Nebulae – Page 40 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Frozen Crab with T600

M1, The Crab Nebula in Taurus
Sketch and Details by Bernard Augier

Messier1

The Crab Nebula

Dobson T600

I was surprised not to found many drawing of the famous Crab Nebula,
espacially with large apperture scope (over 11″).

So I decided to draw my own with a 24″ Dobson F/D 3,3 on equatorial
platform. I’m living in French Alps, in a little village.called Saint
Etienne-de-Tinée.

In fact it takes me two nights on 28 and 29 december 2008. Temperature of –
11°C, Lightly windy, SQM at 21.20 not so good.

It is very usefull to use plenty of various magnification from 100 to 800
and observe without and with OIII filter.

It results (in) plenty of different perceptions and the sketch is really a
combination of all of them.

Without filter the shape of the nebula is smooth and familiar with “gulf” on
the two sides, and a sort of mushroom on the top. With filter, the
perception is surprising with a very “fat” shape on whch you can see the
famous filaments, and the border is ruffled and tormented.

The best wiew was at x200 with OIII.

Bernard Augier

Thor’s Helmet

NGC 2359 “Thor’s Helmet”
Sketch and Details by Serge Vieillard, translation by Frank McCabe

Thor’s Helmet NGC 2359 in Canis Major

Using an ultra compact 250 mm.Newtonian telescope to observe Serge wrote (Roughly translated from French):

I was staying in the Sahara just south of the oasis town of Djanet, during the 2nd week of January, 2008. The only drawing made of a deep sky object during this tremendous journey was of NGC 2359, although other numerous, spectacular objects were visited. The vision of this beautiful nebula in the T250 with an OIII filter shows a nice structure centered on a rather complex bubble, with filaments and of well defined tormented outlines. This quick drawing suffers from some imperfections, notably the absence of nebulosity that was visible and the misplacement of one of the wings. This object was so beautiful that I promised myself to revisit it again.

Messier’s Candle Flame

M1 (NGC 1952), the Crab Nebula
Sketch by Janis Romer and text by Frank McCabe

Crab Nebula

The excellent sketch above was made by Janis Romer with her Criterion 8″ f/8 Netownian telescope and is the Crab Nebula, M-1 or NGC 1952. This nebula is a supernova remnant with a rapidly rotating central pulsar that can be seen telescopically in the constellation of Taurus near the tip of the southern most horn (Zeta Tauri). The visual magnitude is about 8.5 and the diameter is 11 light years at a distance of 6,500 l.y. The stellar supernova explosion that became the nebula was first seen in the summer of 1054 AD as a daytime guest star. Twenty seven years after John Bevis discovered the nebula in 1731, Charles Messier cataloged it in September of 1758. Charles Messier saw it as an elongated glow in the shape of a candle flame.

A Cat’s Claw in the Bubble

The Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635
Sketch and Details by Serge Vieillard, additional text by Frank McCabe

Serge wrote:
“It was a pleasure to discover the Bubble NGC 7635. A portion of the transparent sphere can be seen with the edge looking like a cat’s claw.”

This beautiful sketch of the portion of NGC 7635 that is known as the Bubble nebula of Cassiopeia was made using an 18 inch Obsession telescope while Serge was in Spain during September of 2007. You can see that the 9th magnitude, young hot O-type star that is shedding its outer surface (stellar wind) and creating this bubble arc is not centered. This is due to the resistance to expansion created by a portion of the surrounding molecular cloud that can be seen glowing in part to the left of the arc. The Bubble is known today to be a diffuse emission nebula and was discovered by Fredrich W. Herschel in 1787.

Wide Field Orion

M42, The Great Nebula of Orion
Sketch and Details by Daniel Stępniak

Daniel Stepniak’s beautiful wide field sketch of the Orion Nebula is a spectacular example of just what wonders await those with even modest apertures. He has submitted several others that will featured on ASOD.

All the sketches were made from suburbs of medium city- Sochaczew,
Poland. Unfortunately, there’s here big light pollution.
I’ve used small newtonian telescope- Synta 114/500 and NPL15mm (33x) and
made it with graphite pencil.
I like sketching during watching the sky. I think it’s the best way to
show what we are able to see using the telescope.

Daniel Stępniak

In Memory of Charles Munton

Planetary Nebula NGC 1514
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

There is a little story behind these that I would like to share. (Frank is already aware of the situation and has been of great support). About a month ago it was brought to my attention that a fellow astronomer whom I knew, but not well had been stricken with cancer. The unfortunate gentleman was Charles Munton, it was Charles work displayed at Astro Fest in London a number of years ago that first encouraged me to begin sketching deep sky objects.

Varible Reflection Nebula NGC 1554, 1555 Hinds
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

Charles was very ill and was spending his last days in a hospice. I came up with a plan to write to Charles each week with a summary of my observations and prints of my sketches, this I did also sending in sketches and pictures from other friends too, including Frank McCabe & Sue French. Charles was delighted to receive the packages and they appeared to do what I set out to do, keep him engaged with his passion and let him continue observation and discovery in a virtual way.

Galaxy NGC 1587 in Taurus
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

Because I was doing this for Charles I felt compelled to get out at every clear opportunity to create sketches for him. The sketches attached were part of that program. I had just completed NGC 1514 when my phone rang in the observatory, it was Andrew Robertson a close friend and observational sparring partner to both Charles and Myself. Andrew broke the news that Charles had gone!

