Astronomy Sketch of the Day – Page 262 – Drawings and sketches of an astronomical nature

Milky Way in Cassiopeia

The Milky Way in Cassiopeia
By Rony De Laet

This is a lawn chair observation of the Milky Way passing through Cassiopeia. The view was so beautiful that I wanted to capture it in a sketch. I studied the region for about 20 minutes before sketching. North is right in the sketch. The two patches on top of the view are the double cluster in Perseus. I tried to simulate the glow of the Milky Way as it crossed this mighty constellation.

Location : Bischofshofen, Austria
Date: Dec. 25, 2006 , 21.00UT
Seeing: 4 on a scale of 5, Transparency : 4, Nelm : 5.1
Scope : naked eye

Cometary Impersonator

Atlas Centaur 5 Fuel Dump on December 10, 2007
By Ed Sunder

Observer: Ed Sunder
Location: Flintstone, Georgia, USA
Naked Eye
December 10, 2007 – 5:50 pm
Sketched generated with Adobe Photoshop over star background
generated by Starry Night.

On December 10, 2007, an Atlas 5 rocket launched a classified payload into orbit. After completing it’s first orbit, the depleted Centaur upper stage put on a spectacular show for eastern North America as it dumped its residual fuel overboard. Sightings were reported from Louisiana to Canada. Ed Sunder witnessed the event from Flintstone, Georgia, USA. Like many who observed it, Ed was not immediately aware it was a fuel dump. He noted, “…at 6:50 I looked up in the night sky and nearly directly overhead was a magnitude 1 comet! The core was exceptionally bright (at least mag 1) and the coma was very large – the whole thing was nearly the size of the moon in appearance….I can’t describe how excited I was – I literally had goosebumps. I just wish I’d brought my camera and binoculars.”

Although he was not able to photograph the event, he was able to create a sketch of what he saw later that evening. Using a star field generated by his planetarium software, Ed illustrated the comet-shaped phenomenon so others could visualize the event.

Double Delight

Epsilon Perseus
By Wade V. Corbei

Epsilon Perseus

Here is a simple Double Star (and another I never knew about until dilly-dallying with the COL). I don’t know if this is normal for the primary star, but on the night I observed this double, there was a large halo surrounding the star in addition to the diffraction spikes.

I have noticed that there are times when some stars have a halo or diffraction spikes (although I think this is the only time I have seen both at the same time, I’ll have to check my notes); and other times they have none.

Is this a result of weather/atmospheric conditions by chance. It seems as if I notice these oddities when it is getting damp or dewey.

A Mighty Globular in a Small Scope

Messier 3 Globular Cluster
By Rony De Laet

Hello folks,

Summer is approaching, the nights have become grey. But I do not stop observing. Here is an impression of M3. I had fun teasing out as much detail as possible. Globulars are difficult to render. The mind might see patterns that aren’t there. I tried to remain objective. Lots of faint stars were present in the outer region of the halo. I noticed some dark lanes in the halo, and the core looked elongated too. I hope you like the view.

Date : June 5, 2007
Time : 22.30UT
Scope : ETX 105/1470
Meade 25mm and 15mm SP
Power : x66 to x100
FOV: 35′
Filter : none
Seeing : 2.5/5
Transp. : 2/5
Nelm : 4.9
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Petavius Yet Again

Evening and Morning Light on the Crater Petavius
By Frank McCabe

On the 6th day of March 2007, I sketched crater Petavius in the evening light
close to the time of sunset at Petavius. This large rather circular floor
fractured crater appeared elongated and ellipsoidal because of its proximity to
the limb and in a somewhat unfavorable libration. I was hoping on Wednesday
evening during the next lunation to catch the crater again just after sunrise but
I was thwarted by clouds and rain 16 days after the first drawing. However the
next evening had some breaks in the cloud cover before the rains reappeared and I
was able to sketch Petavius in the lunar morning sunlight and also at a more
favorable libration which explains its more circular appearance. Upon completion
of the second drawing I rotated and resized it using Microsoft paint and placed it
with the earlier sketch. Seeing the same features in the morning and evening light
adds to the endless enjoyment of lunar observing any time during a lunation or
between lunations as occurred here. The March 6th sketch (evening at the crater)
was posted at this site March 17, 2007. The March 23rd sketch (morning at the crater)
made 17 days later is posted second. I used the same telescope and eyepiece to
sketch both drawings.

