Category: Planetary

Difficult Uranus

The Planet Uranus and its moons, Oberon, Ariel, and Titania December 11, 2014
The Planet Uranus and its moons, Oberon, Ariel, and Titania December 11, 2014
Uranus and it's moons, Oberon, Ariel, and Titania - December 11, 2014
Uranus and it’s moons, Oberon, Ariel, and Titania – December 11, 2014

Object Name (Uranus with moons)
Object Type (Planet and satellites)
Location : Observatoire Astronomique de Bauduen, Provence France
Date 2014 Dec 11th
Media (graphite pencil, and inverted watercolor on white paper, Paint.net for the inversion)
That’s maybe because I like to use this great telescope, or it’s because I like challenges but,… it’s certainly not the best optical combination for this observation.
On 11 December, I finally found a corner of pure sky above the 24-inch reflector made by Olivier Planchon. To observe Uranus, the speed is definitely too high: f / 3.3 d, so we had to use very short focal EP to reach the useful magnification (Nagler 3.7 and 2.5) !.
If you look at my watercolor you can see a somewhat elongated comet hair that diffuse around the planet, that’s exactly how we see the planet area in the field, this is probably linked to a not 100% perfect collimation, but still. I get the impression that the work of collimation facing these big tubes, it is not a piece of cake.
Anyway, we can say two things:
1- We observed three of the Uranus satellites: Oberon, Titania and Ariel, this last one being a bit lost in the lights of the planet
2- the disk of the planet was not uniform as seen in a small telescope or some photos. It’s very difficult to confirm, but a diffuse zone clearer was observed in the upper atmosphere of Uranus, is that an artifact, I do not know? Anyway the main direction of the area is not in the direction of the cloud bands of Uranus.

Another composition of this observation is given here: http://astro.aquarellia.com/croquis/uranus_page_h.jpg

C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) - December 18, 2014
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) – December 18, 2014

Object: C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy
Object type: Comet
Location: Panama city, Republic of Panama (Central America)
Date: December 18 , 2014
Media: graphite pencil , white paper and Microsoft Paint to invert colors.
Telescope: Orion XT6i
Ocular: 17mm
Hard to see in the skies with light pollution in the city of Panama …. but we draw the sketch.

clear skies,

Ricardo Schwarz

Lovejoy – one year after

The comet C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) during the month of December 2014
The comet C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) during the month of December 2014

Object Name C/2013 (Lovejoy)
Object Type Comet
Location Lindenau, Bavaria, Germany
Date December 2013
Media black graphite pencil on white paper, digitally inverted using the freeware software GIMP
Usually, weather in December is quite poor – at least in Germany. However, in 2013 we had cloudless skies for more than a week. So, before going to work, I was able to make sketches of the nice comet C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) using a pair of 16×70 binoculars.
In order to combine all sketches, I used the freeware program Cartes du Ciel to generate the starfield through which the comet wandered.
Since the comet came close to M13, I put the globular in also. The sketch I made of the cluster is some two years old, but I suppose it does not look a lot differently now 🙂
Observing conditions were not particularly good but also not very bad. Faintest star usually ranged from 6m0 to 6m2 except for December 16th and 17th when the moon was still above the horizon, brightening the sky quite badly. Therefore, the comet looked a lot less spectacular.

Best regards,
Christian Weis

Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake)

Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake), observations of the inner coma -March 24 and 25, 1996
Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake), observations of the inner coma -March 24 and 25, 1996

Hey ASOD!

Interesting structures was observed in B2 (Hyakutake) on two nights 24. and 25. March 1996
in high power of the inner coma! My two sketches shows the fragmenting of the nucleus over
2 days. I used my 20.3 cm. SCT. F/ 10 at 166x.
Some days before, on 20. March, the false nucleus was stellar with no structures observed.
On 21. March, I could see a 2 arcmin. very thin spine tailward. Read my info on sketches!
I used colorcrayons on black paper.
Loc.: Trondheim, Norway.

Have a nice X- mas and happy new year with clear skies ! Per-Jonny Bremseth.

Mars adjacent to the Lagoon Nebula

Messier 8, "The Lagoon Nebula", an emission nebula in the constellation Sagittarius
Messier 8, “The Lagoon Nebula”, an emission nebula in the constellation Sagittarius

Mars adjacent to the Lagoon Nebula
(Planet and Emission Nebula)
Hartesbeespoort Dam South Africa
28th October (2014)
Graphite Pencil, smartphone photo using the invert function on PS phone app.

