Planetary – Page 34 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

A Real Treat: C/2009 R1 (McNaught)

C/2009 R1 (McNaught) at 75X
By David Antao

Bonjour,
Nom de l’objet : C2009R1 Mc Naught
Type de l’objet : Comète
Magnitude : 9.2
Lieu : Fayssac (Tarn) France
Date : le 21 mai 2010
Médias : Crayon à papier sur feuille à dessin, puis scan et négatif.

Bonjour à tous,

Je me suis levé cette nuit à 3h30 du mat, pour pouvoir jeter un œil sur cette comète qui arrive ( C2009R1 Mc Naught ).
Je l’ai trouvé très facilement ( je m’attendais à voir quelque chose de faible ). Elle est assez brillante déjà et même assez grosse. Elle ressemble beaucoup à Holmes pour l’instant. Cela laisse espérer de belle observation à venir !
Pour l’instant elle est à Mag 9.2 et elle arrivera jusqu’à la Mag 4.6 prévus ( C’est-à-dire plus de 50 fois + brillante quand ce moment ). Et avec peut-être des sursauts ? Et une queue ?
Un vrai régal !

A très bientôt
David ANTAO

Hello,
Object name : C2009R1 Mc Naught
Object Type : Comet
Mag: 9.2
Location: Fayssac (Tarn) France
Date: May 21, 2010
Media: Pencil to paper on leaf to drawing, then scan and negative.

Hello to you all,

I got up this morning at 3.30 to have a look for this comet that arrived( C2009R1 Mc Naught ) I found it very easily
(I expected to see something weak) It is quiet bright and big. For a moment it looked like Holmes. It will be a very impressive observation. At the moment the comet is at Mag 9.2 and will arrive till Mag 9.2 as foreseen.( So more then 50 times and bright)
And perhaps with some jumps? And a tail?

A real treat!

See you soon,

David

C/2009 R1 (McNaught) at 231X
By David Antao

A Missing Belt

Jupiter with Missing Cloud Belt – 1990
Per-Jonny Bremseth

Hello!

I send you my sketch from 1990 of the planet Jupiter with missing south equatorial belt. Now, the last week the SEB have again disappeared, and great disturbances have made the southern part of the planet light.

My sketch shows a chaotic northern equatorial belt (NEB), with a great, white spot along it, and a light southern half!

I used crayons on black paper. The observation was made outside Trondheim city, Norway.

Jupiter is too low for me this time, so good luck to others!!

Best wishes from Per-Jonny Bremseth.

The Moon and Venus

Moon and Venus
By Carlos E. Hernandez

I was able to view the Waxing Crescent Moon (2 days old) and the planet Venus (-3.94m) over the western sky on May 16, 2010 (00:45 U.T.). The Moon and Venus were approximately six degrees apart. Earthshine was very noticeable over the unlit portion of the Moon. The pair was spectacular over a bluish-gray sky with low cumulus clouds floating over them. I hope that others were able to view the event as well.

Comet Tuttle and Messier 33

Comet Tuttle and Messier 33
Sketch and Details by Giorgio Bonacorsi

Hi,astronomy lovers,how are you? I’m fine now, i sent you the last sketches of Tuttle, realized behind my house with binocular 16×80. I have realized this in three time: first the comet and stars around Tuttle, second the stars in the central of view, third M33 and the stars around them.
The temperature are very icy,but the sky are fantastic!
Good year and clear sky.
Ciao, Giorgio.

Mars Pastel Sketch – February 5, 2010

Mars – February 5, 2010
Sketch and Details by Mark Seibold

Technical information regarding the sketch:

At my current residence of Sandy Oregon in the home driveway; 30 miles east of Portland Oregon:

After Observing Mars through my Nexstar 5i and 10.1″ f/4.5 Coulter Odyssey Dobsonian telescope on two evenings of February 5th and 6th 2010, I produced this large 22″ X 30″ pastel impression with artists conceptual Martian landscape showing a dust storm over the polar cap region as science news reported today. The pastel chalks were applied to black Stonehenge 100% cotton cold pressed pastel paper. Through broken clouds over two nights, I eventually rendered most of the prominent albedo features on the martian surface; the left hemisphere edge exhibited a definite blue limb haze along most of the discs edge on the evening of February 5th at approximately 7 UT ~ 9 UT.

Saturn – March 8, 2010

Saturn – March 8, 2010
Sketch and Details by Serge Vieillard

On March 8, 2010, it was off to the Observatory of Paris, on the venerable 380 mm glass (to see “Mars). We passed under the plane of the rings and they are currently well closed and gray in color. The crepe ring is thus particularly obvious. The vision is very white, very bright, with a yellowish and suspicion sometimes of a greenish tinge. G 750X.

Planche Mars 2010

Mars 2010 Composite
Sketches by 24 Observers
Composite by Serge Vieillard; Description and Submission by Christian Gros

I am attaching a board of the 2010 opposition of Mars, realized by Serge Vieillard. He gathered the drawings displayed on the French sites AstroSurf and Webastro and made this beautiful spiral. The drawings of the most experienced ones are alongside the beginners (the youngest artist was only ten years old), which makes such a collective approach so worthwhile. It is interesting to note the style of each, and he has been very careful to position the drawings so that we can see the rotation of the planet!

Object Name: Mars
Object type: Planet
Location: France
Date: April 12, 2010

(French-English Translation using Google and other online dictionaries)

Original French description:
Je vous joins une planche de l’opposition martienne 2010 réalisée par Serge Vieillard. Ce dernier a recensé les dessins présentés sur les sîtes francophones Astrosurf et Webastro et en a fait cette belle spirale. Les dessins des plus chevronnés cotoient ceux des débutants (le plus jeune dessinateur n’a que dix ans), ce qui fait tout l’intérêt d’une telle démarche collective. Il est intéressant de remarquer le style de chacun, et Serge a bien pris soin de positionner les dessins de telle sorte que l’on peut voir la rotation de la planète !

