Astronomy Sketch of the Day – Page 263 – Drawings and sketches of an astronomical nature

Prominade on the Limb

Solar H-alpha 2008 01 25,
1205ST -1330ST (1705UT – 1830UT)
By Erika Rix

2008 01 25, 1205ST -1330ST (1705UT – 1830UT)

Solar H-alpha

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

Erika Rix

Temp: 16.0 °F / -8.9 °C

Winds: SSW at 4.6 mph

Humidity: 71%

Seeing: 5/6

Transparency: 2/6

Alt: 30.5 Az: 170.9

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm
Zhumell, ETX70-AT with 8mm TV Plossl for white light observation.

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.

The NE and the SE limbs are still at it. Snows and overcast prevented me from
viewing yesterday, but on the 23rd of January, two proms on the NE limb were spread
out a little further from each other and the one that was around 55 degrees PA had
two very bright upright legs to it with a faint line of connection in between them.
Today, there is a very tall fainter prominence around 45-50 deg PA that looks like
two hands pressing against each other with a small prominence just north of it by
about 2-3 degrees. Then around 55-60 degrees PA (maybe even a little more distance
than that) was a brighter prominence defined by a very bright tall slender arm on
the northern side of it with a few shorter slender arms jetting out to the southern
portion. The base of the main southern portion was about twice as thick as the
northern arm.

To the SE around 135 degrees was a very bright cone shaped prominence about half as
tall as the two proms on the NE limb. The inside of the cone appeared hollow.
Bumping up magnification, and adjusting the T-max, I noticed a small, round, faint
cloud just to the south of it, reaching up above by about half its height. I
lowered magnification again for better contrast and it didn’t take long for me to
notice a few other portions of it. Playing with the zoom eyepiece, I soon found a
happy medium in magnification to tease out as much detail as I could, bringing out
this prominence to fuller glory. It was huge and very similar in shape, only much
fainter, to the prominence in this same area two days ago.

I was hoping to see some sort of evidence from the pore that the Hinode captured.
Of course, it most likely is too small yet for me to see and even so, with the poor
transparency today, I imagine it would have been difficult even it were visible for
my scopes. After my H-alpha session, I pulled out the ETX70 for a white light view
and couldn’t see any evidence with pore nor facula. Something I did see, however,
was a claw like marking just inside the limb about 25 degrees in the NNE quadrant.
I’ve included a close up view of what it looked like. There were dark areas
resembling a filament that had dissipated.

All in all, I observed 7 different areas of prominences around the limb. The NW
section of limb appeared rough and turbulent with the long section of short
prominence weaving up and down off the limb.

Hands to Claim Unbounded Night

The Great Orion Nebula, M42 and M43
By Serge Vieillard

This color drawing of the Great Orion Nebula was created by Serge
Vieillard during a trip to the Libyan desert to view the Solar
Eclipse of March 2006. Serge created this colored pencil drawing as a
negative on white paper and inverted it after scanning to create the
positive image seen here. In order to get the colors correct for this
inverted image, he did extensive testing beforehand so he had the
correct complimentary colors in his sketching supplies (an orange
pencil for the blue-green hues, and a green pencil for the rose
colored areas). Serge spent two hours illustrating this magnificent
nebula. He notes that two hours was not nearly enough to sufficiently
capture all of the fine detail visible.

In Search of IC 1318

The Gamma Cygni Starfield
By Rony De Laet

The Gamma Cygni Starfield, in search of IC 1318

Here is a sketch of a crowded milky way starfield. I waited for Gamma Cyngi to reach zenith, in an attempt to glimpse IC1318. I did not know what to expect and centered on Gamma Cygni. I was worried about the amount of stars that would be visible within the field of view. The UHC filter helped in reducing the number of faint stars to be drawn. I spent almost two hours behind the eyepiece. So here is my impression. I don’t know if I succeeded in observing IC 1318, I just represented the luminosity observed with the UHC filter.

Date : October 14, 2007
Time : 21.00UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
TV Plössl 32mm
Power : x16
FOV: 192′
Filter : Lumicon UHC
Seeing : 3.5/5
Transp. : 3/5
Nelm : 5.2
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Clearing the Confusion

Rosenberger and Vlacq near the Terminator
By Frank McCabe

This region of the moon is often called the confusing southeastern lunar highlands
for all the large and medium sized look-alike craters. This appearance continues
to the lunar far side as can be see in lunar orbiter photos. But looking again the
picture really changes dramatically at low sun. The two large craters I have
chosen for this sketch are both ancient (pre-Nectarian) and pre-date the early
basin formation on the moon. Rosenberger crater (96 km.) is the largest of the
pair to the left (east) in the drawing. This four billion year old crater has a
rim worn down to the level of the surrounding highlands by numerous crater impacts
and inner wall subsidence that has obliterated most of the wall terracing. It is
2.6 kilometers from the highest rim point to the mostly flat crater floor which in
the low sun was showing off its low central peak. A crater of 14 km. was about to
be consumed by shadow at the time of this sketch. This floor crater is Rosenberger
S. The other large crater to the southwest of Rosenberger is Vlacq, a crater of 89
kilometers and from all appearances perhaps the youngest of the pair. The twin
peaked central mountains and terraced walls give this crater a younger look. It
also appears from the bulging of the wall shared with its larger neighbor that the
body that struck the moon forming Vlacq came in second.
The observing and sketching was enhanced by steady seeing intervals that lasted
several minutes at a time.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 9”x 10”, white and
black Conte’pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased
after scanning.

Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 6mm eyepiece 241x
Date: 11-28-2007 5:30-7:00 UT
Temperature: -3°C (26°F)
partly cloudy, breezy
Seeing: back and forth between Antoniadi II and III
Co longitude: 135.2°
Lunation: 18.5 days
Illumination: 80.3 %

Sunny Day Flyby

Sun and Jet, SW prominence and visitor
By Erika Rix

2008 01 20, 1140ST -1205ST (1640UT – 1705UT)

Solar h-alpha

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

Erika Rix

Temp: 10.4 °F / -12.0 °C

Winds: from the West at 9.2 mph gusting to 19.6 mph, scattered clouds

Wind chill: -8 °F / -22 °C

Humidity: 57%

Seeing: 5/6 with moments of 3/5

Transparency: 5/6

Alt: 28.4 Az: 164.8

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 -37 brightness, +1 contrast after scanning.

Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun insert.

The first thing that caught my attention this morning during the observation was the
bright substantial prominence on the SW limb. A careful scan around the limb of the
Sun showed a total of six prominences, all quite a bit smaller and varying in
shapes. The SE prom resembled the letter A. Moving to the NE, the next prom looked
like a flag waving to the North. Further NE, the prominence hugged the limb,
spreading out like an inchworm. The next three on the NW side were slender fingers,
two of them dual fingers.

It was very difficult to move around wearing my coveralls, oversized thick winter
gloves that I had to borrow from my husband because I still can’t find mine after
the move last spring, and heavy winter muck boots. Leaving the gloves off my
fingers for more than a few minutes made them a little painful with the wind that
came in over the observatory wall as well as the metal knobs on the telescope. I
was able to do part of the sketch with Paul’s gloves on, but had to add the finer
details without them. Tuning and focusing the scope was a chore as well.

I did manage to catch a bright plage area to the eastern 1/3rd of the disk. It was
fairly small and compact and I almost missed it altogether as I was moving the disk
around in my FOV looking for surface details. Other than that, surface details
were insignificant. I lacked the ambition to drag out my ETX for white light filter
views to see if there were any signs of a sunspot near the plage that I saw in
h-alpha.

The excitement of the session, other than witnessing the beautiful SW prominence,
was a jet crossing in front of the Sun. The contrails started out small and then
resembled a shock wave as it crossed in front of the solar limb to the NE and then
spread out even more as it traveled further away. It almost reminded me of a
Moreton wave from photos I’ve seen. I’ve tried to add that affect to my sketch,
realizing that shape of the jet is most likely very inaccurate at best. My
concentration was on the contrails, and the jet shape was just a few flashes in
front of me as I was trying to capture the whole scene. The most remarkable part of
the contrails was the “pulling effect” as it crossed the limb. It looked like the
jet was pulling streamers, almost smears, of plasma away from the Sun. Very cool,
indeed.

Spiritual Sky

IC 1848, The Soul Nebula
By Rony De Laet

IC 1848 : The Soul Nebula

While sweeping the scope through the Heart & Soul region, my retina pics up lots of brightness variations of the sky background. A rather bright region is defined as IC 1848 : the combined glow of unresolved stars and patches of an emission nebula. The view is best appreciated without a filter under dark skies. Under not so dark skies, an UHC filter is of great help. The backdraw is a loss of delicate starglow. Here is my impression, made with an UHC filter under a mag 5.7 sky.

Date : December 27, 2007
Time : around 18.00UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
Eyepiece : Meade SP 26mm
Power : x20
FOV: 150′
Filter : Lumicon UHC
Seeing : 4/5
Transp. : 4/5
Nelm : 5.7
Elevation : 800m ASL
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

Twists of the Solar Flux

January 18, 2008 Solar Prominences
By Erika Rix

20080118

Solar

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

Erika Rix

Still not quite recovered from the neck surgery, Paul was good enough to open and
close the roll off roof of the observatory for me. I was able to carry down the
battery supply for the LXD75 for tracking as well as close up (after my session) the
southern drop down wall that enables me to view the Sun at the lower altitude. The
enclosed area within the observatory certainly helps control the stability of the
scope with the winds today at 11.5 mph. The temperature was comfortable at 26F, but
with the lack of surface details, I wrapped up the session in just less than an
hour’s time.

