Astronomy Sketch of the Day – Page 261 – Drawings and sketches of an astronomical nature

The Ghost of Alnitak

NGC 2024, The Ghost of Alnitak
By Rony De Laet

Hello,

We’ve had a full week of clear nights! So every night, after work and family, I tried to capture some DSO targets. This one is a little bit of a special object because I drove to a darker site some 130km from home to sketch it. I’ve glimpsed NGC 2024 at home before, but it always remained a uncertain view. The most annoying thing is the bright presence of Alnitak. I tried to keep Alnitak out of the way, but it didn’t work. Otherwise, NGC2024 would not be such a tough target. More to the south is also the weak glow of NGC2023. So here is my sketch, from the highest point of Belgium : a whopping 690m asl. There was still sufficient oxygen in the air to breath

Date : February 12, 2008
Time : around 22.00UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
Eyepiece : 15mm Plösll
Power : x33
FOV: 90′
Filter : UHC
Seeing : 3/5
Transp. : 4/5
Nelm : 5,8
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Captivating Conjunction

Moon, Venus and Jupiter Conjuction
By Carlos E. Hernandez

Moon, Venus, and Jupiter

On February 5, 2008 (11:35 U.T.) I was able to view a very thin Waning Crescent Moon (27.9 days old) visible floating above (~5 degrees) a lavender cloud covered southeastern horizon. Venus was a very bright beacon (-3.97m) 12.2 degrees southwest of the Moon. Jupiter was a bright pastel orange-white star (~-1.87m) 4.0 degrees southwest of Venus. The southeast horizon exhibited pastel yellow to orange colors. I hope that others were able to view this pairing as well.

A digital image produced in Corel Painter X.

Shepard Courtier of Selene

Northeastern Lunar Limb Crater: Endymion
By Frank McCabe

Northeastern Lunar Limb Crater: Endymion

The lunar libration on this evening was not favorable for viewing Mare
Humboldtianum. However the 125 kilometer diameter dark floored crater Endymion was
well placed in lunar morning sunlight just 300 km. southwestward of the mare
center. I was keen on rendering this crater because I knew it to be large, ancient
and in possession of a remarkable rim and rampart. Crater Endymion is an ancient
nearly four billion year old Nectarian formation. The highest reaches of the
mountains on the rim and apron tower at 4600 meters above the dark lava flooded
floor. I was unable to see under the viewing conditions the ray streaks from
crater Thales (not visible in the drawing) that are best seen at high sun. The
notable terracing on the inner rim was in shadow but much of the broken crater
ramparts were clearly visible about the crater’s circumference. Craters Atlas and
Hercules were visible nearby very close to the sunrise terminator and if the
temperature would have been a couple of dozen degrees warmer I would have enjoyed observing and sketching them.

Conditions at the time of this observation were less than ideal with a brisk wind
out of the northwest and an air temperature of -19° C (-2° F). I stretched this
sketch out over two hours plus so I could take frequent finger thawing breaks. I
have observed under much colder conditions but I need to take off my gloves to
sketch.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 9”x 12”, white and
black Conte’pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased
(-4) and contrast increased (+2) after scanning using Microsoft Office Picture
Manager.

Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 2-10/11-2008 23:15-2:20 UT (sketching time was 45min.)
Temperature: -19°C (-2°F)
clear, breezy
Seeing: poor back and forth between Antoniadi III and IV
Co longitude: 322.1°
Lunation: 3.8 days
Illumination: 17.2 %
Phase: 131.1°

Dances on the Limb

Solar H-alpha sketch collage 2008 02 11, 1214ST -1304ST (1714UT – 1804UT)
By Erika Rix

2008 02 11, 1214ST -1304ST (1714UT – 1804UT)

Solar H-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 14.0 °F / -10.0 °C

Winds: WNW at 8.1 mph, light scattered and later completely overcast

Humidity: 49%

Seeing: 2/6-5/6

Transparency: 2/6

Alt: 35.9 Az: 176.9

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell,

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added -25 brightness, +5 contrast after scanning in color at 300 dpi. I then turned
the image into monochrome. I scanned initially in color to eliminate cross hashes
that the scanner creates in grayscale. Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun
insert.

