Category: Star Clusters

Southern Jewels

NGC 4755
NGC 4755

Hello

Here, out of the oven, my new sketch of the open cluster “jewel box”, the NGC4755, also known as Kappa Crucis.
This open cluster is located in the constellation of the cruise, or crux, a few arcminutes of the star beta Crucis.
The NGC4755 has a magnitude of 4.3 is to 7,600 light years from the sun and has an angular size of 10 arc minutes.
It is visible to the naked eye, easily viewed with a 10×50 binoculars.
It’s a pretty crowded and is a champion of the star party audience that occur below 25 ° south latitude.

Thanks

Object data:

Object name: “jewel box”, the NGC4755, also known as Kappa Crucis;

Object type: Open cluster . This open cluster is located in the constellation of the cruise, or crux, a few arcminutes of the star beta Crucis;

Location: Tuiuti city, São Paulo , Brasil;

Date: 28Jul11 22:00h local , 01:00 UTC 29Jul11;

Media: The draft was done using pencil Staedtler Mars lumograph H, HB, B, 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B. Canson 120g/cm3 white paper, with reversed colors in GIMP software.

Telescope reflector 10 inch, f4.7, dobsonian GSO, eyepiece 15mm superview (afov 68°) GSO, finderscope 8×50 erector prism GSO.

22° C , seeing good, light wind, little light pollution to the east, no moon
_________________________________
Guilherme de Andrade
Você olhou para o céu hoje?
http://www.rabiscandoouniverso.com.br

The Eagle Has Landed

Messier 16
Messier 16 - The Eagle Nebula

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.

Messier 92

Messier 92 (NGC 6341)
Messier 92 (NGC 6341)

Object Name: M 92, NGC 6341
Type: Globular Cluster
Constellation: Hercules.
Observing Location: Pioz. Guadalajara. SPAIN.
Date: June 29, 2011
Material used: graphite pencil on white paper. Sketch processed with GIMP 2.
Telescope: Celestron S/C 8″ Mount Cgt5
Eyepiece: 13 mm Hyperion (155X). FOV: 0’44º
MALE: 5,06 Temp.: 13ºC

More information about the sketch and M 92 in:
http://astrodibujo.blogspot.com/

Hundred Thousand Suns

Messier 53
Messier 53

Object Name: M53,
Object Type: Globular Cluster
Location: Fredericksburg, Texas, USA
Date: 06/02/11
Time: 01:30 CDT
Conditions: Clear; Seeing 4/5; Transparency 3/5
Equipment: 280mm SCT, 22mm EP
Medium: Graphite pencil and Blending Stump on white paper. Scanned and color inverted.

This tightly bound spherical collection of over 100,000 rather old stars is roughly 220 light years in diameter, its found in the constellation Coma Berenices. The Globular Cluster was nicely resolved using this scope from a pretty dark site that is some 10 miles out of town.

John Eaccarino

A Globular Offering from the Altar

Hi all,

We’ve had some poor conditions in Eastern Australia for most of this year. I still haven’t had a single productive dark sky night yet! Last night it did clear, but for home, and on a Sunday evening! J LOL!

NGC 6397 is a real treasure of the Southern Sky. This globular cluster is just visible to the naked eye from a dark site. It has many mottled concentrations of stars within its confines, even some extending way beyond its core. Some of these, however, may just be incidental line of site features of other open clusters within our Milky Way as 6397 lies quite close to the centre of the Milky Way in the constellation Ara.

6397 also shares a feature with its more famous brother M4 of a “belt” of stars that cuts through its middle. The component stars of this belt in 6397 are much fainter though, making for a ghostly feature. It is a truly beautiful cluster, and a joy to sketch.

One thing I am not a fan of in my sketches is the blaster “Circle of Confine”, that all to dominant circle that describes the field of view. I rarely use it, but I do have to admit that it has a place. Here I’ve gone for a variation/compromise, laying down a very, very faint arc, rather than a full circle. I really want the sketch to be the feature, not a circle.

Object: NGC 6397
Scope: 17.5” dob, push-pull
Gear: 15mm GSO Superview, 133X
Date: June 5, 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Media: White soft pastel, white & black charcoal & white ink on A4 size black paper.

Cheers,

Alex M.