Category: Planetary

Colourful Jupiter

Jupiter - November 24, 2012
Jupiter - November 24, 2012

Objekt Name: Jupiter
Object Type: Planet
Location: Koroška, Austria
Date: 24.11.2012
Media: Graphite pencil on white paper. Colours added with Gimp2

On this observation evening, seeing was average (Antoniadi: II-III). After a while it was obvious, that 180x will be the highest practical power.
Inside the SEB I could observe the disturbances behind the GRS. They were clearly brighter and in some moments they even showed some structures. The bright bay around the GRS was also a feast for the eyes. The NEB showed its irregular edge. Connected to the NEB, there were a bump and a small Festoon inside the EZ.
When I switched to 150x, the subtle colours became noticable clearer. The planets surface showed its well known cream-colour. SEB an NEB were a little bit on the brown side. The GRS showed a hue of salmon pink. I even managed to see a blue touch at the little bump of the NEB. I´ve never seen Jupiter so colourful!

“Vivid” sketch of Jupiter & Io

Jupiter and Io - November 18, 2012
Jupiter and Io - November 18, 2012

Dear reader,

Last night (November 18) Io was transiting Jupiter. I made a sketch of the event from 19:30 – 20:00 UT. The telescope used was an Astrosib 250 mm f/8 Ritchey-Chretien, with magnifications between 91x and 370x (Vixen LVW 13 & 22 mm + Barlow). The sketch has been made behind the telescope and drawn with a 3B graphite pencil. However, I played with it in Photoshop (CS4) to mimic the seeing.

Best regards,

Maurice Toet
Zoetermeer, Netherlands

Mercury Transit – 1970

Mercury Transit
Mercury Transit

Hey Artists!

As the time of the “last” transit of Venus is perhaps ended, I would like to show all an old
but spectacular observation of a transit of Mercury I made in 1970.
My sketch shows not only a solartransit, but the planet also passed over a close bipolar
sunspots!!
It was interesting to observ the absolute black Mercury with the umbra in the spots.
The umbra was easy seen brighter. My info on sketch is in norwegian!
This was a lucky observation, indeed!!
Location : Trondheim, Norway.
I used pen and pencil on this original sketch.

Thanks for nice comments on my sketches!!
Have a clear sky and nice time to all!

Per-Jonny Bremseth.

A Conjunction with Some History

Conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Aldebaran
Conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Aldebaran

At the last day of October I sketched a beautiful conjunction between the Moon, Jupiter and Aldebaran. The building in the foreground was my holiday-resort (illuminated by a streetlight), a renovated farm from 1669. By chance: in the first months of 1669 Jupiter was also next to Aldebaran in the sky. So the first inhabitants could have witnessed a similar conjunction. To add some more history: the location was less than 10 km from Middelburg, the town where the telescope was invented!

Clear skies

Jef De Wit

Location: Biggekerke, Netherlands (51°29’ N 3°31’ E)
Date and time: 31 October 2012 around 19.30 UT
Equipment: naked eye
Medium: pastel pencils and soft pastels on black paper (A4), Jupiter and Aldebaran were brightened with Paint

Irresistible Rings

Saturn - July 5, 2012
Saturn - July 5, 2012

Despite the fact that from day to day Saturn is lowering on the sky I decided to make a new sketch of this planet. I was sketching it in December so desire was double. Saturn always looks beautiful especially when its rings are at the appropriate angle like now. But of course that angle is still increasing. On my sketch I tried to show how the planet looks in the eyepiece. Have I done it right? Judge by yourselves.

Object Name: Saturn
Object Type: Planet
Location: Płaza, Poland
Date: 05.07.2012
Media: graphite pencil, white paper

Flight of comet Hergenrother

Comet 168P/Hergenrother
Comet 168P/Hergenrother

Object Name: 168P/Hergenrother
Object Type: Comet
Location: Lochem, The Netherlands
Date: October 7, 2012
Media: Graphyte pencil on white paper, inverted with Photoshop, animated GIF made using www.makeagif.com

Yesterday I observed the suddenly brightened comet 168P/Hergenrother. It now travels through the big Pegasus square and its magnitude is about m10.0 – easily visible in most backyard telescopes. I found the comet very quickly and at 50x my 280mm Dobson showed a littje fuzzy ball with a very faint tail. Higher magnification (150x) showed a bright, almost pinpoint nucleus and a wide tail stretching to the southeast. The best comet in years for me! The movement of the comet was so fast I could sketch it twice in the same starfield within one hour. At home I scanned the image and made an animated GIF to show the comet’s movement.
Unfortunately I can’t send animated GIFs via mail. To view the animation click: http://www.roelblog.nl/2012/10/komeet-in-uitbarsting-168phergenrother/

Kind regards and clear skies,
Roel Weijenberg
www.roelblog.nl

Comet 21P/Giacobini–Zinner

Comet 21P/Giacobini–Zinner
Comet 21P/Giacobini–Zinner

Hey Artists!

I send you the historic comet P/ Giacobini-Zinner (period: 6.6 years) from my observation
in aug, 1985. (info on my sketch).
This comet with the thin tail is the parent body of the Draconid-meteorshower which
had a major outburst 9. oct. 1985.
On that date my friend and I observed and photographed comet Halley while a rain of
meteors crossed the sky from the radiant in Draco. (I found Halley the day before).
I was happy to have seen and observed the parent body G-Z about two months earlier!
I used watercolorcrayons on black paper.
Location: Trondheim, Norway.
Best wishes from Per-Jonny Bremseth.