Happy Ending

Object Name: Sombrero Galaxy
Object Type: Galaxy
Location: Itajobi, SP, Brazil
Date: 31/12/2010 – 07h00min UT
Media: 2B 0.5mm graphite pencil on white paper, scanned, inverted then edited colors

Telescope: newtonian 180mm f/D=6 dob mount
Eyepieces: SuperPlossl 32mm; Plossl 10mm; SuperPlossl 6mm
Seeing: 4/5 (good)
Fair wind, temperature around 20ºC, no clouds in the sky.

I observed this galaxy for about two hours that night. In the beginning, the sky was dark but Sombrero was low in the sky. By the end of the observation, Sombrero was high, however the sky was not so dark. An astonishing gibbous moon was rising, in conjunction wiht Venus, separated about 8º. I was in my backyard, not the perfect place because it’s downtown, so the dark line on the galaxy could be seen only using averted vision. It was really hard to see any detail due to the fair contrast between the galaxy and the dark blue sky. Even facing that troubles, it was a special night, because I had seen Sombrero Galaxy just once before, and hadn’t sketched it. That’s a great way to end the year, with a new sketch. I hope you enjoy it. I’ll sketch this galaxy from a dark place someday, to see the difference.
That night I could see also two shooting stars, as bright as brief. One across Centaurus and the other close to the zenith, both were golden.

Rodrigo Pasiani Costa