Messier 46 and NGC 2438
Sketch and Details by Paul Byrne
This was rendered with a fine point pen for the stars, the nebula was sketched with charcoal and blending stump.
I observed the cluster through a 305mm Orion Newtonian and 13mm Nagler. The date was 9th January 2010 at 01.12 UT, it was very cold with a sharp northerly wind, the temperature was well below freezing.
The nebula was not visible until an O-III filter was inserted and it popped into view.
Thanks for your time.
Paul
Mars on November 29th, 2009
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe
As the month of November closes Mars appears larger (9.8” arc) in the eyepiece than earlier in the month. The distance to the red planet at the time of the sketch was 143,600 km. (89, 200 miles). It is nice to see Mars so high in the morning sky, growing bigger and brighter each day as the distances continues to close.
The central meridian was at about 10° lomgitude at the time of the sketch. When I finished I checked a Mars map to identify features I was seeing during moments of good seeing. From north to south they were: the North Polar cap, Mare Acidalium, Niliacus Lacus, central Chryse, the side by side sinuses of Margaritifer and Aurorae, and finally Mare Erythraeum. If you are up before daybreak on a clear morning step outside and take a look at Mars as its disk gets bigger and brighter.
Sketching:
White sketching paper 8″ x 6″; HB graphite pencil, soft charcoal pencil for sky background, blending stump for blending orange Crayola pencil. Brightness decreased at scanning by -2 using scanner
Date 11/29/2009 – Time 8:00-9:15 UT
Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 6mm eyepiece 261x
Temperature: 9°C (39°F)
partly cloudy, humid, calm
Transparency 4/5
Seeing: Pickering 7/10
Frank McCabe
Lunar crater Copernicus
Sketch and Details by Krzysztof Jastrzebski (Jarzbi)
Hi.
I’m sending the charcoal sketch of the crater Copernicus immersed in darkness.
Object Name:
* Object Type (Moon: Copernicus crater)
* Location (Skawina City in Poland)
* Date (03 May 2009, 20:00 UTC)
* Equipment: Synta 8” Dob, Eyepice SP10 mm.
Greetings,
Krzysztof Jastrzebski (Jarzbi)
Lunar crater Archimedes
Sketch and Details by Krzysztof Jastrzebski (Jarzbi)
Hello.
This is my new charcoal sketch: large lunar impact crater Archimedes.
Object Name:
* Object Type (Moon: Archmiedes crater)
* Location (Skawina City in Poland)
* Date (02 May 2009, 20:00 UTC)
* Equipment: Synta 8” Dob, Eyepice SP10 mm.
Greetings,
Krzysztof Jastrzebski (Jarzbi)
The Conjunction of the Moon and Venus
Sketch and Details by Juan Perez (Juanchin)
Object: Moon / Venus conjunction
Date: February 27, 2009
Time: 19:15 LST / 02:15 UT
Location: El Mirage , Arizona USA
Instrument: Oberwerk 12×60 5.7 deg FoV
Detector: visual observation
Weather: Scattered Wispy/ translucent clouds; poor seeing; temperature-low 70’s
Comments: This amazing view consisting of double crescents is what caught my attention. Considering the cloudy situation, there were occasional breaks when I was able to get a good glimpse of the spectacle, giving me the chance to memorize some details for this sketch. The 1 degree or less separation of this waxing meets waning event was well worth waiting for the “clear” breaks. At most the seeing had a wispy fog like film in the atmosphere that gave Venus a glowing effect sort of when optical equipment gets plagued by dew.
The sketch was done using charcoal pencils; 2B 4B 6B; Reeves nylon hair paint brush for a stump;Strathmore drawing medium paper; Windows Paint for inversion, coloring and text.
Juanchin
NGC 7000, The North American Nebula
Sketch and Details by Jeremy Perez
Observation Notes
From a dark location with a good pair of binoculars, this rich, starry field is filled with a tapestry of nebulosity. While staying at Flying W Guest Ranch in Oklahoma, I found myself sitting under the stars one clear, dark evening. I had just finished a sketch of The False Comet, and turned my binoculars to the North America Nebula. I spent enough time putting a crick in my neck to appreciate the enjoyable shape from which it gets its name. To work on my sketch however, I needed a more comfortable position. So I attached my Mirror Mount and relaxed for a nice long observation. The mirrored image took some of the spice out of the view, since the North America shape was flipped, but if you’ve seen images of it a million times, that little twist can be a nice way to help keep the observation honest!
