I made the sketch at the Okanagan Observatory on July 9 2011.
I used pastels on black paper along with a brush and smudging stump. The stars are a mixture of white charcoal and a white gel pen.
The sketch was done with a 15″ dob using a 20mm Nagler as well as a Lumicon UHC filter.
The SQM-L was 21.24
Thanks
John Karlsson
Vernon B.C.
Canada
Hello everyone,
This last new moon I managed to pin onto paper the fabulous Swan Nebula, M17. After my previous new Moon’s view of it, I’ve been chaffing at the bit to get back to it. It is just so detailed, expansive, and subtle in features.
Most striking is the particularly dark hollow that is surrounded by the ‘neck’ of the Swan. It is so much darker than the surrounding space. Here is a tell-tale-sign of not only a dark pillar obstructing the light from the nebula, but that there is so much background light that comes from the background, invisible stars in this section of the Milky Way, that this dark pillar is just SO BLACK.
My previous look at the Swan had me see for the first time the highly textured nature of the ‘bird’s body’. This time, with the added time spent on looking at it, I noticed so much more extensive nebulosity that radiates out from the obvious avian shape. These extensions themselves are so very detailed.
As my big dob is of the good old push-pull type, the constant manual moving of the scope had my eye picking up this faint network of faint smokiness, that a ‘static’ image from a driven scope may not have allowed to be viewed so easily. Such as the heightened darkness immediately above and below the bird’s back and body, only to have more nebulosity sit above and below it, and even behind it. The effect was akin to a swan emerging from out of a soft bank of fog, and the bird’s movement through it causing a delicate disruption to the fog. Just beautiful.
This was a real challenge to sketch. So much of the object is so faint, needing averted vision to make it out. The mottled texture of the bird’s plumage was extraordinarily difficult to make out and lay down faithfully. So much of this is all averted vision work.
By far my most satisfying sketch to date. I hope you enjoy it too.
Object: M17, the Swan Nebula
Scope: 17.5”, f/4.5, push-pull dob.
Gear: 13mm Ethos (thanks Jim!), + OIII filter, 154X
Date: 30th July, 2011
Location: Mount Blackheath Lookout, NSW, Australia
Materials: White soft pastels & charcoal pencil on A4 size black paper, done over 3hrs.
Alex.
Object Name: NGC 6853 (M 27)
Object Type: Planetary nebula
Location: Cittadella (Italy)
Date: September 10, 2010
Media: graphite pencil, white paper, inverted in Gimp
Instrument: 120 mm achromatic refractor (f/8.3)
Eyepiece: Flat Field 16 mm (62.5x) and O-III filter
Conditions: Clear with some light pollution
A classic planetary nebula observed from a suburban locality. The use of the O-III filter really improves the observation of this object.
Clear skies,
Massimo
Type: Nebula (Supernova Remnant)
Constellation: Cygnus
Observing Location: Bonilla. Cuenca. SPAIN
Date: Jule 30, 2011
Material used: graphite pencil on white paper. Sketch processed with Photoshop.
Telescope: Celestron S/C 8″
Eyepiece: 31 mm Hyperion (65x)
Filter: O-III
NELM: 21,37 mag/arc sg2; Temp.: 18ºC
More information about the sketch and NGC 6992-6995 in:
http://astrodibujo.blogspot.com
Object name: NGC 6888, the crescent nebulae
Object Type: Emission nebulae
Location: Dolbeauc-Mistassini, Quebec, Canada
Date: 2011 september 27
Media: HB sketch pencil and shder brush
Comment:
I made this sketch with my 16 inch Meade LB telescope. This night, I had a good seeing (4/5). It was the first time I saw this nebulae and I enjoyed !! Even in a 16” telescope, it is very hard to notice the object without an OIII filter. Even with the OIII, the object is not luminous. But sketching this object permit me to reveal all the details the object had to give to me 🙂
Object Name: NGC 6888 (Crescent Nebula)
Object Type: emission nebula
Location: Budy Dłutowskie – small village in central Poland
Date: 05.08.2011
Media: graphite pencil, white paper, color invert
Telescope: Columbus 13” (320/1387 Newtonian telescope) + Baader Zoom Mark III (set on 20mm) + Lumicon UHC
Seeing: 2/5
Transparency: 1/5
NELM: 6,1 mag
Hello
It was really good night. Clarity was very good so even faint objects were visible. NGC 6888 – emission nebula in Cygnus (in internet, you can find many pictures of this object and much less observation reports and sketches). Formed by stellar wind from central Wolf-Rayet star (WR136). On sketch you can see shape of crescent and after few minutes of eye adaptation, also faint structures inside nebula were visible.
Clear Sky
Łukasz
Hi all,
HOORAY! A clear dark sky!
This was my first visit to Wiruna, the dark sky site of the Astronomical Society of New South Wales (many thanks to Alex Comino for organizing my stay there 😉 ). This was the stomping ground of Scott Mellish, and it was such a great experience to meet some of his friends up there. He is so sorely missed.
Conditions started marvelously. Using my 17.5” dob, my first squiz of M16, had me gasping “There it is! There’s the Eagle!” So clear was the dark pillar system. So much so that I could also make out the distinct highlighted leading edge of the pillars! Even with an OIII filter! So cool!
This sketch of the Eagle took around two hours to complete.
It was also my first use of another treasure of an eyepiece, a Unitron 16mm Konig eyepiece. What a marvelous eyepiece! Not as long in eyerelief as newer eyepieces, but the image is one of the brightest I’ve seen, and easily has a 70* FOV.
Object: M16, The Eagle Nebula
Scope: 17.5” f/4.5 dob, push pull
Gear: Unitron 16mm Konig, 125X, + OIII filter, 33.6’ AFOV
Date: 2’nd June, 2011
Location: Wiruna, Ilford, Australia
Materials: White pastel, black & white charcoal pencils and white ink on A4 size black paper
Cheers,
Alex M.
Object Type: Bright Nebula
Location: Seyedabad, Iran
Date: May 26, 2011
Media: Graphite pencil on white paper, Inverted in Photoshop
Hi all,
Scope time has been very scarce this year. This sketch was done in April.
Encouraged by my attempt at Eta Carina through my 8″ dob, I trained my 17.5″ dobbie at the same target, again from Sydney.
This time, I also used my Grand Daddy of all eyepieces, a 35mm Masuyama. A bit long for this f/4.5 scope, but my only OIII filter was a 1.25″.
Eta Carina is not only huge, it is a very busy place. There are multiple shockwaves within it, masses of star formation both just initiated in the form of dark pillars, of those whose nuclear fires have just kicked in, nebulae within nebulae, and a super massive star about to go supernova.
This magnificent NASA site shows all of these details.
Again, the Homunculus Nebula is too small at 57X, but the supermassive star, Eta Carina, it is associated with is the bright reddish one.
Armed with a battery of sketching implements, the result of 3hrs is below. Ooooohhh, I am going to have soooooo much fun redoing this one at a dark sky site!
Scope: 17.5″ f/4.5 dob
Gear: 35mm Masuyama, 57X, OIII filter
Date: April 8, 2011
Location: Sydney
Media: white pastel, white & black charcoal pencils, white chinagraph, white and coloured ink on black A4 size paper
Cheers,
Alex M.
.
Hey Artists!
I send you the western part of this remnant, N.G.C. 6960.
Blocking out the star 52, showed, (the northern part) this snake- like ghost between the stars.
A bigger scope would show filaments, but I was happy only to find this remnant.Info on sketch.
I used crayons on black paper, and the observation was done from Trondheim, Norway.
Best wishes from Per-Jonny Brem