At first glance in h-alpha around 10x magnification, only two prominences, SSE and
West, popped out at me. I didn’t waste much time with the 40mm eyepiece since I
usually use it for initially getting the Sun in the FOV. At 19x the eastern
prominence looked like two fingers curling towards each other with the southern most
of the two a little brighter. Taking the magnifications to 57x I could make out a
very faint thin line connecting the two and also noted the strands of contrasted
prominence within the two fingers at 33x. Seeing was much worse at the higher
magnifications but I had moments where it settled for a detailed view.

Moving South at low magnification, the prominence appeared to be two separate
entities with the westerly portion of it looking like a hook or letter C opening up
to the East. Increasing magnification with the zoom eyepiece, I was amazed to see
with slight averted vision at first several connections between the two. After
discovering them, I could actually look at them straight on to make out the delicate
network of strands. It was truly beautiful and very delicate.

A similar thing happened to me with the western set of prominences. The most
northerly of the four on the western limb grew almost twice in size with a
magnification of around 33x. The prom itself didn’t grow, but rather my ability to
see the actual size of it with a modest magnification. The additional length of it
disappeared at 57x.

The little set of prominences at the NNE limb became brighter as the session went
and also became better defined with the lower one (more northerly) turning from a
fuzzy little thumbprint into a thin branch reaching to the one that was more to the
East.

I noticed a dark round dot around 40 degrees on the disk from the East and pretty
much on the equatorial line. It was very small and tweaking the Etalon did not show
any signs of plage. Other than that, there were no significant surface details such
as plage or filaments to me visually. The disk was alive with hairlike structures
and a mottled appearance, very pretty.

Alexander’s Waning Ray

Alexander’s Waning Ray
By Richard Handy

When the waning Moon brings long spires of deep shadows to the mountains and scarps that line the western shores of Mare Imbrium, the peaks of the Montes Caucasus become beacons of bright white light, radiant and dazzling in the last rays of late lunar afternoon sun. This arcuate, rugged range, a remnant of the multi-basin rings raised by the titantic Imbrium impact, reach a lofty 6000 meters in elevation above Mare Imbrium and Serenitatis today. The strait that separates the Caucasus and the Montes Apenninus is probably the result of the previous Serenitatis impact. The collision excavated a large section of crustal material at the eventual and almost tangental intersection of these two great lunar basins, so here no mountains nor hills were lifted high enough to survive the much later inundation by mare basalts. The dark parabola of shadowed Alexander is illuminated by a single, slim dagger of light. Was this ancient Pre-Imbrium 82 km crater the result of an oblique impact? The heavy fill of ejecta from the Imbrium or Serenitatis events and the remainders of its sparse and broken ramparts make interpretation difficult, still it’s general elliptical depression begs this question. Between the Montes Caucasus and the Montes Alpes to the northeast lies Cassini with it’s smooth appearing glacis. This Lower Imbrium crater almost looks to have impacted into a semi-liquid layer of basalt, so soft and thin is the appearance of it’s glacis. To the northeast of Cassini, The Montes Alpes, a great blocky wedge composed of lineated chunks of broken regolith, is scattered radially from the center of Imbrium, evidence of the sheer power of an explosion that lifted up mountain ranges and tossed aside blocks of lunar crust the size of stadiums hundreds of kilometers from it’s center. Beyond the field of view of this sketch, the Vallis Alpes confirms the readjustment that occcured millions of years after the Imbrium event, as large sections of crust pulled apart under the stresses of sublithospheric flows.

