This galaxy looked rather faint. I needed to jiggle the scope to set
this galaxy in motion. This technique helped me to determine the real shape of this
beautiful but elusive edge-on galaxy. I would like to repeat this observation in the
future with higher powers of x80 and x120, to see if more details are visible in a
four inch scope. I hope you like the view

Date : May 5, 2007
Time : 22.30UT
Scope : SkyWatcher 102/500
Vixen LV Zoom at 8mm
Power : 62.8
FOV: 47′
Filter : none
Seeing : 2.5/5
Nelm : 5.1
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with a digital tablet and PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Rony De Laet

http://www.geocities.com/rodelaet, my personal website.

The Elusive Great Comet

Great comet C/2006 P1 Mc Naught at 08.00 UT on Jan 19th 2007.

The comet rose above the low eastern horizon along with the rosy glow of the
approaching Sun. It was easily visible to the naked eye complete with tail hanging
above a distant telegraph post. This sketch shows the view in 10X50mm binoculars
with a 1 degree long white dust tail pointing at a shallow angle to the NE with the
‘shadow of the nucleus’ feature splitting the dust tail in two. I only had it in
view for 5 min’s before clouds rolled in but what a view it was!

Mag: -1.7 Dia: 3′ D.C: 9 and only 13 degrees from the sun.

Pencil and paper sketch inverted in photoelements.

Thanks

Martin Mc Kenna

N. Ireland

Silent Hunter

NGC 457 is a beautiful Open Cluster in the Constellation Cassiopeia with
a pretty interesting shape: the two brightest stars, which glow in a
warm golden-yellow, form the two eyes of an owl, the rest of the stars
comprise the beak, the wings, the body and the claws, hence the name
“The Owl Cluster”. It is not difficult to draw and easily accessible with all
kinds of telescopes and thus well worth a visit.

Date: December 23, 2006
Location: Erbendorf, Bavaria, Germany
Instrument: Vixen Newtonian 4.5″ f/8 on Vixen GP
Constellation: Cassiopeia
Seeing: II-III of VI
Transparency: III of VI
NELM: 5m0
Magnification: 100x
Technique: pencil on white paper, digitally enhanced in Photoshop

Regards,
Sebastian

Open and close

Melotte 111

Hello sketchers,

What is called the second closest star cluster to our sun? Looking at it with a
scope is of little use, because the grouping covers about 5° of sky. Some of its
stars look so bright in a scope, as if one can almost touch them. So here it is, my
impression of this beautiful naked eye cluster. I used the lowest power available,
but even the fov of 3° is not large enough to cover the cluster. So the sketch is a
composite image of overlapping observations. Because of the low power, the sky-glow
washes out al stars fainter than mag 10.9. I hope you like my impression.

Date : May 5, 2007
Time : 22.00UT
Scope : SkyWatcher 102/500
TV SP 32mm eyepiece
Power : 15
FOV: 5°
Filter : none
Seeing : 2.5/5
Nelm : 5.1
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with a digital tablet and PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Rony De Laet

http://www.geocities.com/rodelaet, my personal website.