Gamma Andromedae or Almach, double star
Sketch and Details by Milosz Guzowski
Almach – A colourful couple
Hi,
Today I want to show you a colourful couple of stars in Andromeda.
– Object Name (Gamma Andromedae), Almach
– Object Type (Double Star)
– Location (Poland/Białuty)
– Date (16.08.2009)
– Scope (10″ Newtonian + 10 mm plossl)
– Mediums (Graphite pencil on white paper + GIMP processing
Varible star U Cygni
Sketch and Details by Math Heijen
Observing report
I read a few reports on the Internet last week, about U Cygni being a spectacular blood red star at the moment. On the night of the 18th of august it was clear outside, so I decided to go for it! I first tried to locate it with my 15×80 binoculars and the SkyWindow, but without success. But with the 300mm Dobson and the 35mm Panoptic (46x) the dim red star was immediately visible, next to an 8th magnitude white star (HIP100230), a striking pair with a beautiful contrast. U Cygni and HIP100230 are separated by only 1 minute of arc. As usual, I first tried all possible magnifications, but the 22 Nagler showed this little gem at its best. As other observers stated this week, U Cygni indeed was bright red, like a sparkling drop of blood. Simply amazing to really see a star as red as U Cygni with your own eyes. Very impressive! For more details on this observation and others, visit my website.
Date/ Time : 18/08/09 / 23.00
Observing location : Landgraaf (Netherlands)
Seeing / Transparency : 3 / 5
Telescope : Orion Optics UK 300mm
Eyepiece : 22mm Nagler Type 4
Magnification / Field of view ‘ : 72 / 68
Best regards,
Math Heijen
Barnard’s Runaway Star
Sketch and Details by Jef De Wit
Barnard’s Star is the closest star to our Sun observable from northern latitudes. The “Runaway” Star is a very low-mass red dwarf star 5.9 light-years away. Despite its proximity, the magnitude is a dim 9.5. At 7 to 12 billion years of age, Barnard’s Star is considerably older than the Sun and may be among the oldest stars in the universe.
In 1916, American astronomer E. E. Barnard measured its proper motion as 10.3 arcseconds per year (1° every 350 years) which remains the largest known proper motion of any star relative to the Sun. Barnard’s Star will make its closest approach to the Sun around 11,700, when it approaches within some 3.8 light-years. But it will still be too dim to be seen with the naked eye (magnitude will be about 8.5). (Information from Wikipedia)
For the moment Barnards Star (in the middle of the sketch) is situated in a line with four other stars. The bright star just outside the field of view is 66 Ophiuchi. Hopefully you and I will live long enough to see it move!
Clear skies
Jef De Wit
Object Name: Barnard’s Star
Object Type: star
Location: Hove, Belgium (51°09 north lat. 4°28 east long.)
Date and time: 30 July 2009 around 21.45 UT
Equipment: 12″ dobson
Eyepiece: 35mm Ultima Celestron (FOV 1,3° and magnification 34x)
NELM: 4,5
Medium: graphite pencils HB/n°2, printing paper, scanned and inverted
The double star Rigel in Orion
Sketch and Details by Michael Vlasov
Rigel sketch.jpg
Object Name: Rigel
Object Type double star
Location Haifa, Israel
Date 29/12/2006
Sketch of a double star Rigel, in Orion.
Star and the companion magnitudes: 0m ,8m.
Separation: 9″
Instrument: 8″ Orion Newtonian, at 80X.
Pencil sketch, scanned inverted and processed
Epsilon Lyrae, the beautiful double-double star system
Sketch and Details by Janusz Krysiak
Object Name:Epsilon Lyrae
Location:Pyrnik(Poland)
Date:21.06.2009
medium: pencil, white paper
equipment: Newton 300/1500
magnification: 214x
Hi,
These are Epsilon Lyrae. It is probably one of the most beautiful double
sysetm on our sky. It lookes gorgeous in large extention.