In Southern Skies at the moment and made the most of the opportunity to sketch some really nice deep sky objects in and around the teapot including M7 and the Lagoon Nebula (with Mars adjacent to it)

Early Morning Jupiter

The Planet Jupiter with moon Ganymede on the Jovian limb - October 28 and 29, 2014
The Planet Jupiter with moon Ganymede on the Jovian limb – October 28 and 29, 2014
Ganymede disappears behind the limb of Jupiter (details) October 28-29, 2014
Ganymede disappears behind the limb of Jupiter (details) October 28-29, 2014

The (Planet) Jupiter is one of the most difficult objects to observe. lt has most delicate subtle figures on surface atmosphere. Speak frankly my 13″ og showed me nothing but two main belts and 3-4 minor belts since first light the fall 2013 that not ones to surpass 12″, 8″, 6″, or 5″ED or 8″ dob at least in detail performance. Tonight’ early morning It showed me countless wrinkles on the King’s face though just at the 5-6 number of times one time was only shortest moments 2-3 seconds for 10 minutes with rated 9/10 seeing. The other interesting features were as you see [1], on the nights last autumn just near the first light night, the Europa’s color was turkish blue gray, but on this night it was pale yellow, the surface color of Europa really changed after one year ? The optical train was(is) same; flat-og-tv bino- tv nagler 7sThe [2]….. 13″ OG showed Ganymede’s contact moment with Jupiter’s limb, because the 13″ achromat’s chromatic dispersion effect of light produced weak contrast, could not identifyed the exact situation of the contact moment. For 10 minutes Ganymede moved 5280kmx0.7=3696km, the projected velocity of Ganymede is calculated as 3696km/ 600s= 6.16km/every second. # l usually write the observing date till fully to dawn as the same day .

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13″ refractor, x530- x770

Location ; Backyard home in South. Korea

white paper [A4] Daler Rowney , graphite pencils

Date of observe; Oct. 28( 29). 2014.

What Happened to the Great Red Spot?

Planet Jupiter and the Great Red Spot (GRS) - November 11, 1975
Planet Jupiter and the Great Red Spot (GRS) – November 11, 1975

Hey ASOD!

Why did the GRS get lighter and smaller after 1975?
As you see under my sketch, the GRS was brickred before a white spot became in
and passed the GRS on 9. nov. -75.
The GRS had allways a brick-red color before this happened, and since then, it
has been light red, orange or yellow!
The GRS was very easy to see on the disc of the planet before that!
Can anyone tell what happened?

I used color – pencils on black paper.
Loc.: Trondheim, Norway.

Best wishes Per-Jonny Bremseth.

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon

The Occultation of Saturn by the Moon - October 26, 2014
The Occultation of Saturn by the Moon – October 26, 2014

Object Name (Saturn, Moon first croissant)
Object Type (Occultation)
Location (Artignosc-sur-Verdon, France )
Date (2014 Oct 26)
Media (graphite pencil, watercolour, white paper, Paint.net for inversion and crop)
Occultation of Saturn by the Moon

Here join a watercolour I made while Saturn just leaves the very young moon.
That was a very nice spectacle indeed!
The original sketch was done in B&W on white paper; the small brilliant point on the very end of the moon croissant was used to define the Saturn disk intensity.
The colours were added in my workshop and the inverted while scanning.
During the emersion (17:17 UTC) the moon was less than 4° up my horizon and the sun was only 6° behind. So the sky was still clear.
The observation was made with a 102 f/10 refractor and a 10mm Delos EP, no filters.

Clear sky to you all !

Michel Deconinck

Comet C/2013 R1 Lovejoy

Comet C/2013 R1 Lovejoy - December 4, 2013
Comet C/2013 R1 Lovejoy – December 4, 2013

Hi Asod! Last night I woke up at 5.00am to observe Comet Lovejoy. I couldn’t see it with naked eye (I think because I observed from city), but it was very bright! I observed it at 90x and 42x and this was the best magnification; nucleus was very compact and more bright than tail. It’s the first comet I’ve ever seen, just wonderful!

Object Name: C/2013 R1 Lovejoy
Object Type: Comet
Location: Copertino (LE), Italy
Date: 4/12/2013
Media: Pencil on White Paper; inverted by Computer