Artists:
Yohan Archambaud
Jean-Marc Beraud
Nicolas Biver
Fred Burgeot
Xavier Camer
Cricri
Youenn Daniel
Pierre Desvaux
Sebastien Graziani
Christian Gros
Christophe Gros
Vincent Gros
Vincent Jacques
Daniel Paletti
Emmanuel Pelegrin
Ptit Prince 974
José Rodrigues
Gérard Sirven
Daube Sonne
Pierre Strock
Bruno Thien
Julien Vandermarlière
Serge Vieillard
Vvastro

Mars Map 2009-2010

Mars Map 2009-2010
Sketch and Details by Kris Smet

Hi,

i’d like to submit the mars map from the opposition 09/10 made from various observations through my 8″ & 12″ dobsons (both f/5 which is not really ideal for planetary observing) from my backyard in belgium.

mars regularly got high enough (up to 60+ degrees) to compensate for the mostly mediocre seeing here. there were a few nights of good seeing though, especially the evening of 01 march showed some very good to excellent seeing! i’ve attached that sketch too.

i only use orthoscopic eyepieces (university optics, 4,5,6,7,9,12.5mm) wich yield up to 250x and 375x magnification in the 8″ & 12″ scopes. i find them to provide a noticeably clearer and crisper image than various standard plossl’s, and they don’t cost an arm and a leg!

To increase more i use them in combination with a televue 2,5x powermate which has the additional benefit of sharpening the edge of the fov (a normal barlow does the same as well) which is very useful when using a dobsonian telescope. i can mount the 8″ scope on a tracking mount, but not my 12″ scope.
when seeing is poor, use is made of an apodizing mask which improves seeing drastically in my experience, but dims the view a bit, but that’s hardly a problem with a target as bright as mars through a 12″ scope!

i’ve made around 20 separate sketches from which i put together the map. i started sketching mars from june 30 2009, altough i observed the tiny 4,7″ disk during the morning twilight one month earlier. observing and sketching during winter can be hard as temperatures dropped to about -14°C (from where you live this may not sound very cold though) and you need to try to keep your head as still as possible looking through the eyepiece.

a rough outdoor sketch is redone and coloured with standard colour pencils inside, where it’s warm, on a template between 3 and 8 cm depending on the actual size of the planet’s disk. then it’s scanned, sometimes brightness and contrast need to be adjusted a little, and for the individual sketches a glowing background is added representing my view through the scope.

greetings

Kris

Moon and Venus

Gibbous Venus and the Crescent Moon
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

The western sky at twilight was just cloud free enough for one to see the planet Venus and the 1.23 day old moon together. I was about 12 hours away from catching a flight back to Chicago from Phoenix and I had just enough time for a quick free hand graphite sketch on copy paper before retiring for the night. I included with the sketch notes on the sky colors and cloud locations so that I could make an oil pastel drawing when I arrived back in Illinois.

Sketching:

This is a re-drawn sketch in oil pastels of the Moon and Venus in the western sky on dark blue construction paper 12” x 14”.
The original graphite sketch was completed in about 20 minutes on the back patio looking due west.
No optical aid was used.
At the time of the sketch (March 16, 2010, 7:26 pm local time) the moon was 1.5 % illuminated and only 1.25 days old. Lunation 1079
The sky was partly cloudy and filled with aircraft contrails especially in the west.
The air temperature was a pleasant 24° C (75° F).
Location: Mesa, Arizona

Frank McCabe

Faces of Mars

Mars Compilation – January 10 – March 9, 2010

These sketches were created by 27 members of the www.CloudyNights.com Sketching Forum. They are based on observations of Mars on and around its opposition, from January 10th, 2010 to March 9th, 2010. Multiple mediums were used from pencil and paper to digital. The community of forum members whose sketches are shown are from the following countries: France, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, South East Asia, United Kingdom, and USA. The instruments they used and the date of their observation is as follows:

Jay Eads	250mm Newtonian	01/10/2010
Sol Robbins	152mm Newtonian	01/11/2010
MikeSemmler	80mm Refractor	01/23/2010
Kris	203mm Newtonian	01/26/2010
Cpl43uk	203mm Catiotropic	01/23/2010
Astroducky	318mm Newtonian	01/27/2010
Sixela	400mm Newtonian	01/27/2010
CarlosEH	229mm Catiotropic	01/29/2010
Dweller25	203mm Newtonian	01/29/2010
Jeff Young	152mm Catiotropic	01/29/2010
BillP	102mm Refractor	01/31/2010
Uwe Pilz	152mm Catiotropic	01/31/2010
Rerun	102mm Refractor	02/04/2010
Special Ed	200mm Catiotropic	02/05/2010
Jef De Wit	305mm Newtonian	02/04/2010
MarkSeibold	127mm Catiotropic	02/05/2010
Phxbird	152mm Newtonian	02/07/2010
Erika Rix	406mm Newtonian	02/07/2010
Mathteacher	100mm Refractor	02/07/2010
NUNKY	120mm Refractor	02/08/2010
Frank5817	333mm Newtonian	02/13/2010
Tommy5	152mm Refractor	02/14/2010
NerfMonkey	305mm Newtonian	02/15/2010
JayScheuerle	120mm Refractor	01/20/2010
Robert Forgacs	305mm Newtonian	02/02/2010
Roel	102mm Refractor	03/01/2010
S1mas	127mm Catiotropic	03/09/2010

Compiled and submitted by William Paolini