The haze limited the performance at higher magnification, but with a little
patience, I had moments where I could drop down to 7mm (57x) with the zoom eyepiece.
Seeing flipped back and forth and the best views seemed to be around 30x
magnification.

There were 7 areas of prominences that I was able to record with no significant
surface detail. Three of these areas were sketched.

The brightest prominence was about 55 degrees PA and I did a three sketch sequence
of it noting the small changes in appearance over 40 minutes’ time span. This was
after the original overall sketch of the limb. The basic outline of this prom
really didn’t change a great deal. But looking closely within the structure, there
was quite a difference in the intricate network.

At 1209ST (1709UT) at the end of the session around 70 degrees PA, a very bright
small blob of a prominence appeared and then left just about as quickly. It may
have just been that I was able to see it well during a brief moment of steady clear
seeing. Still, it was very noteworthy and I was happy to catch it.

Sketch media: black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and white Prang pencils,
white vinyl eraser, fixative

Post processing: -25 brightness, +4 contrast, resized and created collage by pasting
selected prominences on black background. Used digital disk for position angles
from Tilting Sun program.

Sunrise Ray

Pitatus and Hesiodus in the Morning
By Frank McCabe

Pitatus and Hesiodus in the Morning

On this evening I was able to take full advantage of a break in the weather with
the nearly nine day old moon high in my southern sky. As luck would have it
craters Pitatus (98km.) and Hesiodus (44km.) were positioned in full light beyond
the sunrise terminator and displaying some of their best features. What initially
caught my eye was the famous “sunrise ray” beaming across the floor of Hesiodus
through a break in the northwestern wall. This sun ray play was underway for about
45 minutes before I began this sketch. Partially illuminated near the floor center
of Hesiodus was little crater D with much of its rim reflecting sunlight. Hesiodus
and its larger neighbor Pitatus are both ancient worn Nectarian period craters on
the south border of Mare Nubium. Pitatus is a floor fractured crater with lava
having flooded the floor through the many cracks especially near the inner walls.
Most of Rimae Pitatus was in shadow at the time of this observation and the low
elongated central peak was dazzling in the sunlight. Although the shallow floor of this
crater was in light, the lava on the floor is dark and in places is interrupted by
brighter regions. The entire floor is mostly smooth and gradually rises and falls
especially close to the inner rim. For me the view was about as good as it gets in lunar observing.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 12”x 9”, white and
black Conte’pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased
after scanning.

Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 1-17-2008 0:05-1:15 UT
Temperature: -1°C (30°F)
partly cloudy, slight but cold wind
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co longitude: 21.2°
Lunation: 8.8 days
Illumination: 66.4 %

Blood Red Sun

Hind’s Crimson Star
By Wade V. Corbei

R Leporis – Hinds Crimson Star

This is the first time I have observed Hind’s Crimson Star, and I have to say that it is indeed adequately named. A variable star found in the constellation Lepus, Hind’s Crimson Star (R Leporis) is a very deep red/crimson variable star that stands out among the white stars nearby. I have long been a fan of the Garnet Star (Mu Cephi); but I have to say that Hind’s Crimson Star displays its namesake coloration to its fullest extent.

If you have never taken a moment to observe R Leporis, you will want to do so…or just revisit it and take a looksie if this is not a new object for you.

Lunar Icon

The Lunar Crater Copernicus
By Eric Graff

Copernicus

Lunar Impact Crater

Parks Astrolight EQ6 • 6″ f/6 Newtonian Reflector
7.5mm Parks Gold Series Plössl + 2x Barlow • 240x
Field of View Not to Scale
21 September 2007 • 02:05-03:15 UT

This iconic lunar crater presents a truly majestic sight perched on the terminator of the nine-day-old Moon. The complex features of the crater floor are completely lost in shadow, but the crater walls stand out in fantastic relief, clearly exhibiting the famously terraced slopes. These terraces are believed to have formed from massive landslides of debris dug out by the impact that has collapsed and subsided. The ejecta blanket surrounding the crater is visible on the preceding (sunlit) side; radial features extending from the south-preceding crater wall are believed to be grooves blasted out of the surrounding terrain at the time of impact.

A few small, hill-like features dot the region just south of Copernicus. To the north a more extensive region of hills and mountains known as Montes Carpatus, extends about 400 kilometers in an east-west direction, forming the southern boundary of Mare Imbrium. The roughly circular feature amidst these mountains, due north of Copernicus is 26 km wide crater Gay-Lussac.

Copernicus is named in honor of the great Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus whose heliocentric theory of the solar system published in De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium provided one of the cornerstones of modern astronomy. The crater itself has a diameter of 93 kilometers, and a depth of 3760 meters. Copernicus is noted for its dramatically terraced walls, relatively flat floor and a group of central peaks (with heights up to 1200 meters). The ramparts of the outer walls rise 900 meters above the surrounding plain of Mare Insularum. Only 800-900 million years old, Copernicus is relatively young by the Moon’s standards and remarkably well preserved.