Object Name: Comet PanSTARRS C/2011 L4
Object Type: Comet
Location: Near Grant, AL, USA
Date: Feb. 13, 2013, Approx. 7:35PM CDT
Equipment: 4-inch (100×25) Binoculars, Red Backlit Panel, Soft Pencils, and Tracing Paper. Used multiple layers for different colors to assemble drawing using the computer.
Description:
Comet PanStarrs was only visible for a short time on the 13th (about 1/2 hour), but we were able to sketch several individual layers to assemble a color drawing of the Comet in the Sunset/Twilight. We were going to take an astrophoto, but realized that a drawing might work better, given the twilight. Glad we switched! The white coma and red dust tail contrasted strongly in the view.
Object Name (2011-L4 PanStarrs)
Object Type (Comet)
Location (Val d’Issole – Provence – France)
Date (2013 March 18th)
Media (Watercolour on 300gr white paper, scan but no digital adaptation)
Hi comet hunters, here follows my contribution.
March 18th, 19:24 UT, from a small hill of the Val d’Issole, I had a nice view of our PanStarrs comet.
It was raining during the first part of the day, but then after a strong “Mistral” wind, the sky was completely cleaned, really pure, just in time for the evening view. I was able to see the tail easily with unaided eye. With a 102/1000 refractor, 25x eyepiece, I made a quick sketch, that was just one minute before the nucleus set followed quickly by the tail. Then at home I made the watercolour. A very nice spectacle indeed!
Comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS
Location: Pesaro
Date: 16/03/2013, sketched from 18:50 to 19:10, local time.
Black pencil on white paper
It has been really difficult to find the comet it in the evening sky:
no stars around to use for reference and apparently invisible to naked
eye. Once found it was indeed barely visible with naked eye, not to
everyone though. I made this sketch trough the telescope, fortunately
a star was visible next to the comet trough the scope, it should be
HIP2671, according to stars visible in photographs took by friends at
the same time (this is consistent with coordinates of the comets given
by JPL Horizon’s ephemeris for that time)
Object: Comet PanSTARRS C/2011 L4 and Crescent Moon
Date: March 12, 2013
Time: Approx. 19:25 LST/ 02:25 UT
Location: ~2500ft or 762m atop Harquahala Mtn range near Aguila Arizona USA
Gear: Binoculars 8 x 56 6 degree FoV
Detector: Visual Sketch
Magnitude: Comet 1 Crescent Moon -5.6
Weather: Clear sky, windy at higher elevation of mountain, Temp- mid 60’s.
Comments:
Hello friends of ASOD!,
It’s been quite some time since I last posted anything on this site, but I finally got in gear and produced this colorful scene. I must admit that this was by far the best view and conjunction of PanSTARRS and the Crescent Moon. I had scouted some scenic spots around the neighborhood but none gave me the Southwest look I had in mind.
Harquahala Mounatins here I come!
A mild to tracherous climb on my “4×4″ and 5 miles later at 2500ft elevation, I found what I was looking for. There in the distance of a sloping mountain stood a set of Saguaro cacti and Ocotillo trees, silhouetted against the backround twilight sky. The sketch was not made on site, it would take me forever and the setting conjunction only had another 20 to 25 minutes before it was gone. A rough sketch was in order, jotting down pertinent objects and annotating further details like; varying colors of the twilight sky, degree of earthshine on the Moon and so on.
I made I mistake!
Well, in choosing my paper grade, I got a Canson 12″ x 18” / 30 x 45 cm. with a slight texture finish on the surface. I was loving the results as I first lay down the sky colors but, later on, I was noticing that there were tiny uncolored pockets left uniformly. I continued anyhow, but it would give a hard time later when I added the comet. Some of those pockets were as big as the comet itself and would render it almost invisible. Well, I worked around it until I was satisfied. I might have given PanSTARRS one full magnitude more than necessary but, I’ll do it for the sake of showing it. Out in the field, remember, you had to squint your eyes or avertedly look for it, if you knew its whereabouts.
Dang iphone!
Convenience over quality. I cheated by not connecting my scanner to the computer and instead took a picture of the sketch. Once on my phone, I messed with the exposure and contrast to liven up the colors somewhat. I also used it to put some text at the bottom of the sketch along with my name. Well, you be the judge!
I send you my observation of comet PANSTARRS from Norway.
The comet was nice (in twilight sky) in binocular and scope, but
difficult with naked eyes. Info on my sketch.
I used pencil on white paper and inverted in color.
This time I used a 8″ Dob f/ 6 .
Observation made outside Trondheim, Norway.
yesterday I sketched the comet C2011 / L4 Panstarrs. It was very hard, to find the comet near the brightened horizon. Jupiter and the moon were wachting over us from above 😉 My friends and I “scanned” the sky with our binoculars (10×50, 7×50 and a zoom). Shortly after seven o´clock p.m. we found this 2 mag bright object. We was somewhat disappointet, because we thought he was brighter and larger.
At my TMB 115/805 I used 25 – 70x with a zoom eyepiece and the 31mm Nagler. So I wondered about the little consendation head and the two shorter different long tails of the comet in the eyepiece. Most fotos shows us a slim comet with star-shaped head.
Hope you like the famous comet. There are only a few sketches in the www, but many photos 🙂
CS Uwe
Object: comet – C2011 L4 Panstarrs
Brightness: about 2 mag
Date: 15.03.2013 – 7.00 p.m.
Location: near Würzburg Germany
Conditions: – 4°C, no wind, quite air
Telescope: TMB 115/805 No. 083 with Baader Zoom eyepiece
On the evening of March 12, 2013, I was treated to a pleasant view of the 1.26 day old Moon (1.8% illuminated) and comet C/2011 L4 Pan-STARRS from 07:00pm to 07:20pm local time Mesa, Arizona. I had an excellent view of the clear western sky and I could see the comet naked eye about 6.5 diameters to the south of the Moon.
To assist in making the rough graphite sketch I used a 5x 50mm finder scope removed from an Orion telescope. After returning home from Arizona to Illinois I made a color drawing from field notes and the graphite sketch. I was planning on a color sketch but the number of colors need and blending seemed too much for the 30 minutes to comet set.
Sketching:
Graphite pencils: 6B, 4B and 2B also black and white pastel pencils on white sketching paper.
Color drawing was made with black and white charcoal pencils and an assortment of color pencils on medium blue paper.
yesterday the weather was the first time very good. And the night was great. After many deep-sky-impressions I waited for Saturn and the air was as good as possible.
It is my first Saturn sketch in 2013 and I sketched the ring-planet without any helps. So I need about 20 minutes for the ring system only. It is very hard to sketch it quite well and it needs little work in the warm living room after the session. 😉
Location: Germany, near Tauberbischofsheim
Altitude: 360m over sea level
Temperature: – 4°C
Air: very good
Telescope: TMB 115/805 on Vixen SXD Mount 160x- 200x
