Hi.
Yesterday (October 31st) I went to see interesting occultation. The star Xi Sagittarii was to be obscured by the Moon. Unfortunately, five minutes before the occultation the clouds came. What a bad luck.
So I have only a sketch of the Moon and Xi Sgr in short distance from each other 🙁
Object: Moon & Xi Sagittarii
Date: October 31st, 2011
Time: About 18:25 (6:25 PM)
Place: Nowy Sącz, Poland
Equipment: Binoculars Bresser 10×50
Technique: White pastels on black art paper. Tooling, levels, color, light in GIMP2
Author: Aleksander Cieśla (Wimmer)
This is the first sketch I am submitting to ASOD although I do many sketches of Messier objects and double stars and plan to submit more later. This sketch, entitled “Comet Garradd,” was conducted from the summit of Haleakala on Maui at 10,000 Ft. elevation, using my Celestron C925 with a Swan 40 eyepiece at 58X. The location is in Science City at the Institute for Astronomy at the Haleakala Amateur Astronomers Club which I am a member. It was executed September 19, 2011, with a #2 HB pencil on a standard 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper log.
Notes: Star hopped NNW from SAO 103839 past double a star to the object. Close to the south are two pairs of stars. Close to the north are two pairs of stars. The object seems mostly round with a strong concentration and what seems like a pinpoint brightness in the center. It has a tail streaming off to the south.
One could sketch the plethora of craters in the southern highlands and not finish them for many years. The craters for sketching chosen here are ones I have not sketched before but were standouts on this evening. The finest sketch I have ever seen of this region was made back in January of 2007 by Sally Russell and can be seen at Astronomy Sketch of the Day for March 27, 2007.
The central large crater that anchors this sketch is Pre-Nectarian period Stöfler a 129 kilometer walled plain with a buried central peak. Piled on top of it to the southeast are a sequence of craters decreasing in size and including one without a name, then Faraday ( 71 km.), Stöfler P ( 34 km.) and Faraday C ( 30 km.). North of Stöfler most of the rim of crater Fernelius (66 km.) was visible but all of the floor was in darkness.
I was forced to work quickly as clouds were rolling in at about the time I was just beyond mid-sketch.
Equipment and Sketching:
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian on a drive platform 4mm ortho eyepiece 361x
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9″x 12″, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and blending stumps, white Pearl eraser.
Date: 11-2 to 11-3-2011 23:30-00:40 UT
Temperature: 17° C (63° F)
Partly cloudy soon becoming mostly cloudy, high humidity 70%
Waxing gibbous phase
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Transparency: 6/10
Colongitude: 356.6 °
Lunation: 7.2 days
Illumination: 53.2 %
Object Name: M42, M43
Object Type: Nebula
Location: Russia, Strelech’ya Polyana
Date: 23 october 2011
Media: graphite pencil on white paper, inversion and little star correction (so they’d look more round) in PhotoShop CS2
That night I actually saw the Great Nebula for the first time in normal conditions and under pretty dark skies (somewhere 5.7m stars were seen). And this sketch is the second attempt to draw it. Using my 12″ Dob it took me about 1.5 hours.
M42 looked fantastically bright, but it’s a pity I didn’t guess to put 12.5mm eyepiece instead of 25mm while sketching the brightest part, the one around trapezium, because only then the structure of nebula’s filaments was easily seen. Under the wings, the space of 10′ maybe, was filled with such dense cloud, that it reminded me of M31’s core, but lower it became more diffuse and slowly disappeared. Above M42 M43 was also visible, like a fat comma. And it seemed to me, that its tail was a little bit separated from the main body.
Object type – Huge filament and prominence
Location – Wilp, The Netherlands
Date – November 12 and November 14, 2011
Media – Pastel pencil on black paper, color with Photoshop
The largest prominence and the largest filament I have ever seen, both visible at the same time! It was a fantastic view and I made two sketches of them, two days apart. On November 14, the huge filament blew a large part of itself away from the Sun at the exact moment I was observing, creating a thin candle-like flame above the surface. A remarkable sight. Clearly the Sun is getting more active every month. What it’s got left in its suprise box while creeping towards solar maximum? Can’t wait to find out!
Our star continues to provide stunning sights as we approach solar maximum. This huge prominence, among the biggest I’ve ever seen, is visible in the hydrogen alpha wavelength, but it takes a specially designed scope or filter to see it. My 40mm Personal Solar Telescope (PST) is one such scope.
The prominence consists of superheated solar plasma suspended along magnetic field lines. It is not static, but changes constantly–sometimes the changes happen quickly and sometimes slowly. The appearance of this prominence had changed subtly by the end time of the sketch, so if you want to draw one of these monsters, be prepared to work fast!
The Sun in H alpha
Solar Prominence
Friars Hill, WV USA
12 November 2011 1850-1910 UT
Conte’ crayon, Conte’ pencil, and Derwent Graphtint color pencil on black paper.
I send you the globular M. 92.
This object have an interesting central part and fine structures. Info on my sketch.
I used pen and pencil on white paper (inverted).
Observation from Trondheim, Norway.
Object Name : Mars and M44
Object Type : Planet, Open Cluster
Location : Skrzyszow, Silesia, Poland
Date : 4.20am 2011-10-02
Media : graphite pencil, color added in GIMP
Dobson 1200/200 + SWA 32mm + SWA 15mm
It’s hard to say, that the condition was nice. The seeing was perfect but only in zenith. I saw perfect Jupiter. One of the best I’ve ever seen!
Unfortunate, near the horizon, there was fog.
In my location, the Mars was only on altitude 25 degree, so I have to write: seeing was not good.
Please, forgive me, that I had to colorized sketch using digital magic. One more thing: there is planet any surface on sketch. It is only the moisture…
