Planetary – Page 38 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Moon over Armagh

Moon over Armagh on Christmas Eve
Sketch and Details by Miruna Popescu

This painting depicts how the southern sky looks on 24 December 2009 at 5.30 pm, when the Moon’s phase reaches first quarter. The next brightest celestial object at this time is the planet Jupiter, which this year is the “Christmas Star” for the Royal School, Armagh. Jupiter is seen here just before it disappears behind the school. The painting shows stars in Pisces, Pegasus, Aquarius and other constellations, and the location of the planet Uranus (visible through a telescope) about a third of the way from the Moon to Jupiter. Uranus was found in 1781 (seven years after the old building of the Royal School was completed) by the astronomer and musician William Herschel, the discovery constituting the first identification of a planet since ancient times and earning Herschel the post of King’s astronomer from George III.

In 1609, the year after the founding of the Royal School, Galileo Galilei used an early telescope to map the Moon and discover satellites of Jupiter. To mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope to observe the sky, 2009 is being celebrated worldwide as the International Year of Astronomy.

Dr Miruna Popescu from Armagh Observatory is the coordinator for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 in Ireland.

Gazing at Swan

We are in another long stretch of cloudy weather here in the Appalachian Mountcentins, so here is an observation from clearer times (and when there were bright comets in the night sky).

In the telescopic view, Comet Swan was a very well defined visitor from the outer solar system. I was struck by the bright core and the streaky tail. Perhaps other observers also saw this comet around this time?

This sketch was done at the eyepiece with graphite pencil and a stump on white paper. It was inverted after scanning and most of the text was then added. I used the little Astroscan reflector I keep for my students to use–it doesn’t have high end optics but it is easy to grab and has a wide field which is useful for observing comets.

Object Name: C/2006 M4 (SWAN)
Object Type: Comet
Location: Friars Hill, WV USA
Date: 26 October 2006

Michael Rosolina

Moon and Jupiter in the Haze

A foggy conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter
Sketch and details by Carlos E. Hernandez

Our weather in has been very overcast and wet lately but I was able to view the Waxing Crescent Moon (6.6 days old) and Jupiter (-2.29m) over my southwestern sky among haze on November 23, 2009 at 06:30 PM EST (23:30 U.T.). The scene was eerie in my Oberwerk 11 x 56 mm binoculars. The Moon appeared to glow in a nest of light clouds and haze with Jupiter a pastel orange beacon to the south. I am convinced that I spotted a Galilean satellite, most probably Ganymede (4.97m) west of Jupiter at the edge of it’s glare. The inset shows what I observed (the satellite is a little brighter than visible to show it better). I hope that others were able to view this event.

A digital image produced using Pixelmator.

Carlos E. Hernandez

Late November Mars

Mars on November 29th, 2009
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

As the month of November closes Mars appears larger (9.8” arc) in the eyepiece than earlier in the month. The distance to the red planet at the time of the sketch was 143,600 km. (89, 200 miles). It is nice to see Mars so high in the morning sky, growing bigger and brighter each day as the distances continues to close.

The central meridian was at about 10° lomgitude at the time of the sketch. When I finished I checked a Mars map to identify features I was seeing during moments of good seeing. From north to south they were: the North Polar cap, Mare Acidalium, Niliacus Lacus, central Chryse, the side by side sinuses of Margaritifer and Aurorae, and finally Mare Erythraeum. If you are up before daybreak on a clear morning step outside and take a look at Mars as its disk gets bigger and brighter.

Sketching:

White sketching paper 8″ x 6″; HB graphite pencil, soft charcoal pencil for sky background, blending stump for blending orange Crayola pencil. Brightness decreased at scanning by -2 using scanner
Date 11/29/2009 – Time 8:00-9:15 UT
Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 6mm eyepiece 261x
Temperature: 9°C (39°F)
partly cloudy, humid, calm
Transparency 4/5
Seeing: Pickering 7/10

Frank McCabe

A Visitor to the Swan

Comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen)
Sketch and Details by Diego González

Hello,

Comet Christensen (C/2006 W3) was probably one of the most interesting views I had last summer. Although not a bright comet, it was small and concentrated, making it easily visible from my moderately polluted backyard. On July 17th it had a size of about 3Â and a roundish shape, with a rather high surface brightness. The cometÂs center is slightly brighter but not prominent. It was moving through constellation Cygnus, near Zeta Cygni, so the starfield in the eyepiece is very rich even at high powers. In summary, a small but beautiful comet for a summer night.

Sketch: 2HB graphite pencil on white paper, scanned and processed with Photoshop Elements 2.0
Object Name: Comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen)
Object Type: Comet
Location: Asturias, Spain
Date: July 17th, 2009
Instrument: 120mm f/8,3 refractor + BO/TMB Planetary 9mm eyepiece (111x)

Regards,
Diego GonzÃ¡lez

Dancing in the Royal Court

Jupiter moon Europa has just transited Ganymede, November 17, 2009
Sketch and Details by Michael Rosolina

Because of the geometry of Earth’s orbit in relation to Jupiter’s orbit, this has been a very good year for seeing transits across the Jovian disk. Not only have there been numerous transits of the Galilean moons and their shadows, the moons themselves have been transiting and occulting one another as seen from our vantage point here on Earth.

In this sketch, Europa has just completed an annular transit of Ganymede, passing in front of the larger moon but not blocking it completely. Because of Jupiter’s low altitude, I was unable to use high enough magnification to see any detail of the transit beyond watching the two bright dots move towards each other, merge, and then move apart.

