NGC 7023, a reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus
Hi community ASOD, in holidays past summer I had the opportunity to travel to a great place with black skies. A goal Iris nebula in the constellation Cepheus. Easily detected at low power and lose contrast and light passing 100x. The star of magnitude about 7 something brighter northern main oval, followed by gaseous envelope that covers most of extension. In the south 2 star within the gas cloud, leading to the isosceles triangle with the brightest star. A magnificent object late summer.
This is my sketch of the Swan Nebula, NGC6618. It was sketched through a Meade Research Grade 12.5″ F/6, using a Celestron UHC filter and a Nagler 16mm Type 2.. La Verne, CA is located in a Red Zone. Thanks for looking!
Object Name – Messier 57, The Ring Nebula
Object Type – Planetary Nebula
Location – Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Ireland
Date – 06 August 2014
Media – Graphite pencil on white paper (Image inverted)
This is my first sketch of M57. Observations were made using an Orion XT10i and a 17mm Wide Angle (65° FOV) lens.
The seeing conditions were average, however i made the sketch from my back garden under light polluted skies. There was also a half moon present which added to the skyglow.
I used averted vision to notice the subtle features of the slightly elongated nebula. The central star was not seen in my telescope.
Observations were made with and without a DMC Narrow Band Pass Nebula filter. The filter slightly increased the contrast of the nebula while obscuring the background stars.
Overall I am very happy with how it came out.
I would like to show, through this drawing, how the seeing is important to observe and describe very little objects.
Object: NGC 1999
Object type: reflection nebula and globule
Constellation: Ori
Date of observation: 2011 10 01
Length of observation: 60 min
Height of object above horizon: 28.5°
Observing site: Observatoire des Baronnies Provençales (Southern French Alps)
Observing conditions; exceptionally good, mag limit 6.7v, SQM 21.50, FWMH 0.9” !!!
Instrument: Dobson Obsession 25”
Eypiece: Ethos 6mm, without filter, power 520x
Notes: I am astonished: at the eyepiece, I have in front of me a delta winged aircraft, perfectly clean. Extremities of wings are curved, the “head” of the craft easely detailleable. The encreasing of bright nebulosities around the head and at the back of the wings have also been noticed.
The caracteristic blue color of reflection nebulae is obvious.
Object Name: (Dumbbel Nebula M27 / NGC 6853)
Object Type: (Nebula)
Location: (Bercedo (Burgos) – Spain)
Date: (2012-09-15 / 23h 15m UT)
Media: White paper, 4B, 2B y HB graphite pencil, scanned and inverted with Photoshop
Telescope: Celestron OMNI 127 XLT (Smith-Cassegrain 5”)
Eyepiece: Baader Hyperion 13mm
Transparency: Clear, Rural Skies.
Location Constellation: Vulpecula
assessments: Dumbbel nebula appears a manner reminiscent even hourglass, but as if it had moved from side to side and left as a halo (something like a horizontal X but faded)
For more details of my observation you can visit my blog:
This was the first sketch I completed at Astrofest in Queensland, Australia. I’ve been wanting to sketch this beautiful dark nebula ever since I first laid eye on it some three years ago. This dark nebula, B86, goes by the popular name of “The Ink Spot”. It sits smack bang in the centre of the densest star cloud in the whole sky, the Cloud of Sagittarius. And what sets it off even more is B86 has a gorgeous bright open cluster right next to it, NGC 6570. Both objects are more-or-less the same size as each other, even though both are not very large themselves. But it is the juxtaposition of these two very different objects against the blaze of the Milky Way that makes this pair a spectacular pairing.
Dark nebulae are clouds of dust and gas that are drifting through the Milky Way galaxy. Many of these conglomerations of dust and gas do end up being formed into stars and planets, but most just end up forming the fabric of the galaxy. In fact, the stars that we see actually only form a small percentage of the actual mass of galaxies. By far the greatest amount of a galaxy’s mass comes from this very dust and gas. The Ink Spot is a small patch of cloud. It is a very opaque nebula too. Dark nebulae are categorised according to their opacity, or how dark they are. The scale of opacity goes from 1 (very tenuous) through to 6 (very opaque). While the opacity of The Ink Spot may be a 5, it is because that it sits in the Cloud of Sagittarius that makes is a striking object.
The little open cluster NGC 6520 really works very well in setting off B86. Open clusters are groupings of stars that are all related to each other having been formed out of the same parent cloud of gas and dust. Evidence for this is seen in the spectra of the stars displaying the same chemical make up. The brothers and sisters of our own Sun have been identified this way, with the same chemical signature as our Sun having been identified in several close by stars even though the Sun’s ‘siblings’ have long drifted off away from each other. Open clusters are loose groupings, so even though they formed from the same source, their gravitational connection to each other is not strong enough to keep the group together for too long.
For me, this tiny patch of sky is one of my most favourite. Tiny and oh so precious. Brilliant, dark, stark, ghostly. All in one. Gorgeous.
Alexander Massey.
Object: The Ink Spot, B86 & NGC 6570
Telescope: 17.5″ push-pull Karee dob
Gear: 13mm LVW, 154X
Location: Linville, Queensland, Australia
Date: 24th July, 2014
Media: Soft pastel, charcoal and white ink on A4 size black paper.
Duration: approx. 3hrs
NGC 6309, “The Box Nebula” and per Stephen J. O’Meara in his book “The secret Deep”: The Exclamation Mark.
NGC6309 – Exclamation Mark Nebula
Object Type: Planetary Nebula
Location: Tarragona – Spain
NGC6309 is one of the two planetary nebula with the nickname “The Box”, (the other is NGC6445 in Sagittarius), but after my experience with it, I prefer name NGC6309 like Stephen J. O’Meara in his book “The secret Deep”: The Exclamation Mark.
For more details of my observation you can visit my blog:
