Astronomy Sketch of the Day – Page 230 – Drawings and sketches of an astronomical nature

Similar Size But Different Look

NGC 7332 and NGC 7339
Sketch and Details by Ferenc Lovró

NGC 7332 and NGC 7339

These two spectacular galaxies of similar size but different look, in a nice pattern, are about perpendicular to each other. NGC 7332 is a bit larger and much brighter, however visually I’ve seen it slightly smaller than its fainter companion. A reason for this might be its star-like, bright core, that is washing away the dimmer areas, and to which I estimate a brightness of about 12.7m. The galaxy is losing brightness smoothly toward its outer boundaries. NGC 7339 however does not have a star-like core, its surface looks perfectly homogeneous, it has a shape of a cigar: faint and highly elongated. It has sharp edges. I estimate a surface brightness of 13.2m. Their sizes are: 0.5′ x 1.5′ for NGC 7332, which is much smaller than what is stated in the catalogue (1.1′ x 4.1′!), and 0.5′ x 2.3′ for NGC 7339. The photos I’ve seen make me certain that I’m right in the size estimation, because with these the galaxy pair looks quite the same by size.

Location: R.A. 22h 37m; Dec. 23° 48′ in the constellation Pegasus
Date and Time: 2008.10.01 23:45 UT
Equipment: 12″ f/5 Newtonian; Magnification: 250x
FoV: 18′
Seeing: 6/10; Transparency 4/5
Viewing Location: Nádasdladány, Hungary
Ferenc Lovró

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!

NGC 2264, The Christmas Tree cluster
Sketch and Details by Kiminori Ikebe, translation by Eiji Kato

NGC 2264 in Monoceros: The Christmas Tree

Mr. Ikebe wrote: (Translation from Japanese by Eiji Kato)

A beautiful cluster with bright stars arranged in a shape of a
Christmas tree. A bright star is shining at the foot of where the
star of Bethlehem is located. This star is S Mon. The cluster is
very large and fits a 1.6-degree field of view well. It is bright
and has an interesting shape; one of the best open clusters. The
number of the stars in this cluster is not particularly large but
its distribution is quite interesting. With this instrument the
diffuse nebula is completely invisible, but NGC 2261 is detected in
the south outside the field of view.

This sketch was made by Kiminori Ikebe using 30×125 Binoculars on
1996.01.21 01:12

Seven (or more) Sisters

The Pleiades, M45
Sketch and Details by Marek Plonka, text by Rich Handy

This beautiful sketch of the Pleiades star cluster M45 by Marek Plonka of Poland shows that the cluster contains many more members than the famous Seven Sisters said to be observable without optical aid. The dusty cacoons that once held nascent stars still linger, scattering the blue light from the hot and relatively young stars of the cluster.

Sketch information:
Object name: M45 (NGC 1432) open cluster+nebula
Scope: Skywather dobs 1200/200 + SWA 32mm + UHCS
Place: Poland, Silesia, Skrzyszów
Seeing: 8/10 Transparency: 5/5
Date and time: 15.12.2008r, 9:00PM (21:00)
Technique: Pencil
Author: Marek Płonka (Poland, Silesia)

Two Quarters Make a Half

The Moon Near First Quarter
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Near Last Quarter

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils, white Conte’ crayon and a blending stump. Brightness was reduced by a value of -4 (using Microsoft OfficePicture Manager) after scanning.
Telescope: 4.25 inch f/ 5 Dobsonian and 21mm eyepiece 26x

Date: 11-19-2008 12:20-13:30 UT
Temperature: -2° C (28° F)
Partly cloudy, light winds
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude: 168.7 °
Lunation: 21.6 days
Illumination: 53.9 %

First and Last Quarters
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Combined sketches

These two sketches were made during lunation (number 1062). The first one on the left was sketched just before first quarter (11-6-08) and appeared here November 22, 2008. The second sketch on the right, made just before last quarter and is the sketch above. Both were sketched on separate pieces of paper but were combined electronically on a black background after scanning.

