Astronomy Sketch of the Day – Page 231 – Drawings and sketches of an astronomical nature

Full of Knots

M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy
Sketch and Details by Jeff Young

William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse remarked that M33 was “full of knots. Spiral arrangement. Two similar curves like an “S” cross in the centre.” I seem to have captured many of his knots and the primary “S” shape, but was less successful with the secondary “S”.

M33 has the distinction of being one of the first galaxies identified as a “spiral nebulae” by Lord Rosse in the 19th C, as well as being one of the first “nebulae” identified as galaxies by Edwin Hubble in the early 20th C. Among visual amateurs its distinction is less complimentary: while bright enough to be visible naked-eye from pristine skies, its low surface brightness and large size make it notoriously difficult to discern much of the detail readily visible in photographs.

Sketched 11/30/2008 from County Louth, Ireland,
as viewed through 16” Mak-Cass @105X; Pickering 5, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.4
Daler-Rowney HB Graphic pencil on white cartridge paper. Scanned and inverted in Photoshop.

Cheers,

— Jeff.

A Fine Cigar

M82, NGC 3034 “The Cigar Galaxy”
Sketch and Details by Przemysław Horoszkiewicz, text by Rich Handy

Polish amateur astronomer Przemysław Horoszkiewicz has wonderfully captured M82, the Cigar Galaxy. M82 is classified as an irregular galaxy. The beautiful spiral M81, has had several previous close approaches to M82. Gravitational instabilities caused by these encounters have triggered massive star formation. Consequently, strong winds from supernovae and stellar formation have sculpted huge plumes of energized hydrogen gas that extends deep into the space around M82. It is this gas that obscures the central portions of the galaxy as is shown so well in Przemysław’s sketch.

Sketch information:

Object name: M 82 (NGC 3034)
Object type: Galaxy
Location: Poland, Zielona Góra (a few kilometers from the city)
Date: 29.11.2008r
Scope: Newton 254/1200
Eyepieces: LVW 8 ( 150x)
Seeing: 7/10
Technique:Pencil,graphics GIMP2
Amateur astronomer:Przemysław Horoszkiewicz(Poland)

Optical Aid Optional

Conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter
Sketch and Details by Carlos E. Hernandez

I made a naked eye observation of the Waxing Crescent Moon (3.76 days old), Venus, and Jupiter over the southwestern sky on December 1, 2008 (22:45 U.T.). The trio was paired between a pair of trees and pastel orange clouds. It was a very impressive sight. I hope that others were able to view it as well.

A digital observation made using Photoshop CS3.

Carlos

Basin Bailly

Lunar Basin Bailly
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

The terminator was approaching the southwestern limb of the moon as the basin Bailly, nicely visible due to favorable libration, came under full illumination. Bailly is large for a crater but small for a ringed basin at 300 kilometers in diameter. In the grazing sunlight the irregular basin floor with numerous craters was evident but no sign of the inner crater ring was visible as can be seen in overhead spacecraft images. The far side inner wall was beautifully illuminated in direct sunlight while features beyond were in total darkness. The depth of this basin is about 6 kilometer below the rim. The two large bright rimmed craters at the south end of Bailly’s floor are first older Bailly B at 65 km. and then younger Bailly A at 38 km. Also notable in this view is a portion of a bright ray of ejecta traceable back to Tycho (not in the drawing) and crossing crater Kircher (75 km.) before reaching the south end of Bailly. The 3 large craters below the Tycho ray are in descending size: Bettinus (73km.), Segner (70km.), and Zucchius (66 km.) which is the youngest of this group of craters.

This was the first evening the moon has been visible from my location since this lunation began. Although a little bit on the chilly side for sketching, it was a pleasure to get out and draw the moon again.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9”x 7”, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased (-2) using the scanner.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 9 mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 12-11-2008, 5:15 – 7:00 UT
Temperature: – 3°C (26° F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 73.1 °
Lunation 13.58 days
Illumination: 97 %
Libration: in Lat. -6° 3’, in Long. -3° 45’

Frank McCabe

Wide Field Orion

M42, The Great Nebula of Orion
Sketch and Details by Daniel Stępniak

Daniel Stepniak’s beautiful wide field sketch of the Orion Nebula is a spectacular example of just what wonders await those with even modest apertures. He has submitted several others that will featured on ASOD.

All the sketches were made from suburbs of medium city- Sochaczew,
Poland. Unfortunately, there’s here big light pollution.
I’ve used small newtonian telescope- Synta 114/500 and NPL15mm (33x) and
made it with graphite pencil.
I like sketching during watching the sky. I think it’s the best way to
show what we are able to see using the telescope.