After drawing the star field, I got down to the business of finding the contours of the nebula. The Gulf of Mexico appeared to have both a strong, shallow boundary, and a softer, deeper boundary. The Central America leg had the most pronounced edge to it. To the north, within the Canadian section, there appeared to be three very subtle dark fingers, reaching down like glacial valleys. Across the abyss of LDN 935, the Pelican Nebula made a very faint appearance. When added to the glow of NGC 7000, these two nebulae give a saguaro cactus shaped appearance to the dark nebula that divides them. Finally, I noted the orange and yellow-orange embers of four stars burning across the beautiful field. Don’t pass this majestic sight up if you are under a dark sky with binoculars this time of year.
Rather than shade the nebula ‘in the field’, I drew contour lines to note progressively brighter regions of the nebula. I traced and re-mirrored the sketch when I got home and took my time shading it under well-lit conditions, using the contour sketch as a template. I prepared the sketch on a 9″ x 12″ sheet of vellum bristol using a chamois to apply charcoal shading. I used my kneaded eraser to mold the boundaries and keep them true to the contour drawing.
I should also note that I attempted a naked-eye sketch of the Cygnus Milky Way, including the North America Nebula, but was unable to come close to completing it. The complex structure of the Milky Way and this nebula were difficult to tease apart, but I hope to try again and document how this object appears to the naked eye.
Object Information
Situated three degrees west of the brilliant star Deneb, the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) is a visual test of dark skies. Readily photographed, it can be a challenging visual target unless conditions are dark and clear. It is also quite large, and best seen in whole with wide field instruments, especially binoculars. NGC 7000 is part of a larger nebula complex that includes IC 5067 and IC 5070 which is known as the Pelican Nebula. This emission nebula is bisected by a large dark nebula catalogued as LDN 935. A finger of this dark nebula is responsible for the well-defined ‘Gulf of Mexico’ region. If the star illuminating the emission nebula is Deneb, then the complex would reside about 1800 light years away and span a width of 100 light years.
NGC 7000 (The North America Nebula) was discovered by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel in 1786 and is also known as Sh2-117, LBN 373, H V-37?, h 2096, GC 4621. IC 5067 is also catalogued as LBN 353 and IC 5070 is also catalogued as LBN 350.
Subject North America Nebula (NGC 7000), Pelican Nebula (IC 5067, IC 5070), and LDN 935
Classification NGC 7000, IC 5067 and IC 5070: Emission Nebula
LDN 935: Dark Nebula
Position* Cygnus:
NGC 7000: [RA: 21:01:48.0 / Dec: +44:12:00]
IC 5067: [RA: 20:47:48.0 / Dec: +44:22:00]
IC 5070: [RA: 20:50:48.0 / Dec: +44:21:00]
LDN 935: [RA: 20:56:54.5 / Dec: +43:52:00]
Size* NGC 7000: 100′ x 60′
IC 5067: 25′ x 10′
IC 5070: 60′ x 50′
LDN 935: 150′ x 40′
Brightness* Unspecified
Date/Time AUG 05, 2008 – 01:00 AM CST
(AUG 05, 2008 – 06:00 UT)
Observing Loc. Flying W Guest Ranch, Sayre, Oklahoma, USA
Instrument 15 x 70 Oberwerk Binoculars
Eyepieces/Mag. –
Seeing 4/10
Transparency ~6.5 NELM
*Sources NGCIC Project; Wikipedia
Crater Wilhelm West of Tycho
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe
Last evening I was experiencing clear yet cold conditions for sketching. With skies expected to remain clear until after midnight and the moon high in the southern sky I chose a sketching target near the terminator just west of Tycho and north of Longomontanus. This region is part of the ancient highland crust of the moon and many of the craters here are very old, battered and partly hidden by younger impacts. I centered this sketch on Wilhelm (108 km.) a Pre-Nectarian crater that is somewhat difficult to trace on its western wall with several 20 km. craters there crushing the rim. Multiple impacts hammering on the east floor along a ridge was clearly evident. Immediately to the south of Wilhelm the remains of crater Montanari (77km.) could be seen. All parts of the south wall of this crater are hidden by layers of impacts all the way to Longomontanus (not in the sketch). I also included in this sketch to the west of Wilhelm the third Pre-Necterian crater Lagalla (85km.). Again most of the south wall is beaten down.
In the lighting provided by proximity to the terminator this was a rewarding area of the moon to observe and sketch. I stopped when my fingers went numb after 4 short breaks to warm up. It was a beautiful night to observe the moon as long as you were dressed for the cold.
