emission – Page 23 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

The Ghost of Alnitak

NGC 2024, The Ghost of Alnitak
By Rony De Laet

Hello,

We’ve had a full week of clear nights! So every night, after work and family, I tried to capture some DSO targets. This one is a little bit of a special object because I drove to a darker site some 130km from home to sketch it. I’ve glimpsed NGC 2024 at home before, but it always remained a uncertain view. The most annoying thing is the bright presence of Alnitak. I tried to keep Alnitak out of the way, but it didn’t work. Otherwise, NGC2024 would not be such a tough target. More to the south is also the weak glow of NGC2023. So here is my sketch, from the highest point of Belgium : a whopping 690m asl. There was still sufficient oxygen in the air to breath

Date : February 12, 2008
Time : around 22.00UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
Eyepiece : 15mm Plösll
Power : x33
FOV: 90′
Filter : UHC
Seeing : 3/5
Transp. : 4/5
Nelm : 5,8
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Two Views of the Spider

The Tarantula Nebula, NGC 2070 wide field view
By Eiji Kato

NGC 2070, The Tarantula Nebula

Eiji Kato has captured these two marvelous views of the NGC 2070, the Tarantula Nebula in the southern hemispheric constellation of Dorado, the Dolphin fish, Xiphias, or the Swordfish. This immense region contains stars forming in their nascent cacoons of gas and dust. Previous stellar death is rampant here as well, remnants of their past existence, shells of excited gas, glow amidst strong interstellar winds. Mr Kato’s beautiful sketches show two perspectives, one a wider field view and the other near center. Most of Mr Kato’s exceptional drawings were made using an 18.5″, f/4 reflector. Some later drawings were made with a 18.1″, f/4.5 reflector.

The Tarantula Nebula, NGC 2070 near center view
By Eiji Kato

Eiji Kato lives in Australia and operates the TwinStar Guesthouse Observatory.
Please make a visit to his gallery of fine drawings.

Hands to Claim Unbounded Night

The Great Orion Nebula, M42 and M43
By Serge Vieillard

This color drawing of the Great Orion Nebula was created by Serge
Vieillard during a trip to the Libyan desert to view the Solar
Eclipse of March 2006. Serge created this colored pencil drawing as a
negative on white paper and inverted it after scanning to create the
positive image seen here. In order to get the colors correct for this
inverted image, he did extensive testing beforehand so he had the
correct complimentary colors in his sketching supplies (an orange
pencil for the blue-green hues, and a green pencil for the rose
colored areas). Serge spent two hours illustrating this magnificent
nebula. He notes that two hours was not nearly enough to sufficiently
capture all of the fine detail visible.

In Search of IC 1318

The Gamma Cygni Starfield
By Rony De Laet

The Gamma Cygni Starfield, in search of IC 1318

Here is a sketch of a crowded milky way starfield. I waited for Gamma Cyngi to reach zenith, in an attempt to glimpse IC1318. I did not know what to expect and centered on Gamma Cygni. I was worried about the amount of stars that would be visible within the field of view. The UHC filter helped in reducing the number of faint stars to be drawn. I spent almost two hours behind the eyepiece. So here is my impression. I don’t know if I succeeded in observing IC 1318, I just represented the luminosity observed with the UHC filter.

Date : October 14, 2007
Time : 21.00UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
TV Plössl 32mm
Power : x16
FOV: 192′
Filter : Lumicon UHC
Seeing : 3.5/5
Transp. : 3/5
Nelm : 5.2
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Spiritual Sky

IC 1848, The Soul Nebula
By Rony De Laet

IC 1848 : The Soul Nebula

While sweeping the scope through the Heart & Soul region, my retina pics up lots of brightness variations of the sky background. A rather bright region is defined as IC 1848 : the combined glow of unresolved stars and patches of an emission nebula. The view is best appreciated without a filter under dark skies. Under not so dark skies, an UHC filter is of great help. The backdraw is a loss of delicate starglow. Here is my impression, made with an UHC filter under a mag 5.7 sky.

Date : December 27, 2007
Time : around 18.00UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
Eyepiece : Meade SP 26mm
Power : x20
FOV: 150′
Filter : Lumicon UHC
Seeing : 4/5
Transp. : 4/5
Nelm : 5.7
Elevation : 800m ASL
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Partial View of the Heart

A partial view of the Heart Nebula, IC 1805
By Rony De Laet

While IC 1848 appears as a distinct glow in the eye-piece, IC 1805 is a more difficult object to frame. IC 1805 is too large for my lowest power eye-piece. And the background is filled with starglow, competing with the subtle glow of the nebulosity of IC 1805. It’s hard to tell where the nebula dominates the glow. I decided to center the Northern part of IC in the EP. Why? Because I found the starfield with NGC 1027 an attractive area. NGC 896 just fell on the border of of my fov. Therefore it remained invisible to my eye. It occurs to me that I should return my gaze to this interesting piece of sky to capture the Southern part of IC 1805. Funny thing is that I reconned that my little scope would provide plenty of fov for large objects. And then I ran into an object like IC 1805. Maybe some bino’s might fill in the task in the future. Here is the sketch. (I must point out that not all the ‘glow’ represented in the sketch has a nebulous origin.)