Frank McCabe

Aurora Over Pottsville, Pennsylvania

Auroral display over Pottsville, Pennslyvania
Sketch and Details by Janis Romer

It was an enormous auroral display that was seen as far south as Arizona. This is what I saw from my balcony. Rather than appearing like the graceful arcs of light you see in photos, the aurora appeared to me as flickering white “blocks” with rays. There were two huge red aurora “clouds” book ending it. I sketched it exactly as I saw it, without any effort to make it conform to common knowledge.

Sketch was made March 12, 1989 using Conte’ pastel pencil on black pastel paper at Pottsville, Pa. Original is 12″ x 24″

Xi Bootes in Little Cygnus

Xi Bootes, Double Star
Sketch and Details by Math Heijen

On the evening of May 9th 2008 I observed a series of double stars in Bootes. The highlight for me that night was Xi Bootes. This colorful double lies about 8 degrees east of Arcturus. The Yellow primary star shines at magnitude 4.8 and it’s magnitude 7.6 orange companion lies at a position angle of 315°. The separation is 6.3″. Through the 17mm Nagler the double looks fairly close (scale from “Double Stars for small Telescopes” by Sissy Haas). When looking at Xi Bootes through the 17mm Nagler, the double seems to be part of an asterism that looks like the constellation Cygnus, only much smaller. Xi Bootes is placed at the position of Deneb, the tail of the swan. We decided to call the asterism “Little Cygnus”. On the sketch below the asterism is oriented West-East. At the tail you find Xi Bootes. Three white stars oriented north-south represent the wings of the little swan. A white star to the east (accompanied by a dimmer companion) is at the position of the head of the swan. The yellow star to the eastern edge of the field of view is just a bright field star. It is no part of the “Little Cygnus” asterism.

The sketch of “Little Cygnus ” and Xi Bootes was made using the 300mm f/5.3 Dobson and a 17mm Type4 Nagler. The magnification is 94x and the field of view is 52′. At the telescope I made a sketch on white paper using a HB led-pencil. This sketch was scanned and processed in Photoshop. I colored the double star (and the field star to the east) using the tutorial described on the website of Jeremy Perez ( http://www.perezmedia.net/beltofvenus ). This is the first time I experimented with this technique, and I am very pleased with the result. It produces a realistic image and resembles what you see through the eyepiece. In the future I will try to use this technique for sketching more double and multiple stars.

Messier’s Candle Flame

M1 (NGC 1952), the Crab Nebula
Sketch by Janis Romer and text by Frank McCabe

Crab Nebula

The excellent sketch above was made by Janis Romer with her Criterion 8″ f/8 Netownian telescope and is the Crab Nebula, M-1 or NGC 1952. This nebula is a supernova remnant with a rapidly rotating central pulsar that can be seen telescopically in the constellation of Taurus near the tip of the southern most horn (Zeta Tauri). The visual magnitude is about 8.5 and the diameter is 11 light years at a distance of 6,500 l.y. The stellar supernova explosion that became the nebula was first seen in the summer of 1054 AD as a daytime guest star. Twenty seven years after John Bevis discovered the nebula in 1731, Charles Messier cataloged it in September of 1758. Charles Messier saw it as an elongated glow in the shape of a candle flame.

Owl, ET, or an Airplane?

NGC 457
Sketch and Details by Rony De Laet

Binocular Icon 50 : The Phi Cas Cluster, NGC 457.

This observation is the 50th entry in my little binocular project that I started on March 31 of last year. Most of these objects were not hard to locate, nor did I have to dig deep to find them. I even had to skip some objects, due to a lack of time or bad weather. If someone would have challenged me a year ago to find 50 sketch-worthy binocular objects, I might have called him crazy. Today I know better. I realize that one year is not enough to sketch the most interesting binocular objects. This project is still fun to do, prove of it is the collected dust on my Skywatcher refractor tube. Binoculars really have me fascinated with their magical views of the sky. People ask me if I don’t run out of objects. But so many binocular challenges lie ahead. We shall see how long my project will continue.

