Category: 02_Media

Alpha Persei Cluster

Alpha Persei Cluster
Alpha Persei Cluster

Using the brightest star of Mirfak in the constellation Perseus, it was easy to find the surrounding star field known as “Melotte 20” or “Collinder 39”, the Alpha Persei Cluster field is beautiful. Once fully in focus, the first thing I said was, “Wow.”

Object: Alpha Persei Cluster
Date: February 8th, 2014 – 9:30 – 10:30pm CT
Location: New Braunfels, Texas – back yard
Conditions: 42°F, clear with waxing gibbous moon
Instruments: 10×50 Wide-Angle Binoculars
Medium: Graphite on white sketch paper, inverted

Stars of Jen
http://stars.jenbishop.com

Crater Agrippa

Crater Agrippa - February 6, 2014
Crater Agrippa – February 6, 2014

Hello friends artists,all ok?

after many days of bad weather,yesterday i have clear sky(only some
little clouds).The Moon was at zenith over my roof at first
quarter,behind my home Orion giant,Jupiter near zenith.
Clear starry sky and good air are good after work day….
I mounted my refractor Vixen 90/1300 on terrace and i take my eyepiece
12,4mm erfle,the image was steady and i decide for 12,4 plus barlow for
much magnification…..and,after,i decide to take my 3mm planetary.
At first the image was steady but, after 30′ turbulence and clouds
disturbe the clear and steady Moon ……i stopped my sketch……
Well,good night for me!!
I sent to ASOD and i hope like you.
Ciao a tutti!!
Giorgio

Site: Pergola,Marche Region.
Date: 06 of February 2014
Moon: Crescent(7 days after new)
Telescope:Refractor Vixen 90 / 1300
Magnification: 433x
Eyepiece: 3mm planetary
Seeing:Not good,turbulence at the end.

Messier 42 and 43
Messier 42 and 43

Bonjour,
Un dessin de M42 réalisé sur 2 nuits (7h d’observation) au T400 en Nouvelle Calédonie. Tous les grossissements ont été utilisés, mais principalement 300x. Ciel perfectible avec des passages nuageux génants.
C’est un dessin original format A4, en négatif couleur sur un champ préétoilé, colorisé L, V(OIII), R(H-béta) , reprise des étoiles sous photoshop.

J’en profite pour rappeler la sortie de notre ouvrage commun
“ASTRODESSIN, Observation & dessins en astronomie”
http://www.astrodessin.com/

Serge

PS : désolé pour la langue anglaise !

[English Translation via Google Translate]

Hello,
A drawing of M42 performed on two nights (7am observation) at T400 in New Caledonia. All magnifications were used, but mainly 300x. Perfectible troublesome sky with clouds.
This is an original drawing A4 format color negative on a préétoilé field colorized L, V (OIII), R (H-beta), resumption of stars in photoshop.

I want to remind the release of our joint work
“ASTRODESSIN, Observation & drawings astronomy”
http://www.astrodessin.com/

Serge

14.16-day-old Moon

Gibbous Moon - February 14, 2014
Gibbous Moon – February 14, 2014

I’ve been doing a study on lunar phases and this is my latest sketch. This is a photo of it from last night after wrapping up my observing session. No adjustments have been made to the sketch other than cropping the lower blank portion of the paper.

My phase sketches used to take close to two hours to complete at the eyepiece. I’ve been building up my endurance to 3-4 hours for a single sketch to include more detail. Obviously, the terminator is drawn first to “freeze” the time stamp on the phase. Then I work my way across the disk at a more leisurely pace, moving my observing chair and stool gradually as the session progresses.

I used a 102mm f/9.8 refractor on an LXD75 mount, 20mm eyepiece setting on my Hyperion zoom, and a 13% T Moon filter to help with contrast. The media is black Strathmore Artagain paper (60 lb., 160 g/m2), white charcoal pencil, black charcoal pencil, white Conte’ crayon, white Conte’ pastel pencil, black Conte’ color pencil,and a blending stump for the maria. I used a circular 6-inch protractor to outline the lunar disk.

Total eyepiece/sketch time is just over four hours on this one.

