Category: Nebulae

Treasure of Orion

Treasure of Orion

M42, the Great Nebula of Orion and NGC 1980, star cluster
Sketch and details by Aleksander Cieśla (Wimmer)

Hello! This is my latest sketch of two deep sky objects in the constellation of Orion.

Objects: Messier 42 – The Great Orion Nebula (top) & NGC 1980
Cluster (bottom)
Date: February 22, 2010
Place: Poland, Wrocław
Equipment: Schmidt-Cassegrain 5″ with Antares W70 25mm
Seeing: 2/5
Transparency: 2/5
Weather: Good. Light wind. Moon about 59%
Technique: Graphite pencil. Inverted
Observer: Aleksander Cieśla (Wimmer)

Unsheathing the sword

Orion's Sword

Orion’s Sword: NGC 1980, Messier 42 and 43, NGC 1977, NGC 1981
Sketch and Details by Peter Mayhew
Move cursor over image to view labels.

Location: York, UK
Date: 17th January 2010

How do you do justice to Orion’s sword? Whilst photography can reveal what the eye cannot see, it cannot easily record what the eye does see. Here is my attempt at the winter showpiece of the Northern skies. The more you linger and let the photons work over your retina, the more shades of grey and ripples of dark and light emerge: the scene really sucks you in. The sketch covers two degrees of arc top to bottom, and I viewed through a 25mm eyepiece on my Skywatcher Skyliner 152mm f8 Dobsonian, which gives a field of view of about half the sketch. The sketch was done in graphite pencil on white paper at the eyepiece and then scanned and inverted. Labels added later.

NGC 2392

NGC 2392
NGC 2392 – The Eskimo Nebula
Sketch and Details by Ferenc Lovró

I’ve sketched this planetary about a year ago, I did not mark it as “SKETCHED” in my list of objects, so the result is a new drawing. However, when I compared the two sketches, it was obvious to make this mistake, because now – even if conditions were not ideal thanks to the 50% Moon nearby – I was able to see and record much more details: the brighter arcs around the central star were not at all visible for me, but now they were easily noticeable. The UHC filter was not necessary to observe this object, however it boosted the intensity of the brighter central bubble.

Sketching:

Constellation: Gemini
Right ascension: 7h 30m; Declination: 20° 53′
Date/time: 2010.02.21 20:00 UT
Equipment: 12″ f/5 Newtonian
FoV: 11′ Magnification and filter(s): 300x + UHC filter(s)
Seeing: 7/10 Transparency: 3/5
Observer: Ferenc Lovró
Location: Nádasdladány, Hungary

Object: Planetary Nebula NGC 2392 also known as: Caldwell C39, Herschel H45-4, Eskimo or Clown Face Nebula

Orion’s Verdant Jewel

Messier 42 and 43
Messier 42 and 43
Sketch and Details by Rodrigo Pasiani Costa

Despite I was observing from a small town, the lights affected a little the result. When I do it far from downtown, on a farm, I’m able to see something better. I’ll sketch another one – from the farm – as soon as I can. I hope you enjoy this, it’s my first sketch. The atmosphere conditions were good.

Special thanks to Rodrigo Testa and Ricardo, who helped me a lot with the telescope.

Telescope: 180mm reflector dob. f/6, ATM S. S. Filho

The Lord’s Ring

Messier 57
Messier 57
Sketch and Details by Tomás Ruiz Lara

I’m a lovely fan of the trilogy “The Lord of The Rings”, written by J.R.R. Tolkien. When I’m observing this nebula I always remember Gandalf and his pipe. This is a precious nebula, my favourite planetary nebula, easy to locate, easy to observe and lovely. This Sketch was done with a common pencil and with cotton to sketch the nebula and the stars was created with the program Gimp 2.6.7.
Equipment used, 260 mm newtonian reflector f/6 with a 21 mm eyepiece and a 2x Barlow (Barlow 2x Vixen Deluxe) (149x).
Seeing: 2/5
Phase of the Moon: Crescent but not visible.

