Beta Scorpii (Graffias)
Sketch by Michael Vlasov
This pair of hot B-class stars lies about 530 light years away. Their separation of 14 arc seconds places them at least 2200 astronomical units from each other. Beta-1 has another companion hugging it much closer at .5 arc seconds. Both Beta-1 and Beta-2 are also thought to be spectroscopic binaries, bringing the total number of stars in the system to 5.
Source: Wikipedia.
Lunar Occultation of Saturn Series
Sketch by Serge Vieillard
Gamma Virginis
Sketch and Details by Jeremy Perez
Move mouse over sketch to compare change in position from January 2007 to April 2008.
Click the image for a larger version.
About 38 light years away in the constellation Virgo, this pair of twin stars orbit one another once every 169 years. When I last observed them in January 2007, they appeared as a single, elongated, pill-shaped star. On April 10, 2008, the diffraction discs were now clearly separated into two distinct stars with no overlap. Position angle had also proceeded about twenty degrees clockwise since my last look.
During my January 2007 observation, I estimated a position angle of 60 degrees. However, the data in Brian Workman’s Double Star calculator indicated they should have been 49 degrees. I thought this was strange at the time, since I would probably have guessed 45 degrees if that were the case. Recently, I had a look at some more refined data provided by Brian Skiff. Plugging that into the calculator led to January 2007 value of 58 degrees–much closer to my estimate at the time.
For the April 10, 2008 observation, I was able to put the astrometric eyepiece to use on the pair, and arrived at a position angle of 36 degrees. Skiff’s data points to a value of 37.9 degrees. Based on diffraction discs that are not quite touching, I estimated a separation of .92 arc seconds. Skiff’s data comes out to .993 arc seconds.
I was excited to see such a pronounced difference since last year. What a privilege to watch the slow dance of this stellar couple.
| Subject | Gamma Virginis (Porrima / STF 1670) |
| Classification | Double Star |
| Position (J2000) | Virgo [RA: 12:41:39.9 / Dec: -01:26:58]* |
| Position Angle* | 36° [My measurement 2008.27] 37.9° [Skiff Data interpolated 2008.27] |
| Separation* | 0.92″ [My measurement 2008.27] 0.993″ [Skiff Data interpolated 2008.27] |
| Magnitudes* | 3.6; 3.7 |
| Spectral Types* | – |
| Date/Time | APR 10, 2008 – 10:30 PM MST (APR 11, 2008 – 05:30 UT) |
| Observing Loc. | Flagstaff, AZ – Home |
| Instrument | Orion SVP 6LT Reflector (150 mm dia./1200 mm F/L) |
| Eyepieces/Mag. | 12 mm Meade Astrometric Eyepiece+ 2X Barlow (200X) |
| Conditions | Clear, calm, first quarter moon |
| Seeing | 6/10 Pickering |
| Transparency | NELM Mag ~5.0 |
| *References | The Washington Visual Double Star Catalog, 1996.0 (Worley+, 1996); Brian Workman’s Double Star Calculator (Using orbital elements supplied by Brian Skiff) |
Mars – November 17, 2007
Sketch and Details by Barry Chase
First sketch of Mars, waited patiently for cobblestone clouds to give brief glimpses here and there.
On a side note, Last night was the first time I’ve effectively used 240x.. I was beginning to think it was useless to barlow my 10mm
M11
Sketch and Details by Kiminori Ikebe
M11(NGC 6705) Sct open cluster
Difficulty level 1
Date of observation: 1999/10/06 20:23
Observing site: Makinoto
Transparency/seeing/sky darkness: 3/5/3
Instruments: 32cm Dobsonian with XL14 at 110x
Width of field: 0.6 degree
This is a fine and bright cluster containing many stars. At 110x it is highly concentrated but almost completely resolved. There is a 7.8-magnitude star near the center. It is very conspicuous. There are two faint stars nearby. It is a fine sight with an equal double on the south side, which is as bright as the star near the center. The distribution of the resolved stars is quite uneven. The general shape of the cluster is that of a diamond and a beautiful chain of stars is seen in the southeast outlying area. Dark areas and dense patches of stars are intermingled. There are scattered outliers northeast of the cluster. They seem to be members of the cluster.
Jupiter: January 28, 1897
Sketch by H. McEwan
Published in Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association, Volume VI, 1898, starting on page 103 available at Google Books.
Saturn
Sketch and Details by Eric Graff
Parks Astrolight EQ6 – 6″ f/6 Newtonian Reflector
7.5mm Parks Gold Series Plossl + 2x Barlow – 240x
12 April 2008 – 03:30 to 04:30 UT
Sketched from my backyard in San Diego, CA
Sketched with #2 pencil, blending stump, on 100# index card; processed with Microsoft Picture It! With special thanks to Sol Robbins for graciously sharing his excellent templates.
