Hi all,
Scope time has been very scarce this year. This sketch was done in April.
Encouraged by my attempt at Eta Carina through my 8″ dob, I trained my 17.5″ dobbie at the same target, again from Sydney.
This time, I also used my Grand Daddy of all eyepieces, a 35mm Masuyama. A bit long for this f/4.5 scope, but my only OIII filter was a 1.25″.
Eta Carina is not only huge, it is a very busy place. There are multiple shockwaves within it, masses of star formation both just initiated in the form of dark pillars, of those whose nuclear fires have just kicked in, nebulae within nebulae, and a super massive star about to go supernova.
This magnificent NASA site shows all of these details.
Again, the Homunculus Nebula is too small at 57X, but the supermassive star, Eta Carina, it is associated with is the bright reddish one.
Armed with a battery of sketching implements, the result of 3hrs is below. Ooooohhh, I am going to have soooooo much fun redoing this one at a dark sky site!
Scope: 17.5″ f/4.5 dob
Gear: 35mm Masuyama, 57X, OIII filter
Date: April 8, 2011
Location: Sydney
Media: white pastel, white & black charcoal pencils, white chinagraph, white and coloured ink on black A4 size paper
Cheers,
Alex M.
Alex,
Superb sketch. I getting some great views of the southern skies via your beautifully drawn sketches of the heavens there.
Thanke for posting and sharing.
Frank 🙂
Alex,
What a magnificent sketch! All that beauty and detail, can’t wait to see what you will produce from a dark site. Maybe one day I will have an opportunity to venture south and see these gems for myself.
Alex, this is breathtaking and very inspiring!!
That’s the greatest sketch of Eta Carina Nebula I’ve ever seen.