Sketching:
For this sketch I used: White CPP sketching paper, 9”x 12”, HB and 4B charcoal pencils, a blending stump, gum and pink pearl erasers. After scanning, Brightness was slightly decreased (-2) and contrast increased (+2) using Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6mm eyepiece 241x
Date: 1-6-2009 1:30 – 2:50 UT
Temperature: -8° C (17° F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co-longitude: 26.8°
Lunation: 9.55days
Illumination: 67.1 %
Phase: 70°
Frank McCabe
Mirach and NGC 404
Sketch and details by Frank McCabe
As the constellation Andromeda climbed high in the eastern sky, I used this opportunity to sketch dwarf spiral galaxy NGC 404 and nearby second magnitude star Beta Andromedae (Mirach). Beta Andromeda is a red giant star of class M0 III and 199 light years from us. This bright star appeared golden to my eye and is a mere 6.5 arc-minutes from its “ghost” the galaxy NGC 404. This 10th magnitude galaxy has been classified as E0, lenticular (a category between elliptical and spiral) and more recently spiral class S0. At a distance of 10 million light years it is 50,000 times further away than Mirach. William Herschel described NGC 404 as a nebula in 1784. The position of galaxy is approximately R.A 1hr 10min, Dec. +35° 37’.
I made this sketch in the early morning of August 31, 2008.
Sketching
Date and Time: 8-31-2008, 5:10-5:40 UT
Scope: 18” f/5 Dobsonian. 175x
8”x11” white recycled sketching paper, 4B soft charcoal pencil, HB hard charcoal pencil, blending stump, eraser shield, drawing re-sketched indoors because of much smudging, scanned and inverted, some star magnitude adjustments made after scanning using Microsoft Paint.
Seeing: Pickering 7/10
Transparency: Above Average 4/5
Nelm: 4.8
Frank McCabe
NGC 457: The Owl Cluster
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe
At a distance of 9,300 light years (2850 parsecs) this youthful open cluster is about the same age as the Perseus Double Cluster – eight million years old. NGC 457 in Cassiopeiae is composed of nearly 100 stars brighter than magnitude 13 and many fainter members. The cluster has several names including the Owl cluster, the E.T. cluster, the Phi Cas. cluster and others. The two brightest stars here, Phi Cas. and HD7902 may not actually be members of this open cluster but rather foreground stars. These two stars form the bright eyes of the owl. Phi Cas. is a magnitude 5 yellow star and HD 7902 is a magnitude 7 bluish star. If the brighter member is a cluster star at 9,000 light years it would have a luminosity of 275,000 suns. The integrated visual magnitude of this cluster is about 6.4 and it is 16’ across. This object was discovered by William Herschel in 1787. It can easily be found 2° south-southwest of delta Cas. (R. A. 1h. 22’, Dec. +58° 2’).
Sketching
Date and Time: 8-11-2008, 5:20-6:40 UT
Scope: 10” f/5.7 Dobsonian. 13mm eyepiece 111x
8”x11” white recycled sketching paper, 4B soft charcoal pencil, HB hard charcoal pencil, blending stump, scanned and inverted, some star magnitude adjustment made at the time of scanning.
Seeing: Pickering 5/10
Transparency: Average 3/5
Nelm: 4.2
Frank McCabe
Craters Cuvier, Heraclitus, and Licetus
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe
It has been a long time since I have attempted to use charcoal pencils on white sketching paper but I found an unused pair among my drawing supplies. They turned out to be less messy than ones I have used in the past. I liked the way they worked on the medium weight drawing paper I had on hand.
Two years ago in March of 2006 the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Smart-1 imaged the crater Cuvier to test the high resolution camera (AMIE) with great success. I noted this crater was well placed along the terminator last evening for sketching. No sooner than having seen it, I decided it would be my target for sketching. Cuvier a 77km walled-plain crater is eastern most in the sketch. The crater has a nearly flat, lava flooded floor and at 3.5 billion years old is still younger than its neighbor to the southwest Heraclitus. Elongated crater Heraclitus is from the Pre-Imbrian period and dates back more than 4 billion years. A central mountain ridge runs down the center of this crater from northeast to southwest. This ridge line was illuminated in the morning sunlight. Within the shadow of this crater 25% of the dark southwest floor is occupied by Heraclitus D. Finally the large 74 km. crater to the northwest is Pre-nectarian crater Licetus. It like Cuvier infringes upon Heraclitus.
It was a beautiful night to observe and sketch the moon.
Sketching:
For this sketch I used: White CPP sketching paper, 9”x 12”, Number 4B charcoal pencils, a blending stump, gum eraser and an eraser shield. After scanning, Brightness was slightly decreased (-2) and contrast increased (+2) using Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6mm eyepiece 241x
Date: 6-11-2008 1:05 – 2:05 UT
Temperature: 24° C (76° F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co-longitude: 358.9°
Lunation: 7.29 days
Illumination: 55.1 %
Phase: 84.1°
Observing Location: +41°37′ +87° 47′
Frank McCabe