Galaxy NGC 1589
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

These are pictures for Charles that sadly he will never see.

As usual they were created using my 14″ f5 Newtonian running a Watec 120n Deep Sky Video camera, sketches made in real time from a black & white monitor using HB pencils, blending stumps and erasers on cartridge paper. Finished sketches then scanned and turned into negative images electronically.

Dale Holt
Chippingdale Observatory
Hertfordshire
England

Space Ghost

M1(NGC 1952), the Supernova Remnant in Taurus
Sketch and Details by Przemyslaw Horoszkiewicz, text by Rich Handy

The ghostly apparition of a stellar explosion that appeared in 1054, M1 or NGC 1952, is beautifully portrayed by Polish amateur astronomer Przemyslaw Horoszkiewicz. M1 is 6,500 light years distant and is approximately 10 light years in diameter.

Sketch information:
Obiect name: Messier 1 (NGC 1952)
Scope: Sky-Watcher 254/1200
Eyepieces: Super Plossl 25mm
Place: Poland, Zielona Góra (A few kilometers for city)
Seeing: 7/10
Date: 29.11.2008 r
Technique:Pencil,graphics GIMP2
Amateur astronomer: Przemysław Horoszkiewicz (Poland)

A Pearl Within It’s Shells

Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 in Taurus
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Planetary Nebula NGC 1514

The last time I examined this planetary on a not so transparent night with my 10″ scope and using an ultrablock filter, I was disappointed with the view. Last night that all changed. Between nightfall and 3 am local time the seeing and transparency was about as good as it gets in these parts. I used my largest scope to take advantage of the good seeing and rare transparency. NGC 1514 is a double shelled planetary nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The outer faint shell was not at all visible at the eyepiece. The brighter irregularly illuminated inner shell which is about 1.9′ across was easy and much enhanced by the filter and averted vision. The bright central star was clearly blue and is classified as a late O-type star. This star is believed to be a close, short period binary with an A-III type companion. The apparent magnitude of the central star is 9.5. This planetary was discovered by William Herschel 218 years ago this month.

Location: R.A. 4 hrs 9 min. 17 sec.
Dec. + 30° 46′ 33″

Sketching

Date and Time: 11-29-2008, 4:15-5:20 UT
Scope: 18” f/5 Dobsonian. 21 mm Hyperion eyepiece 109x, ultrablock filter,
8”x11” off-white recycled sketching paper, 2H, 2B, 6B graphite pencils, yellow crayola sketching pencils, blending stump, eraser shield, scanned and inverted, some star magnitude adjustments and background made after scanning using Microsoft Paint.
Temperature: -3°C (26°F), calm
Seeing: Pickering 8/10
Transparency: Above Average 4.5/5
nelm: 4.8

The Blue Snowball

NGC 7662, The “Blue Snowball”
Sketch and Details by Jeremy Perez

Observation Notes:

The ‘Blue Snowball’ nebula didn’t disappoint, and shone with a subtle cyan-green color when I aimed the Dob at it. It was elongated roughly north-south and had an uneven appearance. The main shell was shaped like a soft, round-edged pentagon. The east side was brightest, while the northwest side opened up to allow a darker intrusion into the nebula’s core. This brighter shell appeared to be surrounded by a slim, subtle halo. Although I could not see the central star, another neighboring star paired itself with the snowball, about 1 arc minute to the northeast. The nebula itself appeared to be about 30 arc seconds in diameter.

Object Information:

NGC 7662 was discovered by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel in 1784. It is also cataloged as: PK106-17.1, H IV-18, h 2241, GC 4964, PN G106.5-17.6

Subject NGC 7662
Classification* Planetary Nebula (4(3))
Position* Andromeda [RA: 23:25:53.93 / Dec: +42:32:06.1]
Size* 32″ x 28″
Brightness* 8.3 vMag (9.2 bMag)
Date/Time OCT 29, 2008 – 10:30 PM MST (OCT 30, 2008 – 5:30 UT)
Observing Loc. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA – Home
Instrument Orion SkyQuest XT8 (203 mm dia./1200 mm F/L)
Eyepieces/Mag. 10 mm Sirius Plössl (120X) + 2X Barlow (240X)
Conditions Clear, calm
Seeing 5/10 Pickering
Transparency ~ Mag 6.5 NELM
*References NGCIC.org

Clown or Eskimo?

The Clown Face Planetary Nebula NGC 2392
Sketch by Serge Vieillard, text by Frank McCabe

The Clown Face Planetary Nebula NGC 2392

Sketch by Serge Vieillard

The brightest planetary nebula in the constellation of Gemini is NGC 2392. You may call it the Clown Face or Eskimo Nebula but whatever designation you use this is an impressive sketch that shows the fine filaments visible across the face. Serge Vieillard used the 24 inch Cassegrain telescope in the French Alps at St. Veran Observatory to make this detailed close up sketch in October of 2008. Our perspective has us looking down the maw of this planetary that was measured to be about 1060 years old just a few years back. The central star is magnitude 10.5 and the nebula is visual magnitude 9.1. This planetary can be found at: R.A. 7hrs. 29min. 10.5 sec., Dec. +20° 54’ 42”