At this point, I want to thank all of you who have supported me in this project. Your friendly replies to these sketches have kept me going. Thanks a lot!!

NGC 457, the Phi Cas Cluster, is one of the most fascinating clusters in the whole sky. With an apparent magnitude of 6.4 and a size of nearly 20’, NGC 457 is not extra-ordinary bright, nor is it extremely large. Its true splendour comes from its stunning appearance in the eye-piece. It doesn’t take much of your imagination to see some kind of a creature, like an owl, or Spielberg’s ET, or an airplane. The cluster shows bar shaped body, with on both ends two stars, presenting the feet and the eyes of the creature. On both side of the bar, a small chain of stars represent the arms. With 8×56 bino’s, the cluster is difficult to resolve. The low power view reminds me of a fighter jet with glowing exhaust pipes. The 15×70 bino’s allow for a better resolution of the cluster’s main body. A comic book figure comes to my mind. It seems to wave with its arms. The mag 5 Phi Cas seems to show an orange hue. NGC 457 is 8.200 l-y away, residing in the Perseus spiral arm.

A nice little bonus is offered by NGC 436 at 40’ NW of NGC 457. In my 15×70 I could detect NGC 436 as a small amorphous patch. This little cluster does look very remote. In fact it is 10.700 l-y away and 25 times less luminous than NGC 457.
The Phi Cas Cluster is easy to look up. It can be found at 2° SSW of Delta Cas (the bright star on top of the sketch).

Site : Bekkevoort, Belgium ( 51° N )
Date : November 25, 2008
Time : around 20.30UT
Binoculars : TS Marine 15×70
FOV: 4.4°
Filter : none
Mount : Trico Machine Sky Window
Seeing : 2/5
Transp. : 3/5
Sky brightness : 19.64 magnitudes per square arc second near zenith (SQM reading).
Nelm: 5.3
Sketch Orientation: N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with Corel Paint Shop Pro X2, based on a raw pencil sketch.

(Note: if the sketch does look too dark on your monitor, try to darken the room.)

A Cat’s Claw in the Bubble

The Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635
Sketch and Details by Serge Vieillard, additional text by Frank McCabe

Serge wrote:
“It was a pleasure to discover the Bubble NGC 7635. A portion of the transparent sphere can be seen with the edge looking like a cat’s claw.”

This beautiful sketch of the portion of NGC 7635 that is known as the Bubble nebula of Cassiopeia was made using an 18 inch Obsession telescope while Serge was in Spain during September of 2007. You can see that the 9th magnitude, young hot O-type star that is shedding its outer surface (stellar wind) and creating this bubble arc is not centered. This is due to the resistance to expansion created by a portion of the surrounding molecular cloud that can be seen glowing in part to the left of the arc. The Bubble is known today to be a diffuse emission nebula and was discovered by Fredrich W. Herschel in 1787.

Tycho’s Impact

Lunar Crater Tycho
Sketch and Details by Krztsztof Rajda, text by Rich Handy

Tycho crater is captured dramatically in this pencil to Gimp2 sketch by Krztsztof (Kris) Rajda of Poland. The dark impact melt ring that surround and is scattered about it’s floor, along with the splay of rays that emanate from this crater, are indicators of Tycho’s youthful (Copernican age). Tycho Brahe, the man, changed the course of science and mankind’s understanding of the Solar Sytem by his meticulous observations and the data shared he shared with Kepler.

Sketch information:
Obiect name:crater Tycho
Scope:ATM truss dobs 300/1500
Place: Poland,Brzeźno
Seeing:3/5
Date:07.11.2008(18:00PM)
Technique:Pencil,graphics GIMP2
Amateur astronomer:Krztsztof(Kris)Rajda