Sketching: 1st Sketch
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a soft blending stump.
Telesccope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece
Date: 3-6-2007 2:45-3:30 UT
Temperature: -6°C (21°F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi IV
Colongitude 113.5°
Lunation 16.5 days
Illumination 95%


Sketching: 2nd Sketch
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a soft blending stump.
Telesccope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece
Date: 3-23-2007 1:10-2:20 UT
Temperature: 17°C (62°F)
Partly and at times mostly cloudy, variable winds
Seeing: Antoniadi III- IV
Colongitude 320°
Lunation 4 days
Illumination 22 %

Frank McCabe

Prominent Arches

Solar prominences, January 23rd, 2008 1125ST -1240ST (1625UT – 1740UT)
By Erika Rix

2008 01 23, 1125ST -1240ST (1625UT – 1740UT)

Solar H-alpha

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

Erika Rix

Temp: 21.0 °F / -6.1 °C

Winds: variable at 5.8 mph

Humidity: 63%

Seeing: 6/6

Transparency: 3/6

Alt: 28.1 Az: 160.5

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 -30 brightness, +9 contrast after scanning. Tilting Sun program used for
digital Sun insert.

The NE and the SE limbs continue to put on a display for us. I didn’t get a chance
to observe yesterday for all the overcast and light snowfall, but over the past
several days’ observations, it’s been very interesting to watch the changes and
compare observations.

The solar disk had long u-shaped very thin filament looking lines reaching almost
from the SE limb to the inward 1/4th of the disk. The opening of “u” was facing
outward toward the large prominence on that area of the limb. This was the
prominence that I concentrated on today for a sequence that spanned only about 45
minutes’ time. Funny, it seemed much longer than that, and as much as it changed in
that time frame, I would have expected it to have been longer as well. Seeing was
terrific, but transparency was only average with moments of excellent clarity as
well as an orange haze all around the disk in my FOV.

Differences in the first two sketches almost alarmed me and I worried that I had
made one too compact width wise and the other too spread out. There’s a chance that
I may have indeed done that, although as a sketcher, I try to make my sketches as
true to my observations as I possibly can. Once I recorded the last two, though, I
could see the movement of the prominence indeed spreading out, getting fainter to
the eastern side of it with each sketch. It was almost as if that side of the
prominence was getting weaker and losing structure. I would have loved to stay out
all day to record this.

The NE prominence was not quite as tall as the SE prominence, but it was easier to
view, although I did have to adjust the outside etalon as there was quite a
difference between the two prominences for best bandwidth viewing. I normally tweak
as many things as I can with the scope to tease out details in my observations, but
I normally don’t have to adjust the etalon that much between different prominences.

I observed 8 different areas of prominences around the limb total.

Jovial Giant

Jupiter-July 11th, 2007
By Richard Handy

The fog along the San Diego coast finally relented enough for a observation and sketch of Jupiter last evening. The Atmosphere was steady enough at Antoniadi II by the time I started around 6:00 UT. I was so happy to get a chance to sketch at the eyepiece after such a long spell of foggy evenings. Jupiter’s elevation above my southern horizon made use of my binoviewers with a 45 degree erector diagonal so comfy! The creamy off-white colors separating the major bands caught my attention first, as they should I guess, since they seem to dominate in total area the visible face of Jupiter. Guess that’s why Jupiter appears like a bright yellow star to our naked eyes. The rusty hue of the NEB was fun to try to capture. I noted burnt sienna barges on some areas along it’s southern fringes. At places the bands appeared broken. The grayish caps at times looked to have little filigrees running along their margins, but the seeing just couldn’t hold long enough to render them.
Sketch details:

