Object name: Messier 13 (NGC 6205)
Type: Globular Cluster
Location: Sandown, UK
Date: October 15, 2011
Media: Graphite pencil on white paper, inverted in Photoshop.
Equipment: 18 inch f/4.3 Dobsonian with an 11mm Televue Plossl (180x).
Ever since I became interested in deep sky observing and sketching nearly 20 years ago, I have mostly used 6, 8 and 12 inch telescopes for my observations, plus the odd big ones (20, 36 and 48 inches) at star parties such as Texas. My new 18 inch dob has now brought my observing into a Whole New Realm – the magnitude or so difference over my 12 inch means that there is a lot more to see.
On October 15th, as the conditions were a bit lousy (nearly-full Moon plus some mist), I didn’t bother with the faint galaxy-hunting I had been doing lately and decided to sketch M13 instead. I haven’t done a lot of sketching while using the 18 inch yet, as I have spent the time in my six sessions with it so far searching for more detail in objects and things such as faint galaxies in the field of view.
While sketching M13 I found – totally unsurprisingly – that the big and more detailed objects are far more challenging to sketch when viewed in larger apertures. You’re just overwhelmed with the profusion of detail and M13 is a prime example of this; while it isn’t totally resolved in the 18 inch, it is a very large glittering ball of many stars.
Faith Jordan
Lovely sketch Faith. I like the way you’ve laid down those special details, such as the “Y”shape to the right of the core, and the trails of stars. These, for me, are the fingerprint of each individual globular cluster. The sort of stuff that tends to get washed out in photos.
Alex M.
Thanks Alex. I agree about the details. Often you see photos where the details are lost, the beauty of sketching is that these details are preserved.
Faith
Very nice.
That is a very fine sketch of M-13.
Frank 🙂