Filaments Dispersing into Obscurity

Messier 42
Messier 42 and 43
Sketch and Details by Juan Perez (Juanchin)

Object : Nebulae M42 and M43
Date : January 06, 2010
Time : 1230 LST / 0730 UT
Location : El Mirage Arizona USA
Instrument : CPC 1100 / 25mm Plossl / Orion Skyglow filter
Magnitude : M42/ 4 M43/ 9
Weather : In the chilly mid 40’s almost no winds and clear skies !

Sketching this stellar nursery was no easy task ! I salute all you brave people who have done a great job rendering this difficult deep sky object. I for one, almost gave up not knowing where to start. This seagull, dragon, bat, mustache, etc… has so many highlighted features. There is of course the biggest detail when peering through the scope- the Trapezium. I started with this tiny cluster of four prominent stars. As the scope settled from me not touching it, I soon was able to discern the two other less noticeable stars of the six visible. The Trapezium is largely responsible for the illumination of the reflective portion of this nebula so, its no coincidence that the surrounding cloud of dust is also the brightest. There are two curving arms of nebulosity that stretch vaguely to the north and the other to the south. Under these arms and with averted vision, you will notice intricate filaments of dust that disperse into obscurity. Not far from M42 slewing the scope in a northeast direction, a 9th magnitude star is covered or engulfed with a wispy nebulous aura. I believe, I saw some subtle dark lanes on the southern portion of this nebula which had an elongated and attenuated or diffuse tail pointing away from M42. Anyway, I had spent almost 4 hours trying to see with the corners of my eyes and it was time to give it a break. So here is my final sketch for now, maybe sometime later I’ll include one of the Trapezium by itself. Enjoy !!!

Open Cluster with a Surprise

Messier 46
Messier 46 and NGC 2438
Sketch and Details by Oscar Ll. (Almach)

Object Type: Open Cluster – Planetary Nebula

Location: Barcelona – Spain

M46 is one of my favorites open cluster. But is necessary dark skies without light pollution in order to enjoy with its view.

This open cluster practically fills the eyepiece field with 50x. We can see a large number of stars not too bright, between 9th and 14th magnitude… and the surprise: the planetary nebula NGC2438. To see the planetary I had to use an OIII filter.

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

http://laorilladelcosmos.blogspot.com/2010/01/m46-cumulo-abierto-con-sorpresa-en.html

M46 – Open Cluster / NGC 2438 Planetary Nebula

Date and Time: 2010-01-15, 23h 24m UT

Telescope: SC Celestron Nexstar 5i (5″)

Eyepiece: 25mm (50x)

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

Seeing: 4/5 (5 the best)

Transparency: Clear. Moderate light pollution.

Location Constellation: Puppis

Position: R.A. 07 h 42 min

Dec. -14° 49′

Thank you and best regards.

Oscar

Christmas Great Nebula in Orion

M42
Messier 42
Krzysztof Pieszczoch (Astrokrzychu)

Hi,

It is a Christmas M 42 🙂
This sketch shows how M 42 look likes through 2” binocular. When I was sketching this nebula I had low moonlight on the sky, because the Moon was two day past first quarter. From this reason I didn’t caught more details in M 42.

Object name: M 42 (Messier 42)
Object type: Nebula
Location: Łęg Tarnowski , Poland
Date: 26 December 2009 r.
Time: 21:00 UT
Artist: Krzysztof Pieszczoch (Astrokrzychu)

Equipment used: Binocular 16X50 (2″) FOV 4,25 deg.
weather conditions:
– Temperature about 0 Celsius degrees.

Yours sincerely,
Krzysztof Pieszczoch

Three Parts of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex

M78
Messier 78, NGC 2071, NGC 2067
Sketch and Details by Serge Vieillard

Another sketch made on the second night of observing at La Palma, and with the 16″scope is the beautiful, bright and diffuse reflection nebula M 78 (left center). Other parts of the Orion molecular cloud complex included in this sketch are NGC 2071 far right and below and to the right of M 78 is NGC 2067. This was another quick sketch of the “splendor of Orion” as Serge calls it.
Object: M 78(NGC 2068), NGC 2071, NGC 2067 – Artist: Serge Vieillard – Sketch Date: 10-10-09 – Sketch Location: La Palma in the Canary Islands