Best regards,
Erika Rix
www.pcwobservatory.com
Texas, USA

The Bipolar Homunculus

Carina Nebula
Carina Nebula

Object Name: The Homunculus. η Car. Keyhole Nebula. Carina Nebula.
Object Type: Bipolar nebula. Star. Dark Nebula. Emission Nebula.
Location: San Miguel, Buenos Aires Argentina.
Conditions: NELM 4.8-5.1. Good transparency, acceptable seeing. Moonset (Waxing Gibbous).
Date: 12/01/2014 3:30 am.
Media: 2H, HB, blend stump and PS.
Equipment: Meade LB 12″ on equatorial tracking platform. Plossl 10mm + x2 Barlow.

Hi ASOD! This time I’ve drawn the incredible Homunculus and the surrounding nebula along with the stars. As a beginner, the sketch was a challenge for me. I`m not sure if the Keyhole and Carina nebula are 100% correct because of the light from early summer sunrise. Anyway, the Homunculus was amazing with interior dust lanes and notches.

Best regards. Leo

M82 and Supernova News

SN 2014J in M82 - February 2, 2014
SN 2014J in M82 – February 2, 2014

Object Name (SN 2014J in M82)
Object Type (Supernova in galaxy)
Location (Provence – France)
Date (Feb 2nd 2014)
Media (graphite pencil, watercolour on white paper)

Hello sketchers, here is my contribution to the observation of SN 2014J.

From Jan. 23rd till Feb. 11th I spend a lot of good time with the M82 supernova. Sketching the galaxy, estimate the visual magnitude and made watercolour of the sceneries.
Sometime I observed with friends and their materials, sometime I’m alone on the middle of no where, between the Provencal wild nature and the dark sky. Here in south France the temperature is quite high for the season but wind blows, so, often I place my car to protect the 12” Dobson from the mistral.
Attached is a kind of “auto portrait” (yes, that’s me!), from a photo I take tonight. On the basis I add the AAVSO curve with my own visual observations (blue cross is DMIB).

The technique used is inverted watercolour, so I invert the colours of the sketch while scanning. For the galaxy this is common sketch black on white – inverted.

Thanks to read this, clear sky to you all !
Michel

http://astro.aquarellia.com/

Side by Side Test: 5″ ED-Apo vs. 12″ Achro

Mars, Jupiter, Saturn - January 18, 2014
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn – January 18, 2014

5″ f9 refractor, x240 ]
12″ f10 efractor x350

location ; Backyard home in South. Korea
white paper [40 x30 cm] , graphite pencils , black ink
Date of observe/ sketch ; jan, 18. 2014.

Cook Crater

Cook Crater - February 3, 2014
Cook Crater – February 3, 2014

Object-Cook crater, Moon
Type-Crater
Location-Bangalore, India
Date-3-Feb-2014
Media-0.7mm click pencil, eraser, Processed with PS5…
Seeing condition-Average from city.
Instrument- Sky130mm f6.9Newtonian and Ioptron SmartEQ portable GEM.. 6mm eyepiece…

Hi guys, I sketched this after few weeks… I used Blade to whiten the crater borders….

Regards,
Santhosh S

White Storm on Jupiter

Jupiter - February 5, 2014
Jupiter – February 5, 2014

* Object Name: Jupiter
* Object Type: planet
* Location: Laboulbène (Tarn – France) N43.66 E2.22
* Date: 5th February 2014 22h45TU
* Media: pencil HB + 2B, white drawing paper, scanned + rescaled + colorized with PhotoPaint

Orientation: eyepiece view, no image flipping
Conditions: Lot of humidity, 3°C, no wind.
Equipment:
– Dobson Orion XT12 (305 x 1500mm => F/D 5)
– Eyepiece Panoptic 15mm + barlow x 3 Televue (mag x 300)

After a heavy rain, the sky suddenly went cristal clear. So I took my Dobson to a dark lane.

After having a long M82 supernova contemplation, I payed attention to Jupiter.
Its moons were in a rare configuration: all on the same side, but forming a trapeze instead of a line.
From left to right: Io, Callisto, Ganymede, Europa.

I was surprised by the amazing sky quality, seeing perfectly the Great Red Spot and some detail on tropical strips.
I saw an unusual white wave on the right side of the GRS I wanted to keep in memory by doing this sketch.

I could not establish if it was a continuous stream (as I draw it) or a suite of white storm clouds.
I did not find recent picture of Jupiter to confirm.
If somebody observed this, or made a picture at the same period, thanks for leaving a comment.

Thanks for your interest.
Jean-Marc Saliou
APAM astro club