Sketch details:

Subject: Alexander’s Waning Ray Rukl: 12, 13,
Time: 9:50 UT to 10:17 UT Date: December 30, 2007
Seeing: Antoniadi III -IV Weather: clear and 10 mph breeze
Lunation: 20.68 days
Colongitude: 164.0 deg.
Illumination: 58.9%
Lib. in Lat.: +03 deg. 30 min.
Lib. in Long.: +06 deg. 29 min.
Phase: 280.2 deg.
Telescope: 12″ Meade SCT f/10
Binoviewer: W.O. Bino-P with 1.6X nosepiece
45 deg. W.O. erect image diagonal
Eyepieces: 18mm W.O. Plossls
Magnification: 271X
Sketch Medium: White and gray pastels on Strathmore black Artagain paper
Sketch size: 18″ X 24″

Three Fuzzy Friends

M96, M105 and NGC 3384
By Jeremy Perez

M96, M105 and NGC 3384

These three galaxies were kind enough to fit in the field of view together. The two galaxies on the north side, M105 and NGC 3384 appeared about 10′ apart, nucleus to nucleus. Their nucleii were softly stellar in appearance. M105 appeared basically circular and the brighter of the two, while NGC 3384 was elongated north-northeast to south-southwest. M96 was about 50′ to the south. It was the largest and brightest of the three galaxies, elongated northwest to southeast. It didn’t have the same stellar nucleus as the other two, it was a bright nucleus, but not as concentrated. Observing all three galaxies at 120X didn’t expose more detail, mostly just verified what I had already seen at 37X.

Factoids:
M96 is a type Sa spiral galaxy that is the brightest of the Leo 1 group of galaxies, which includes M95 and M105 as well as other fainter galaxies. It lies about 38 million light years away and it’s bright inner portion extends about 66,000 light years in diameter. It has a fainter outer ring which extend that diameter to about 100,000 light years. The inner disk is composed of an old population of yellow stars. The galaxy contains a significant amount of dust and blue knots of star forming regions. It was discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1781 and thus cataloged by Charles Messier a few days later.

M105 is an E1 elliptical galaxy that is a member of this same galaxy group and so is also about 38 million light years distant. It is often studied as a standard representative of elliptical galaxies. A Hubble Space Telescope survey of the galaxy has shown it to contain a massive central object weighing in at 50 million solar masses. M105 is moving away from us at 752 km/sec. It was discovered by Pierre Mechain a few days after M96, but for some reason wasn’t included in Charles Messier’s catalog. It was added as M105 in 1947 by Helen Sawyer Hogg along with M106 and M107.

NGC 3384 is an E7 elliptical galaxy that contains what appears to be a central bar. It also appears to be a member of the Leo 1 galaxy group.

Subject M96 (NGC 3368), M105 (NGC ), NGC 3384
Classification Spiral and Eliptical Galaxies
Position* Leo:
M96: [RA: 10:46.8 / Dec: +11:49]
M105: [RA: 10:47.8 / Dec: +12:35]
NGC 3384: [RA: 10:48.3 / Dec: +12:38]
Size* M96: 7.1′ x 5.1′ / M105: 4.5′ x 4.0′ / NGC 3384: 5.9′ x 2.6′
Brightness* M96: 9.2 / M105: 9.3 / NGC 3384: 10.0
Date/Time February 4, 2005 – 1:45 AM
(February 4, 2005 – 08:45 UT)
Observing Loc. Flagstaff, AZ – Home
Instrument Orion SVP 6LT Reflector (150 mm dia./1200 mm F/L)
Eyepieces/Mag. 32 mm (37X), 10 mm (120X)
Conditions Clear, 25?F
Seeing 3/10
Transparency Mag 5.2
Sources SEDS
*Based on published data.

The Many Faces of a Red Desert World

Mars opposition 2007/8 and composite sketch
By Marcin Marczyński

Mars opposition 2007/8

These superb sketches of the 2007-2008 Mars opposition were
submitted by Marcin Marczyński of Lezno, Poland. The beautiful
precision he used to render these sketches are a tribute to his
keen observational skills and an artist’s talent at portraying in
graphite pencil, precisely what he sees at the eyepiece. Marcin’s
notes below each sketch are wonderfully concise, yet quite
informative.

Here are Marcin’s sketch details:

Location: Leszno, Poland
Telescope: Sky-Watcher 8″ dob.
Eyepieces: S.Plossl 10mm(120x), Antares Orto.6mm(200x)
white paper, 2B pencil

The map is a handmade combination of above sketches.
Regards
Pozdrawiam!