At the same time, Callisto (the largest Galilean moon) was transiting in front of Jupiter. Unlike the two smaller moons, Io and Europa, which tend to disappear from view after they cross the Jovian limb, Callisto (and Ganymede) usually can be seen against the cloudtops due to their darker albedo. [All of the moons’ shadows can be seen in transit given adequate seeing conditions.]

This sketch of Jupiter was done at the eyepiece using 2B and 4B graphite pencils on white copy paper. After scanning, I set Jupiter against a black digital background, placed the positions of the satellites from field notes, and added the text.

I hope you enjoy this view of the King and his consorts and get a chance to see one of these transits yourself before the giant planet disappears for the year.

Jupiter and Galilean Moons
Planet
Friars Hill, WV USA
17 November 2009

Clear skies,

Michael Rosolina

Christensen in Digital

Comet C2006/W3 (Christensen)
Sketch and Details by Tamás Székffy

Greetings,

This is my first submisson to Astronomy Sketch of the Day site.

I’m in astronomy for almost 9 years, and mostly make digital
astrophotography.

* *Object Name* C2006/W3 (Christensen)
* *Object Type* Comet
* *Location* Ágasvár, Mátra, Hungary (47N55’23,5″; 19E49’28,1″)
* *Date* 20 July 2009. 22:12 UT
* *Transparency:* 6/10, *Seeing:* 7/10, *t**emp.:* 19°C, light wind
* *Medium:* sketch by graphic pencil on sheet paper, later scanned
and used as a reference for digital redrawing with Corel
Painter 11
* *Equipment:* Celestron NexStar 8″ SCT with 30 mm Plössl EP (68×)

I used SkyMap Pro for a more precise background starfield,
original sketch used to have only the 20 most important “reference”
stars for both limiting magnitude, field of view and exact location
of the nucleus.
Note the unusual gradient at the north-eastern part.

Drawn by Corel Painter 11 and a Wacom tablet, final version scaled
in PhotoShop, field of view circle made by Corel Draw! 12.

I hope you enjoyed.

With best regards,

—

Székffy Tamás ~ allfinance pénzügyi tanácsadó

Early November Mars

Mars on November 8th, 2009
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

November nights are typically the cloudiest nights of the entire year in the Chicago area. Last evening and early this morning the transparency and seeing were both pretty good despite the high humidity (80%) and temperatures approaching the dew point. Mars has already become a good target for high power examination through telescopes at 8.3″ of arc. Mars at 104.6 million miles away is still farther from us than the sun but we are catching up. I observed the planet not too far from the Beehive (M 44) with the central meridian at 220° shining at magnitude 0.6.
The gibbous phase of the planet was clearly evident as was the North Polar Cap, Utopia, and Maria Cimmerium and Tyrrhenum.

Mars on November 8th, 2009 (labeled)
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Sketching: White sketching paper 8″ x 10″; 4B, HB, and 2H Graphite pencils; I used my fingers and a blending stump for blending. No adjustment after scanning was needed.
Date 11/8/2009 – Time 9:40-10:50 UT
Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 4mm eyepiece 360x Temperature: 9°C (49°F)  clear, calm
Transparency 4/5 Seeing: Pickering 8/10
Frank McCabe

Mars Glides Past the “Beehive”

Mars and “The Beehive Cluster”
Sketch and Details by Michael Rosolina

The clouds parted over West Virginia the other night allowing me to view Mars shortly after it passed in front of Messier 44, the Beehive.

I made this widefield sketch in order to capture the star cluster and its two attendants, Asellus Borealis–the Northern Ass and Asellus Australis, the Southern Ass. In Galileo’s time (about 180 years before Charles Messier catalogued it), M44 was known as Praesepe, the manger, where the Aselli ate their hay.

Praesepe was one of the objects that Galileo scrutinized with his new telescopes, discovering that it was a star cluster and not a nebula or cloud as previously thought. One of his scopes had about 15x, although he didn’t enjoy nearly the field of view that I had with my modern binoculars.

I made this sketch in the field with color pencils on black paper. I couldn’t give Mars the luminous appearance that I observed using color pencils on black paper, so I tweaked it a little digitally.

I am dedicating this drawing to a friend who passed away not long ago. Eric realized his dreams of astronomy by becoming an operator of the 100 meter radio telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia.

Best regards,

Michael Rosolina

Mars and M44
Planet and Open Cluster
Friars Hill, WV USA
3 November 2009 0830-0900 UT

Mars in the “Beehive”

Mars moving through the Beehive Cluster
Sketches and Details by Giorgio Bonacorsi

Hi all , how are you? I see yesterday the last sketch of Jeremy Perez and i say to myself: “I made the same sketch from home in the same day!” and i decide to sent you my last four sketches of “Mars in the Beehive” made with my bino bresser 10×50. I observe Mars also with my refractor 80/1000 at 333x and i see only the polar white zone but no partycular of surface.The best image of this event was throug bino 10×50, very stereoscopic and magnificent vision.
This is all for this moment.Thank you for your kind words, i’m o.k. at the moment, i hope next to sent you my new sketches of deep sky with my Dobson 10″.
Clear sky and good new sketches to all artists!!!

Ciao, Giorgio.

Name:Giorgio Bonacorsi
Site:Pergola,Marche,Center Italy
Date:from 31 October to 3 November
Instrument:Bino Bresser 10×50
Seeing:Good
Temperature:Cold,humidity,no wind.

Mars moving through the Beehive Cluster
Sketches and Details by Giorgio Bonacorsi