Nebulae – Page 36 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Late Summer Snowball

NGC 7662, The Blue Snowball, a planetary nebula in Andromeda
Sketch and Details by Oscar Ll. (Nickname: almach)

NGC7662 is one of my favorite planetary nebula for one simple reason: I can see a delicate blue color on it, something unusual in deep sky objects. The sketch was made with a HB2 pencil with a little help of a white snowball cotton… on white paper. After this, inverted, colored the planetary and modified some paremeters with Photoshop Elements.

For the main sketch I used 69x. With this magnification I can see clearly the color. With 250x (the theorical useful magnification limit of my telescope) I can see more detail of its structure, but I “loose” the planetary color.

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

NGC 7662 – The Blue Snowball (planetary nebula)
Date and Time: 2009-09-10, 21h 25m UT
Scope: Celestron Nexstar 5i, SC 5″ (127mm). 18mm (69x) and 5mm (250x) eyepieces
White paper, HB2 graphite pencil, and scanned and inverted with Photoshop
Seeing: 4/5 (5 the best)
Transparency: Some clouds. Moderate light pollution.
Location Constellation: Andromeda
Position: R.A. 23 h 26 min
Dec. +42° 33?

Thank you and best regards.

Oscar

Seven Enchanting Sisters

M45, The Pleiades Star Cluster in Taurus
Sketch and Details by Tomás Ruiz Lara

This Sketch was done with a common pencil and with cotton to sketch the nebulae around the stars (Taygeta, Maia, Electra and Alcyone).
Equipment used, 114 mm newtonian reflector f/8 with a Vixen Plössl 32 mm (28x).
What to say about M 45? The most famous open cluster of the northern hemisphere. The vision with an eyepiece with low magnification is spectacular.
Seeing: 3/5
Phase of the Moon: Gibbous

Object Name: M 45, The Pleiades
Object Type Open Cluster
Location Úbeda, Jaén, Spain.
Date 25 – Sept – 2007

Tomás Ruiz Lara

Ghost of a Blue Saturn

NGC 7009, The Saturn Nebula in Aquarius
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Saturn Nebula NGC 7009

This planetary nebula was one of the first “nebulae” seen and recorded by William Herschel during the summer of 1782. Since my skies are loaded with sky glow, it is not possible to see the ansae (handles) at the ends of the long axis of this beautiful bluish planetary nebula. With the ansae visible this planetary nebula very much resembles a blue version of the planet Saturn with its rings edge on. At high magnification the white dwarf central star is easily detectable with 18” of aperture although the view is much better under dark transparent skies.

Sketching:

NGC 7009 Saturn Nebula (planetary)
Date and Time: 8-25-2009, 4:15 4:50 UT
Scope: 18” f/5 Dobsonian. 24 mm eyepiece 95x
8”x12” white sketching paper, 2H, HB, graphite pencils, light brown color pencil,
blending stump, scanned and inverted
Seeing: 7/10
Transparency: Average 3/5
Faintest stars visible overhead 4.3
Temperature: 20°C (68°F)
Nebula magnitude: 8.0, Central star 11.5
Distance: 2000-4000 ly
Location Constellation: Aquarius
Position: R.A. 21 hrs 4 min
Dec. -11° 22′

Frank McCabe

Mountain Swan

M17 (NGC 6618) the Swan Nebula in Sagittarius
Sketch and Details by Dan Israël

Object Name M17
Object Type Emission nebula
Location Molines-en-Queyras, France
Date 20/08/09

This sketch was made in a small hamlet in the French Alps (elevation 1900m), using a 250mm Dobsonian telescope with a 13mm wide field eyepiece (92 X) and an Oxygen-III filter. The sketch was made on the spot with graphite pencils on white paper.

regards,

Dan

Triangle in the Veil

NGC 6979, Pickering’s Triangle
Sketch and Details by Robert Twarogal (Ignisdei)

Hy!

Finally I sketched and send You the third part of the “Veil Complex”
known as Pickering’s Triangle.

This is a very fleeting and weak nebula for an observer, So I think lot of
details in the sketch are a result of my imagination.

Best regards
Robert

Sketch details:
Object Name : NGC 6979, Pickering’s Triangle.

Object Type: Nebulae/emission/reflection
Location: Poland/ eastern Poland , Molodycz
Date: 20.08.2009 y,
Equipment: Meade Light Bridge 12”, Ultrablock 2″ and SWAN 40mm.