Date : January 2, 2008
Time : around 21.00UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
Eyepiece : Meade SP 26mm
Power : x20
FOV: 150′
Filter : Lumicon UHC
Seeing : 3/5
Transp. : 3/5
Nelm : 4.9 with moments of 5.2
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

A Winter Trip to California

NGC 1499, The California Nebula
By Rony De Laet

Hello all,

Another challenging object suggested by Sue French is the California Nebula. The object has been imaged very often, mostly with an H-Alpha filter. I tried several times from within my backyard to locate NGC1499 visually with my four inch scope. With the H-Alpha images in mind, I expected to see an obvious streak of light in the eyepiece. Of course, my nelm 5.2 sky did not offer me such a view. At home, I suspected some nebulosity North of Xi Persei. I wondered what the Alpine sky would reveil of NGC 1499. My findings were at first dissapointing. I saw the same nebulosity as from my backyard, only did it show up more obvious. The way NGC 1499 appears to me visually would not inspire me to call it a California shape. Nevertheless is NGC 1499 a very interesting object for the patient observer. I estimated the Nelm in Austria (Bisschofshofen) that night around mag 5.7. A better sky would offer a more detailed view for sure. Here is my impression.

Date : December 27, 2007
Time : around 17.30UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
Eyepiece : Meade SP 26mm
Power : x20
FOV: 150′
Filter : Lumicon UHC
Seeing : 4/5
Transp. : 4/5
Nelm : 5.7
Elevation : 800m ASL
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Tenuous Apparition

NGC 896
By Rony De Laet

Hello sketchers,

Last week, my family and I were on vacation in Bischofshofen, Austria. I managed to bring my little Skywatcher along. The weather was great. Three nights were clear! With multiple layers of clothing, I withstood the freezing cold for about 90 minutes each evening. Here is an observation of a portion of the large nebulosity cataloged as IC 1848 and IC 1805 : NGC 896. Sue French described this object as small and bright. I found NGC 896 rather faint in my scope. An UHC filter plus wiggling the scope helped to bring out some detail. Here is the sketch.

Date : December 29, 2007
Time : around 17.30UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
Vixen LV Zoom at 14mm
Power : x36
FOV: 85′
Filter : Lumicon UHC
Seeing : 3/5
Nelm : 5.7
Temp : -6°C
Elevation : 800m ASL

Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

One Wild and Distant Duck

The Wild Duck Cluster, M11
By Jeremy Perez

M11 holds a special place for me. It was the first deep space object I viewed through the new telescope–besides M45 & M31 which I had seen before. It was very exciting to see something with my own eyes that prior to that night I never even knew existed. It was a symbol for me of what else lies in the sky that I don’t yet know about. Beautiful. A striking collection of stars. I revisited it this night under less than perfect conditions. It was diving into some of the worst light pollution from my home vantage point. Oh, and the moon was starting to rise. It demonstrated dense and mottled granularity, with numerous resolvable stars winking in and out across the surface. (Did I mention seeing was really bad too? 3/10. Right.) Anyway, one bright star dominates the center of the cluster, and 2 others close stars reside just outside to the SSE. (It should be noted that these bright stars are actually foreground stars, and aren’t part of the cluster.) The overall shape of the cluster is circular with a central cloud surrounded by a gap, and then a rough ring of stars. OK. I know I’ve said this before, but once more for emphasis: to me, the “Wild Duck” name doesn’t just look like a V-shaped ‘flock of ducks’, but actually looks like a duck raising it’s wings to take to flight, with the head at the SW side of the central concentration of stars, and the wings curling around on the NW and SE sides. The dimension of the main body of the cluster appeared to be 7′ across.

Factoids:
M11 is one of the richest and most compact of the open clusters. It is 6,000 light years away, and contains around 2,900 stars. If our planet were in the midst of this cluster, we would see several hundred brilliant first magnitude stars scattered across the night sky. Amateur astronomy would probably be pretty tough in a sky so brightly lit at all times. M11 was discovered in 1681 by Gottfried Kirch, first resolved into stars in 1733 by William Derham, and then included in Charles Messiers catalog in 1764. Its age is currently estimated to be 250 million years, and it is receding from us at 22 km/sec.

“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