Object: Jupiter
Time: 5:57 UT until 6:35 UT Date: 7-12-07
Seeing: Antoniadi II Weather: clear
Telescope: Meade 12 SCT, f/10
Binoviewer: W.O. Bino-P with 1.6X nosepiece
W.O. 45 degree Erector Diagonal
Eyepieces 18 mm W.O. Plossl
Magnificaton: 271X
Medium: Colored Conte’ pencils and colored chalks on 9″ x 12″ Strathmore Artagain black paper
Sketch size: 9″ x12″ Jupiter’s disk is about 5″ in diameter

M22 from Anderson Mesa

Messier 22 from Anderson Mesa on July 12, 2007
By Jeremy Perez

I was feeling pretty worn out when I made the trip to Anderson Mesa and wasn’t sure that I wanted to tackle a monster observation like M22. But I’m glad now that I did. It really called for a lot more detail than my previous observation and sketch gave it. This globular cluster really is huge. At 120X, it occupies a large portion of the view, and I would estimate its visible dimensions at roughly 11 arcminutes in diameter. It is resolved all the way across its surface. Clumpy structure can be seen in its brighter core, and ribbons of light and dark can be seen running across its grainy outer halo–most prominently on its southwest side. A bright orange star marked the northeast edge of the field. The sketch took about an hour and twenty minutes to complete at the eyepiece, and another twenty minutes refining the stippling indoors later.

Object Information:

At 10,400 light years distant, M22 is one of the nearer globular clusters. Its angular diameter is slightly larger than the full moon and works out to 97 light years in diameter. It is receding from us at about 149 km/sec. Recent Hubble Space Telescope investigations have led to the discovery of a number of planet-sized objects that appear to float through the cluster. They have masses of only 80 times that of Earth and were discovered from the gravitational lensing of light from the numerous background stars they pass in front of. M22 was most likely first discovered by Johann Abraham Ihle in 1665, and later cataloged by Charles Messier in 1764.

This cluster is also catalogued as ESO 523-SC004, GCL 99, h 2015, h 3753, GC 4424.

Subject M22 / NGC 6656
Classification Globular Cluster (7)
Position Sagittarius [RA: 18:36:24.1 / Dec: -23:54:12]*
Size* 24′
Brightness* 5.2 vMag
Date/Time July 11, 2007 – 10:00 PM MST (July 12, 2007 – 05:00 UT)
Observing Loc. Anderson Mesa, AZ
Instrument Orion SVP 6LT Reflector (150 mm dia./1200 mm F/L)
Eyepieces/Mag. 10 mm Sirius Plössl(120X)
Conditions Mostly clear, calm
Seeing 5/10 Pickering
Transparency ~ Mag 6.8 NELM
* Based on published data.

A Brief Winter Interlude with the Moon

The gibbous Moon on January 27th, 2008
By Frank McCabe

Trying to observe old Luna in winter can be a difficult challenge in the
Midwestern Great Lakes Region. Constant cloud cover punctuated by brief, frigid
clearing will try your patience during set up, scope cool down and observation.

One solution is to observe and sketch without a telescope. Pick a spot that gives
you an interesting view. Sketch quickly then go back inside and have a cup of tea
or hot chocolate. If you did bring a scope outside, by now it may have lost the
heat that will make observing possible. If cloudy you have something to show for
your efforts as you put away your equipment and wait for a better opportunity.

This was my naked eye view of the nearly 19 day old waning gibbous moon near local
midnight as it climbed above my neighbors Horse Chestnut tree.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 10”x 8”, white and
black Conte’pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased
after scanning.

Naked Eye Drawing
Date: 1-27-2008 6:05-6:30 UT
Temperature: -9°C (15°F)
partly cloudy, calm
Seeing: Average
Co longitude: 142.5°
Lunation: 18.8 days
Illumination: 77.1 %

Frank McCabe

My First Mars!

Mars, 11-14-07
By Wade V. Corbei

Well I’ll be dipped….I finally had clear enough seeing conditions AND pumped up the power and actually was able to see some detail on the red planet!!! I was tickled to death!

I don’t have any filters at the moment, so through the EP the color seemed a yellowish-creamy-orange. I tried to replicated the color as close as I could. It may not be exact, but I wanted to be careful as not too add a false red/orange color that differed from what I actually observed in the EP.

The black markings (plains?) were quite distinct although a little muted.

My first Mars of any sort.