Artist: Robert Twarogal (Ignisdei)

Ghostly Crescent

NGC 6888, The Crescent Nebula
Sketch and Details by Robert Twarogal (Ignisdei)

Yesterday I have seen the perfect sky- almost ideal
A small village( eastern Poland) , Molodycz complete isolated from the
LP and surrounded by dense forests, hole dark as coal :),
unfortunately there was a damp meadow (“Newtons” soon became wet )

Range was about 7 magnitude

What happened that moment in the sky was a spectacular experience.
Incredible depth of stars of the Milky Way. I made my first
approach to sketch the Crescent Nebula. Is was visible even in finder Soligor 8*50.
I spent over 45 minutes in enucleateing subtle details of the fibers.
Many of them was such an alchemy of looking, Next day I compared it
with a photograph, I was surprised – some of them I added and a lot of
them left – the result of the seeing fluctuations and my perception.
I have used the LB 12 “, ultrablock 2″ and SWAN 25mm. Believe me I’ve
seen everything in the image ,recording step bay step.
If You have got a dark skies I encourage You to observe Crescent – it
is really worth doing.

Edition in Gimp: improving the centers of stars (only the white dot),
turning the color in negative,and the compensation levels for curves.

Great regards Robert (Ignisdei)

Sketch details:
Object Name : NGC 6888, The Crescent Nebula
Object Type: Nebulae/emission/reflection
Location: Poland/ eastern Poland , Molodycz
Date: 18.08.2009 y,
Equipment: Meade Light Bridge 12″, Ultrablock 2” and SWAN 25mm.
Object: – Artist: Robert Twarogal (Ignisdei)

Heavenly Sisters

M45, The Seven Sisters
Sketch and Details by Per-Jonny Bremseth

Hey!

I send you “Heavenly Sisters”.

The open cluster M.45 or “Pleiades” is a very fine object to
observe with binoculars and telescope.
I made a study of this cluster in some clear nights in nov.2003.
First I observed M.45 with a 10×50 binocular, then I observed with
my 20.3 cm. SCT, f/10 with different oculars.
To see the Meropenebula, I blocked out the star Merope with
50x on my telescope, swept slowly over the area south of the star
and at last I could see this faint nebula.
The “Seven sisters” have got many babies do I see, with
whom, Perseus??
I used crayons (watercolours) on black paper only.

My observation was done north of Trondheim city, Norway,

Best wishes from Per-Jonny Bremseth.

Eye for the Iris

NGC 7023, The Iris Nebula
Sketch and Details by Milosz Guzowsk

Hi,

Today I’d like to present beautiful nebula from Cepheus.

– Object Name (NGC 7023)

– Object Type (Reflection nebula)

– Location (Poland/Białuty)

– Date (16.08.2009)

– Scope (10″ newtonian + ploosl 10 mm)

– Medium (Graphite/blending stump on white paper + GIMP processing)

Milosz Guzowski

Lagoon from high altitude

M8 (NGC 6523), The Lagoon Nebula
Sketch and Details by Jeff Young

Our summer holidays again found us in Colorado (I hail from there, even though I now live in Ireland), where I was able to do some high-altitude observing. This sketch of M8, the Lagoon Nebula (and the associated cluster NGC6530, to the left of center) was done at the Blue Lakes Drive turnout, about ¾ of the way up Hoosier Pass. The pass itself is some 11,500’; I’d guess the turnout is at about 11,000. Conditions were pretty good for this site (I’ve recorded up to a 21.8 on the SQM in the past).

HB pencil on white cardstock; scanned and inverted in Photoshop.

10” Dall-Kirkham (Mewlon) on AP600EGTO mount; UO 32Mk-80 with UHC filter; 100X.

Cheers,

— Jeff

Eye of the Giraffe

NGC 1501, a planetary nebula in Camelopardalis
Sketch and Details by Przemysław Horoszkiewicz

Sketch information:

Obiect name: NGC 1501
Scope: Sky Watcher 10″.
Eyepieces: LVW 8 (150x) + UHC-Lumicon
Place: Poland, Zielona Góra (A few kilometers from city).
Seeing: 9/10 !!
Date: 25.12.2008r
Technique:Pencil,graphics GIMP2.
Amateur astronomer: Przemysław Horoszkiewicz (Poland).