Daniel Stępniak

A Handful of Peculiars

Arp 229
Sketch and Details by Jeff Young

Here’s another entry from Halton Arp’s catalog of Peculiar Galaxies: Arp 229. (I believe Arp’s designation applies only to the central galaxies in my sketch.)

I thought this made a particularly interesting view as the galaxies are quite varied even though there’s not really any structure visible in my instrument. From the top, we have NGC499 which presents an elongated, well-condensed core, followed by the bright over/under pair of NGC508 and 507, both of which present semi-stellar cores. The little guys around that pair, clockwise from the center of the sketch are IC1687 with no core visible, MCG+05-04-048 with a dim semi-stellar core visible, and NGC504 with a bright stellar core. Lastly is IC1685 in the lower left, which is quite bright but shows no core at all.

Sketched 11/30/2008 from County Louth, Ireland,
as viewed through a 16” Mak-Cass @ 150X; Pickering 5, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.4.
Daler-Rowney HB Graphic pencil on white cartridge paper. Scanned and inverted in Photoshop.

Cheers,

— Jeff.

Double Double

Hesiodus and Pitatus
Sketch and Details by Serge Vieillard, translation by Frank McCabe

Roughly translated from French to English Serge wrote:

It was the weekend of the first of May 2007, and I was using a 25 cm. telescope on an equatorial platform at 500x. The moon was well into the gibbous phase. Despite the persistent turbulence, I noticed with pleasure the small crater Hesiodus near the edge of much larger crater Pitatus and adjacent to Hesiodus to the southwest the perfectly concentric interlocking of two craters one in the other called Hesiodus A.

In Memory of Charles Munton

Planetary Nebula NGC 1514
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

There is a little story behind these that I would like to share. (Frank is already aware of the situation and has been of great support). About a month ago it was brought to my attention that a fellow astronomer whom I knew, but not well had been stricken with cancer. The unfortunate gentleman was Charles Munton, it was Charles work displayed at Astro Fest in London a number of years ago that first encouraged me to begin sketching deep sky objects.

Varible Reflection Nebula NGC 1554, 1555 Hinds
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

Charles was very ill and was spending his last days in a hospice. I came up with a plan to write to Charles each week with a summary of my observations and prints of my sketches, this I did also sending in sketches and pictures from other friends too, including Frank McCabe & Sue French. Charles was delighted to receive the packages and they appeared to do what I set out to do, keep him engaged with his passion and let him continue observation and discovery in a virtual way.

Galaxy NGC 1587 in Taurus
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

Because I was doing this for Charles I felt compelled to get out at every clear opportunity to create sketches for him. The sketches attached were part of that program. I had just completed NGC 1514 when my phone rang in the observatory, it was Andrew Robertson a close friend and observational sparring partner to both Charles and Myself. Andrew broke the news that Charles had gone!

Galaxy NGC 1589
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

These are pictures for Charles that sadly he will never see.

As usual they were created using my 14″ f5 Newtonian running a Watec 120n Deep Sky Video camera, sketches made in real time from a black & white monitor using HB pencils, blending stumps and erasers on cartridge paper. Finished sketches then scanned and turned into negative images electronically.

Dale Holt
Chippingdale Observatory
Hertfordshire
England

Space Ghost

M1(NGC 1952), the Supernova Remnant in Taurus
Sketch and Details by Przemyslaw Horoszkiewicz, text by Rich Handy

The ghostly apparition of a stellar explosion that appeared in 1054, M1 or NGC 1952, is beautifully portrayed by Polish amateur astronomer Przemyslaw Horoszkiewicz. M1 is 6,500 light years distant and is approximately 10 light years in diameter.

Sketch information:
Obiect name: Messier 1 (NGC 1952)
Scope: Sky-Watcher 254/1200
Eyepieces: Super Plossl 25mm
Place: Poland, Zielona Góra (A few kilometers for city)
Seeing: 7/10
Date: 29.11.2008 r
Technique:Pencil,graphics GIMP2
Amateur astronomer: Przemysław Horoszkiewicz (Poland)

Thinner

Saturn on December 2nd, 2008
Sketch and Details by Krzysztof Rajda

Saturn’s well known rings are seen almost edge on in this superb sketch by Krzysztof Rajda of Poland.

Sketch information:

Obiect name:Saturn
Scope:Soligor MT800,N200/800
Place:Brzeźno,Poland
Eyepiece:TeleVue barlow 2x,Antares Plossl 6mm.
Seeing:4/5 Antonadi
Date:02.12.2008r.
Technique:Pencil,graphics GIMP2
Amateur astronomer:Krzysztof Rajda(Poland)