Star Clusters – Page 37 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Orion’s Belt

Orions Belt Asterism
Sketch and Details by Oscar Ll. (Almach)

Orion’s Belt with 15×70 binoculars – Sketch by Oscar Ll. (Nickname: almach)

Object Type: Asterism

Location: Barcelona – Spain

2009 November, 16

To start enjoying astronomy is not necessary to have a telescope.
With a few simple binoculars, affordable to everyone, you can see a
number of really interesting objects. Even, there are wonders in the
sky because of its size, it is almost an obligation to observe with
binoculars, not with telescopes.

One of these objects is in the Orion constellation and is known as
Orion’s Belt. This is my sketch, made with a HB2 pencil, on white
paper. Inverted and modified some paremeters with Photoshop Elements.

Great Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka with her evanescence companion.

For more details of my observation you can visit my blog:

http://laorilladelcosmos.blogspot.com/2009/11/el-cinturon-de-orion.html

Orion’s Belt (Asterism)

Date and Time: 2009-11-16, 21h 45m UT

Binoculars: Celestron Skymaster 15×70 with tripod.

White paper, HB2 graphite pencil, and scanned and inverted with Photoshop

Seeing: 3/5 (5 the best)

Transparency: Clear. Moderate light pollution.

Location Constellation: Orion

Position: R.A. 05 h 36 min

Dec. -01° 12′

Webmaster’s note: Oscar kindly sent along this text and sketch data. Thank you sir.

Globular Magnificence

M15 (NGC 7078), a bright globular cluster in Pegasus
Sketch and Details by Manuel Angel Pacheco Aguilar

* M15/NGC 7078
* Messier
* Fuente de Piedra, Málaga (Spain)
* 17/10/2009 (23h45m)

Material used:
Pencil and paper
Post Processing in Photoshop CS2

Instrument:
Celestron Telescope S / C 150mm f10 Nextstar and Orion Expanse eyepiece 15 mm 66 º (100x)

Atmospheric conditions:
Transparency good
Seeing: III (I: very bad – IV: very good)

Manuel Angel Pacheco Aguilar

Mars Glides Past the “Beehive”

Mars and “The Beehive Cluster”
Sketch and Details by Michael Rosolina

The clouds parted over West Virginia the other night allowing me to view Mars shortly after it passed in front of Messier 44, the Beehive.

I made this widefield sketch in order to capture the star cluster and its two attendants, Asellus Borealis–the Northern Ass and Asellus Australis, the Southern Ass. In Galileo’s time (about 180 years before Charles Messier catalogued it), M44 was known as Praesepe, the manger, where the Aselli ate their hay.

Praesepe was one of the objects that Galileo scrutinized with his new telescopes, discovering that it was a star cluster and not a nebula or cloud as previously thought. One of his scopes had about 15x, although he didn’t enjoy nearly the field of view that I had with my modern binoculars.

I made this sketch in the field with color pencils on black paper. I couldn’t give Mars the luminous appearance that I observed using color pencils on black paper, so I tweaked it a little digitally.

I am dedicating this drawing to a friend who passed away not long ago. Eric realized his dreams of astronomy by becoming an operator of the 100 meter radio telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia.

Best regards,

Michael Rosolina

Mars and M44
Planet and Open Cluster
Friars Hill, WV USA
3 November 2009 0830-0900 UT

Mars in the “Beehive”

Mars moving through the Beehive Cluster
Sketches and Details by Giorgio Bonacorsi

Hi all , how are you? I see yesterday the last sketch of Jeremy Perez and i say to myself: “I made the same sketch from home in the same day!” and i decide to sent you my last four sketches of “Mars in the Beehive” made with my bino bresser 10×50. I observe Mars also with my refractor 80/1000 at 333x and i see only the polar white zone but no partycular of surface.The best image of this event was throug bino 10×50, very stereoscopic and magnificent vision.
This is all for this moment.Thank you for your kind words, i’m o.k. at the moment, i hope next to sent you my new sketches of deep sky with my Dobson 10″.
Clear sky and good new sketches to all artists!!!

Ciao, Giorgio.

Name:Giorgio Bonacorsi
Site:Pergola,Marche,Center Italy
Date:from 31 October to 3 November
Instrument:Bino Bresser 10×50
Seeing:Good
Temperature:Cold,humidity,no wind.

Mars moving through the Beehive Cluster
Sketches and Details by Giorgio Bonacorsi

Mars Cruises Through the “Beehive”

Planet Mars and M44 (Beehive Cluster)
Sketch and Details by Juan Perez (Juanchin)

Object: Planet Mars and M44 (Beehive Cluster)
Date: November 03, 2009
Time: 0215 LST / 0915 UT
Location: El Mirage Arizona USA
Instrument: Orion 25 x 100 binoculars 2.5 Deg. FOV
Magnitude: Mars +0.5 M44 varying from 6 to 10 or so
Weather: Clear skies with a full Moon, calm winds and temperature of 60 Deg. F

Comments: I wanted to sketch this view a few days earlier when Mars was on the opposite of the cluster. Working the graveyard shift doesn’t allow me to take advantage of the best sky gazing opportunities when they present themselves.For this sketch, I had to wait until my days off from work. I would preffered to have caught Mars cutting through the cluster but I missed that chance. So here it is, Mars is still about 1/2 degree away from the open cluster, shining at +0.5 magnitude and heading in a East Northeasternly direction.The cluster itself contains a select few stars ranging from magnitude 6 to 10 or dimmer. I noted a couple of pale yellow stars but couldn’t distinguish any other subtle colors since I had the Beaver Moon in all its splendor right above me. I hope you all enjoy this sketch as much as I did. Juanchin