M13
Sketch and Details by Rony De Laet
The Great Globular in Hercules.
One of the finest globular clusters for northern hemisphere observers is undoubtedly M13 in Hercules. With a magnitude of 5.8, the cluster is a naked eye object under mag 6 skies. The cluster is also an easy to find object, even for novice observers. Just draw a line from Eta Herculis to Zeta Herculis and you’ll bump into M13. Just put Eta at the northern edge of the field of view, and M13 will appear centered in your view. Under dark skies, the Globular can be seen without optical aid as a tiny smudge of light.
While many globulars have a star like core, M13 appeared to me with a granular core. Its halo is very large compared to other globulars. I could detect a mag 10 star at the western border of the halo. The bright star at the top of the sketch is Eta Herculis.
With M13 riding high in the sky, try to compare it with other globulars like M3, M5, M10 and M12. At first, these globulars may all look alike. But with patience, each globular will show slightly different features!
Site : Bischofshofen, Austria
Date : May 3, 2008
Time : around 22.30UT
Binoculars : Bresser 8×56
FOV: 5.9°
Filter : none
Mount : Trico Machine Sky Window
Seeing : 3/5
Transp. : 4/5
Nelm : 6.0
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with Photo Paint, based on a raw pencil sketch.
Aristillus and Autolycus
Sketch and Details by Richard Handy
Sitting replendently on the the eastern margin of Mare Imbrium, 56 km Aristillus and 41 km Autolycus, brothers of Copernician age, are a startling sight in the late lunar afternoon sunshine. Hexagonal in appearance, Aristillus’s broad and radially splayed glacis dominates the mare surface in this region. It’s wide, brilliantly lit terraces apparently have evidenced some mass wasting since its creation a little over a billion years ago. Resting on the floor, some 3650 m deep, the glowing central peaks are roughly 900 meters high. Rays, some quite prominent, emanate from the crater’s center. To the northwest of Aristillus, swathes of darker mare may indicate areas not fully dusted by the ejecta from this massive impact, or perhaps ejecta excavated from deep within the extant mare is responsible for these low albedo areas. Approximately 60 km to the south, Autolycus’s glacial nimbus appears almost serene in comparison to the complex nature of Aristillus’s glacis. Half of the floor of Autolycus is composed of quite torturous terrane including a strange floor subsidence to the eastern section of the floor.
Here are the sketch details:
Subject: Aristillus and Autolycus Rukl: 12
Date: 10-13-06 Start: 9:15 UT End: 10:50 UT
Lunation: 20.90 days Phase: 277.5 deg Illumination: 56.5%
Colongitude: 164.8 deg Lib. in Lat.: -5 deg 40 min Lib. in Long.: +7 deg 39 min
Seeing: Antoniadi III-IV with 30 seconds of Ant. II every 20 minutes
Weather: Clear early, turning to occasional clouds mid to late during session, 10-15 knot winds late.
Telescope: 12″ Meade SCT F10
Binoviewer: W.O. Bino-P with 1.6X Nosepiece.
Eyepieces: W.O. WA 20mm Plossls
Magnification: 244X
Lunation: 18.48 days Phase: 311.1 deg Illumination: 82.9%
Colongitude: 133.7 deg Lib in Lat.: -3 deg 53 min Lib in Long.: +5 deg 12 min
Sketch medium: White and black Conte’ Crayons on black textured Strathmore paper.
Sketch size: 18″ x 24″
C/2004 F4 (Bradfield)
Sketch and Details by Martin Mc Kenna
C/2004 F4 Bradfield on April 29th 2004 at 03.47 LT as seen through the 8″ F/6.3 S.Cass among the star fields of Pisces low in the NE very close to the sun. This was a beautiful comet – I could see it rise tail first over my garden trees through my 10X50 binoculars and finder scope. The white straight dust tail was 5 degrees long with a compact well condensed white/green coma and spine. However this morning was a time of surprise and discovery – as soon as I swept up the comet I was shocked to see a bright anti-tail pointing toward the sun which was not their before. This was my first observation of an anti-tail and I was among only a few lucky observers to have seen it.
Before it appeared in the morning sky the comet made for a spectacular sight in the SOHO LASCO C3 images where Bradfield could be seen completing a hairpin turn around the sun with an incredible bright curved tail. The comet looked like it was a living creature! This was the 18th comet discovered by the living legend known as William (Bill) Bradfield who found the comet close to the sun during an evenings comet search.