Janusz Krysiak
The dying star, Eta Carina
Sketch by Serge Viellard, text by Frank McCabe
During his vacation trip to Namibia in March of 2009 with the 400cm. travel scope at high power, Serge captured this close up sketch of the asymmetrical orange lobes on each side of the dying star Eta Carina. Serge writes, “This sky is really extraordinary. I have above my head the most remarkable 3 nebulas of the sky with Orion beyond the zenith…”
Rho-Ophiuchi, Antares and M4
Sketch and Details by Leonor Ana Hernández
The view through the binocular was splendid, Antares highlighted with an intense orange and was surrounded by a diffuse cloud, visible with averted vision.
The field was rich, plenty of stars, I distinguished perfectly the cluster M4 as a round nebula of grey cotton. Rho Ophiuchi showed flirt in the upper zone with its three components forming the shape of Mickey Mouse… with a blue intense color. The nebula around Antares appeared to reach Rho Ophiuchi indirectly.
Site : Mazarambroz, Toledo (Spain)
Date : June 20, 2009
Time : 21.53 UT
Binoculars : Vixen 12×80
FOV: 4.2°
Sky brightness : 20.70 magnitudes per square arc second near zenith (SQM reading).
Orientation: N up, E left
Sketch made with graphyte pencil, difumino, on white paper. I scanned it and change to negative view. I added the color tone of the main stars.
Leonor Ana Hernández
The Lunar Occultation of Antares
Sketch and Details by Michael Rosolina
Hello,
I was fortunate to be able to view the occultation of the red supergiant Antares by the nearly full Moon as it rose on the evening of June 6th. The Moon was still sixteen hours from full which caused the lunar limb to have an odd, irregular appearance in places. Antares, “the Heart of the Scorpion” disappeared in an eyeblink behind the invisible dark edge of Luna before it ever reached the sunlit mountains and mares.
Antares means “the rival of Mars” in Greek, but it was easily overwhelmed by Selene that night.
This field sketch was done with white and gray Conte’ crayon, black charcoal pencil, and orange color pencil on black paper.
The Moon and Antares
Occultation
0226 UT 7 June 2009
Michael Rosolina
Friars Hill, WV USA
Hey!
I want to send you “M.81 and SN 1993 J”.
I was happy to see this “bright” supernova in a nearby galaxy.
The SN was at 10.5 mag. when I made this drawing 1. apr. 1993.
19.05-20.25 U.T..
I used my 20.3 cm. SCT. f/10. Magn.: 111x.
The FOV is 23 arcmin. , the sky was clean with top seeing and
with the objects very high (almost overhead)!.
I used waterbased crayons on black paper only.
Location: 6 km. north of Trondheim city in Norway.
Best wishes from “The grand prix winner” and
Per-Jonny Bremseth.
NGC 4088 with supernova 2009dd
Sketch and Details by Howard Banich
Object Name: NGC 4088 with supernova 2009dd
Object Type: Spiral galaxy with supernova
Location: Forest Grove, Oregon
Date: April 18, 2009, 9:34 UT
28 inch f/4 alt-az Newtonian, 253x and 408x
SQM 21.38, Seeing 5/10, Transparency 7/10, LM 6.2, Temperature 26F, heavy dew turned to frost.
After an enjoyable night of observing faint and somewhat difficult to find galaxy clusters I settled on NGC 4088 with its new supernova as my final object. Well, it seems I saved the best for last! 4088, also known as Arp 18, is a terrific spiral galaxy with obvious asymmetry to its spiral arms and a bright supernova near its core. This was a visual treat as well as an opportunity to ponder the reality of a star blowing itself to to bits.
The sky had variable high clouds all night but at the time of this observation was at its clearest. Three nights later under a clearer and darker sky, with an SQM reading of 21.51, the view was much the same but the supernova had noticeably faded. Even so, NGC 4088 has become a new favorite and I’m grateful that SN 2009dd brought it to my attention. Perhaps the most startling fact of these observations near the April new moon were the run of clear nights that made them possible – a rarity indeed in the Pacific Northwest.
Starting with a scan of my eyepiece pencil sketch, I used the blurring and smudging tools in Adobe Photoshop Elements to smooth the rough areas into a more natural look. I made the stars round by using the eraser and pencil tools, and then touched up each star with a couple of clicks of blurring. I finished the image by inverting and adjusting the brightness and contrast levels.
Howard Banich
Portland, Oregon