Beauty Doubled

The Double Cluster: NGC 869 and NGC 884
Sketch and Details by Ferenc Lovró

The Double Cluster: NGC 869 and NGC 884

This observation and sketch was made near the dawn hour in the Kiskun Astro Camp near the village of Jászszentlászló, Hungary. As the Sun was already approaching the southern horizon, the NELM was getting worse very quickly. Therefore I’ve decided to sketch something easy that is made of many bright stars. All of a sudden I’ve picked the famous Double Cluster, which turned out to be challenging to sketch but with plenty of bright stars. So, I was racing with the Sun, since Venus was already high above the horizon. Under country skies, this pair of open clusters can be seen to the naked eye as a small fuzzy spot near the easily recognizable W-shape of the constellation Cassiopeia. It’s one of the most remarkable objects of the Northern Hemisphere, so I can’t really imagine why it was not included in the famous catalogue of Messier. From my home country it is a circumpolar object, so it can be seen through the entire year. It’s so easy, that it can be resolved with the smallest telescopes or binoculars, therefore it is great catch for everyone. SQM reading: 20.91 m/arcsec^2, 9°C.

Date / Time 2009.07.26 1:30 UT Telescope: 12” f/5 Newtonian 45x FOV: 1° Seeing: 7/10 Transparency: 3/5 Object / Location: Perseus Double Cluster, R.A. 2h 21m; Dec. 57º 12’ Sketching Location: Jászszentlászló, Hungary

Near and Far

NGC 6946 (galaxy) and NGC 6939 (open cluster) in Cepheus
Sketch and Details by Andrew Phethean

Objects: NGC 6946 (galaxy) and NGC 6939 (open cluster) in Cepheus
Location: Kielder, UK
Date: 17/10/2009

Hello, and thanks for featuring my Copernicus sketch some weeks back – I was very proud!

I was recently attending a star party in Kielder, UK. I picked NGC 6946 from an observing guide and when it came into the field of view, I was pleasantly surprised to find not one, but two objects in the FOV. I thought they were both galaxies, because they both appeared smooth and nebulous. However, on checking the observing guide again it appears one of the objects was an open cluster, and sure enough I could make out a mottled texture and resolved some stars in one of the objects, while the other was entirely smooth. I was so delighted I decided to make a sketch. I may not see this charming pair for a long time as my home observing site is not in favour of such faint galaxies. NGC 6946 has a surface brightness of mag. 13!

The scope used was a Skywatcher 120mm ED refractor, and the sketch was made in an A5 WHSmith spiral bound sketch book with graphite pencils. Sketch was then photographed. The inverted image has been adjusted to resemble the view through the telescope, and is consequently quite dim.

Cheers
Andrew Phethean, Aberdeen

A Rose By Any Other Name

NGC 2244, The Rosette Nebula
Sketch and Details by Scott Mellish

Rosette Nebula/NGC 2244
Emission Nebula and Open Star Cluster
Ilford NSW Australia
09/02/97
Black Canford paper
White pen
White pencil
White pastel chalk
Blending stump
Black Pastel chalk

41cm f4.7 Dobsonian telescope
86x Magnification with Oxygen III Filter

This is one of my older sketches done at the eyepiece in 1997.
I spent over 70mins at the telescope trying to glean as much detail as
possible from this extensive object.
I remember being pleased with the end result, and rate it as one of my
better efforts, though scans never seem to do justice to the original
drawing.

I am not one for including to much detail as to “seeing” conditions etc,
as if one does an accurate sketch then it is all there to be seen.

Scott Mellish

Globular or Open Cluster?

Galactic Cluster M11 in Scutum
Sketch and Details by Per-Jonny Bremseth

(Double click image for enlarged view)

Hey!

I send you M.11, “Globular or open cluster?”

This cluster is very special and interesting to observe with
small telescopes. Visually it looks like a fine, open cluster, but
on photos like a globular. I really dont know its true nature.
With its two “wings” of mostly faint stars, M.11 is real nice!

The observation was made with crayons (watercolours) on
black paper only

Observing place: outside Trondheim city, Norway.
More info on my sketch!

Per-Jonny Bremseth

Wild About the Bird

M11, The Wild Duck Cluster
Sketch and Details by Paul Mettam

TYPE: Open Cluster
CONSTELLATION: Scutum
MAGNITUDE: 6.3
DISTANCE: ~6000 light years
AGE: ~ 250 million years
OBSERVER: Paul Mettam
LOCATION: Derbyshire, England
DATE: 14th September 2009
TIME: 21:00 UT
TELESCOPE: 12″ Newtonian f5 x120
MEDIUM: Graphite pencil, inverted

NOTES.

Despite the advances in astro-imaging I have yet to see an image of this cluster that can surpass the view through the eyepiece.
Sketching such a rich and dense cluster is a real challenge so in my drawing I have only located the brighter stars. The cluster stars are randomly placed to try and indicate the main star groupings. The main body of the cluster is (about 10′ x 10′ in area) lies around and to the west of a magnitude 8 (foreground?) star and consists of magnitude 11 to12 stars in distinct groups. Curiously, when viewed with a low power, wide field eyepiece I seemed to suspect a haze of unresolved stars around the main group about 30′ in diameter; is this just my imagination?