M18
Sketch and Commentary by Wade Corbei
Here is an older sketch that has been hiding in the middle of my current sketch book. As the date indicates, this sketch was made back in October of ’07 when Sagittarius was still fairly prominant towards the south.
My notes also make note that I was a little more than 1 hour at the EP while plotting all the faint stars that surround this great open cluster, and that there was no Moon in the sky, which allowed for some great dark-sky observing.
I also noted that this cluster had a few stars of varying colors as well, a few that were slightly orange as well as a few almost ice-blue. The rich starfield of this region just adds to the overall experience of observing this large OC. This is indeed a fairly large OC as well. Although I tried several EP’s (15mm Expanse, 10mm, 6.3mm) I got my best over-all view of this OC with my 20mm.
Wade,
A stellar open cluster drawing.
Frank
Beautiful sketch, Wade!
There is more to it that at first glance. The background stars are nicely contrasted to the cluster itself.
Rony