Marcin Marczyński

Two Views of the Spider

The Tarantula Nebula, NGC 2070 wide field view
By Eiji Kato

NGC 2070, The Tarantula Nebula

Eiji Kato has captured these two marvelous views of the NGC 2070, the Tarantula Nebula in the southern hemispheric constellation of Dorado, the Dolphin fish, Xiphias, or the Swordfish. This immense region contains stars forming in their nascent cacoons of gas and dust. Previous stellar death is rampant here as well, remnants of their past existence, shells of excited gas, glow amidst strong interstellar winds. Mr Kato’s beautiful sketches show two perspectives, one a wider field view and the other near center. Most of Mr Kato’s exceptional drawings were made using an 18.5″, f/4 reflector. Some later drawings were made with a 18.1″, f/4.5 reflector.

The Tarantula Nebula, NGC 2070 near center view
By Eiji Kato

Eiji Kato lives in Australia and operates the TwinStar Guesthouse Observatory.
Please make a visit to his gallery of fine drawings.

The Mosque and the Mushroom

Solar sketch on January 20th, 2008
By Erika Rix

2008 01 21, 1155ST -1241ST (1655UT – 1741UT)

Solar H-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 19.0 °F / -7.2 °C

Winds: from the South at 6.9 mph, light cirrus

Wind chill ~ 12F

Humidity: 42%

Seeing: 5/6 with moments of 4/5

Transparency: 2/6

Alt: 29.3 Az: 168.6

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added -27 brightness, +6 contrast after scanning.

Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun insert.

Yesterday I had forgotten to record drift before I brought the Maxscope back inside
and closed up the observatory. Not feeling like setting back up again to record
drift, I guessed the orientation incorrectly. Today, I observed close to the same
time as yesterday and with the diagonal near the same position and by comparing
today’s sketch with yesterday’s, I think I can safely say the SW prom that I
sketched was actually a SE prominence. I’m sorry for my error, but happy to supply
a compared view of the two solar sketches.

Solar sketch on January 21th, 2008
By Erika Rix

Please note the differences in the 55 deg PA and the 135 deg PA (approximately)
prominences between the two days. The NE prom developed into a beautiful display
today that at first glance appeared to be a soft mushroom head with hardly a stem
beneath it. Nine minutes later and bumping up the magnification, it took a
completely different structure with clearly several legs reaching to the limb as
well as a pointed tip swaying to the north.

The SE prominence today at first glance was shaped like a beautiful mosque. Bumping
up the magnification made it more difficult to see as much detail because the sky
conditions took a turn for the worst and I had to keep waiting patiently for moments
of clarity to complete the prominence sketch. By the time it became steady and
clear, the prom had changed too much for me to add the fainter portions of it.

The plage that I noted yesterday was no where to be found today.

Mars through the Fog

Mars through the Fog December 19th, 2007
By Frank McCabe

Initially this observing night began iffy at best. A layer of mid-level thin
clouds along with some ice fog made the view of the moon poor in contrast. Both
Mars and the moon took turns appearing and disappearing behind clouds. When I
caught a look at Mars through the fog I realized the transparency although poor,
was improving the seeing of the Martian low contrast features in a positive way. I
was able to use a 4mm orthoscopic ocular at 360x on Mars for sketching. I tried
several filters but the fog was providing the only filter I really needed.
The central meridian was 341° and the planet was nearly 100% illuminated. The
angular size of Mars on this night was 15.9” of arc. Mars was shining through the
clouds at magnitude -1.6. No stars below 3rd magnitude were visible. The most
prominent features visible included: the bright North Polar Hood; and the
following dark features: Syrtis Major about to rotate out of view; Iapygia
Viridis; Mare Serpentis; Sinus Sabaeus; and Sinus Meridiani. This was my first
Mars sketch in two years.

Sketching: White sketching paper 9”x 9”; 4H, B, HB, and 2H Graphite pencils; I
used my fingers for blending.
Date 12/19/2007 – 4:30-5:00 UT
Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 4mm eyepiece 360x
Temperature: -3°C (27°F)
mostly cloudy, fog, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi II