M42 and it’s close neighbor M43 are a delight to observe through any size telescope.
I captured these beauties on a clear August morning in 2006. This sketch was
rendered on Strathmore Windpower Sketch paper with a General’s Extra Black Layout
Pencil. Post processing and color added with MGI Photosuite III.
Jason Aldridge
North Port, FL
Medium: graphite pencil and ink on white paper. 20inch f/5 Dobsonian at
Warrumbungles Mountain Lodge, New South Wales, Australia during the Deep South Texas Star Party (this is actually held in Australia) in March 2007. Some, obviously, see
a spider in this incredible deep sky object – I on the other hand see a Hollywood
demonic face snarling at us! Rather fun really when looked at from the safety of 170
klyrs away! Magnification was 212x and actual field of view 0.4 deg.
Rob Esson
Australia
Bow Tie Planetary in Northern Cepheus
In the northern reaches of the constellation Cepheus one can find a planetary
nebula designated NGC 40 or Caldwell 2. This planetary has a bright easily seen
11.5 magnitude central star. The star is extremely hot and was formerly a
Wolf-Rayet star that is currently progressing to the white dwarf stage of stellar
evolution. The portion of the nebular shell I could see was round in appearance
and looked to be about 25” of arc in diameter. The shell glows at 11.7 magnitude
and is best seen by averted vision when not using a nebula filter. With a narrow
band light pollution filter, the nebular shell looked brighter and 30% larger. I
found the unfiltered view more pleasing to the eye and sketched the view without a
filter. Photographs of this object show it to have a pair of bright margin ring
arcs in the east-west direction. These arcs and the central star give the nebula a
bow tie like appearance. I was not able to see bright ring arcs under my observing
conditions with a 10” telescope. The shell spans a bit more than one light year across and lies 3500 light years away. Cepheus is in a favorable viewing location this time of year for northern latitudes.
Sketching:
Date and Time: 9-15-2007, 2:30-2:55 UT
Scope: 10” f /5.7 Dobsonian. 21mm and 12mm eyepieces 70x and 121x
8”x 12” white sketching paper, B, 2B graphite pencils, scanned and inverted, star
magnitude adjustments using Paint
Averted vision was a very useful aid in drawing the extent of this planetary nebula.
Seeing: Pickering 7/10
Transparency: above average 4/5
Nelm: 4.7
Frank McCabe
NGC 246
The medium used: graphite pencil,
The equipment used: 8″ f/10 SCT. Eyepiece 4mm.
Date: 02-09-2000
Weather: very good conditions, clear and transparency.
Big nebula, faint, perfectly rounded and double.
Field rich in stars even inside the nebula, it looks like an open cluster
with surrounded nebula like a sly double Ring.
Leonor
Messier 57, the Ring Nebula
Original sketches are with a # 2 pencil, earser & rubbing stump on white paper
Originals are then scanned into PhotoShop and traced for accuracy of colors and
refinement.
All images have other pertinent information included.
Wade V. Corbeil
Now that summer is winding down in the northern hemisphere, we are approaching the
time when the constellation Hercules is getting lower in the western sky after
evening twilight. Soon it will be too low for ideal evening observation until next
year. Of the three brightest planetaries in Hercules, the one that wins out is NGC
6210. This little bluish planetary nebula is easily located south of the keystone
and glows at magnitude 8.8. The nebula appears slightly elongated in the east-west
direction and sports a 12.5 magnitude central star. The diameter appears to be
about 13” of arc and with a narrow band filter just a bit larger. This planetary
is estimated to be about 6500 light years away.
Sketching:
Date and Time: 9-12-2007, 2:10-2:40 UT
Scope: 10” f/5.7 Dobsonian. 21mm and 12mm eyepieces 70x and 121x
8”x12” white sketching paper, B, 2B graphite pencils, scanned and inverted, star
magnitude adjustments using Paint
Averted vision was a very useful aid in this sketch.
Seeing: Pickering 8/10
Transparency: above average 4/5
Nelm: 4.9
Frank McCabe
NGC 7048
I have a very dear friend who inspired this little deep sky sketch and I wish to
share the story with you.
Stan Waterman and I are very close friends but as astronomers we are ‘poles’
apart. Stan a scientist never looks through his telescopes he uses them as lenses
for his mighty camera. His aim is to locate extra solar planets by measuring the
minute dimming of their stellar light. Clear night after clear night he captures
the photons on his chip from 20,000 distant suns in Cygnus and run’s them through
his self written software program to look for dips. He has been doing this for 5
years and has amassed terabytes of data.
I for my sins am a visual observer and a romancer of the heavens stealing my
photons with pencil and pastel.
In other ways Stan and I are much closer, we both love with a passion all of
natures splendours and discuss its wonders over coffee when our busy lives allow.
We enjoy looking at the star patterns on the PC monitor that his camera has
capture in such profusion. A number of times we have wondered together over an
eye catching pretty, round planetary nebula caught in the web of stars.
These shared wondering inspired me to point my own telescope into Cygnus to
located this memorial to a once fine star and capture it with my pencil.
NGC 7048 Details:
Planetary Nebula
Constellation of Cygnus
Mag 12.1 Angular dimensions 1″
RA 2h 14m 33sec DEC +46deg 19m 23sec
Telescope/observation details:
14″ F5 Newtonian, magnification 175X, fov 0′ 17″
Seeing Ant 11, Transparency good
UHC Filter
Chippingdale observatory, Nr Buntingford, UK
The window of opportunity to explore the treasures of Sagittarius
is fairly brief from my 52 degree latitude observatory. This
coupled with the fact that my southern horizon looks towards the
closest town 2 miles away with the sprawl of London starting just
25miles further on make for challenging observing especially of
diffuse objects.
M17 the Swan or Check Mark nebula is one of the objects which I can get good views
of and one that visitors to my optics agree matches well with its name.
Last week I caught up with this fine and Royal bird swimming on its stellar river.
The view prompted me to dig out this sketch from a couple of seasons back to share
with others.
Scope used 14″ F5 Newtonian at 77x UHC Lumicon filter.HB pencil & blending stump
on white cartridge paper, scanned and saved as a negative with no enhancement.
From the Chippingdale Observatory, Hertfordshire, England.
Clear Skies, Dale
The Homunculus Nebula is one of my personal favorites when it comes to southern
hemisphere deep sky objects. I was favored with good seeing conditions one evening
and attempted a sketch using a soft lead pencil.
The Homunculus (Latin for “little man”) surrounds the notoriously variable star Eta
Carinae. Using a 4mm Plossl with a twelve inch f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain (~760X), this
peculiar reflection nebula resembled a pale yellow bipolar planetary nebula. At
times, I thought the bipolar lobes appeared as a weak reddish color but I could
never hold the sight long enough to be certain. The disc was quite irregular in
shape and displayed much subtle detail. Eta Carinae was also of a subtle yellowish
tint. Indeed, Eta is included in the list of “red” stars compiled by George Chambers
back in the late 19th century.
The ASOD drawing was copied from the original sketch using Photoshop. The airbrush,
blurring and dodging tools were used.
Dave Riddle
Smyrna, Georgia USA
