An Extragalactic Pass in the Night

M51 

M51

I have been going through my sketchbook and finding those objects that I have yet to convert over to digital images. M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy) is one of many that were in need of such treatment.

A fairly faint object due in part to the LP in this part of the sky from my location, it is nonetheless an impressive object when viewed through the EP. With averted vision, I was able to clearly see the overall shape and structure, but not a whole lot of finer detail(s).

Wade V. Corbei
Lodi, California

Deep Southern Sea

Mare Humorum

Southwestern Mare Humorum
  
  Mare Humorum is a small circular sea on the southwestern side of the visible lunar
surface. The thick floor is intermediate in age between the Nectarian and Imbrian
basins. This sketch is focused on the southern perimeter of Humorum and includes
from west to east craters: Doppelmayer (66 km.); Lee (43 km.); Vitello (43 km.)
the youngest and only one of the three with a complete rim. The ghost-like nearly
lava buried crater Puiseux (25 km.) can be seen north of Lee on the floor of Mare
Humorum. Rupes Kelvin and Promontorium Kelvin are both visible east and north of
crater Vitello. I made this sketch while evaluating the performance of a 6” f /7.9
Newtonian telescope.
  
  Sketching:
  
  Date and Time November 2, 2006 1:30-2:30 UT
  8.5” x11” copy paper, 2 HB graphite pencil, black ink marker pen
  10.8 day old waxing gibbous moon
  Colongitude: 45.7°
  Illumination: 84 %
  Seeing: Pickering 4/10
  6” f 7.9 Dob. 6mm ocular 200x
  
  Frank McCabe

Starry Nursery

M42 

M42 and it’s close neighbor M43 are a delight to observe through any size telescope.
I captured these beauties on a clear August morning in 2006. This sketch was
rendered on Strathmore Windpower Sketch paper with a General’s Extra Black Layout
Pencil. Post processing and color added with MGI Photosuite III.

Jason Aldridge
North Port, FL

A Dance before the Laughing Giant

Jupiter Io transit 

Europa Transit of Jupiter
  
  The moon Europa, denoted by the tick marks as a bright spot against the North
Temperate Band was just beginning its transit across the disk of the planet
Jupiter. At about this same time the great red spot had just crossed Jupiter’s
meridian as the planet crossed my observing site meridian. I deemed this worth an
attempted sketch.

Sketching:
7/7/2007 2:50-3:15 UT
Scope 10” f/5.7 Dobsonian 9 mm UO eyepiece at 161x
4”x 6” white sketching paper, B, 2B, 4B graphite pencils,
Jupiter Sketch cut out and scanned with Europa added electronically using Microsoft
Paint
Seeing 7/10
Transparency average 2.5/ 5

Frank McCabe

Crater Perfection

Copernicus 

To me, Copernicus is the perfect crater. It is large enough to see plenty of detail
with smaller telescopes. It’s terraced inner walls, central mountains, and
surrounding landscape are a lunar sketcher’s dream.
This sketch was done on Strathmore Windpower sketch paper with a 2HB mechanical
pencil. Post processing was done with MGI Photosuite III.

Jason Aldridge
North Port, Florida

The Lord and the Leviathan

Lord Rosse M33 
This is a page from the observation/sketch notes of Lord Rosse, the 19th century Irish engineer and astronomer who built and operated the “Leviathan” at the time the largest telescope in the world, a 72″ metallic speculum mirror (actually there were two, one polished and ready for use and the other being polished and made ready to exchange when the first mirror started to show signs of tarnishing in the moisture prone weather of Birr Castle). This is just one page of many that Deirdre Kelleghan, the President of the Irish Astronomical Society, sent in to ASOD, Thanks Dee! We would also like to thank the the Webb Society for making these images available. Do you recognize this galaxy at the bottom of the page?

Rich Handy
ASOD Webmaster

The Compelling Late Old Moon

The compellling Late Old Moon

South is up and west is to the left in this sketch I made this morning near
daybreak of day 27 for lunation 1048. I knew the view would be poor because I
could not wait at all for the scope’s primary mirror to cool down. Therefore I
kept the magnification low and decided to sketch the compelling region from the
Ocean Procellarum to Sinus Roris. At the top of the sketch closest to the lunar
equator and near the terminator, you can see crater Reiner a 53 km. crater and to
the west of this crater is the famous bright feature Reiner Gamma. Crater Olbers
responsible for the rays in the region is lost in the bright area near the limb.
Most of the craters in this late lunation have floors in darkness and look quite
spectacular through the eyepiece. The longest bright ray from south to north
passes east of the crater pair Cardanus and Krafft both about 50 km. in diameter.
On northward a couple of hundred kilometers and just west of the bright ray the
dark crater Seleucus can be  seen and further along to the east of the ray lies Schiaparelli. Most of the remaining craters visible lie on the limb side of the continuing ray and include: large crater Russell (105 km.) with smaller Briggs and Briggs A just to the east.
  Continuing on northward across the dark smooth ocean, craters Lichtenberg and
larger Lavoisier A can be seen. At this point the bright limb highlands feature
Harding and Dechen showing bright ejecta blankets near the edge of Sinus Roris. On
the terminator side  dome complex Mons Rumker is about to experience sunset.
Finally at the far northern end of the sketch is Markov a 40 km crater on the
floor of Sinus Roris. Seeing the moon early in the morning late in a lunation is
always a  pleasant and memorable sight.
  
  Sketching:
  For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 12”x 7”, white and
  black Conte’ pastel pencils a blending stump and my index finger too. Brightness
  was slightly adjusted after scanning.
  Telescope: 10” inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 21mm eyepiece 69x
  
  Date: 10-8-2007 10:30-11:15 UT
  Temperature: 22° C (72° F)
  Clear, calm
  Seeing: Antoniadi III
  Colongitude: 234.1 °
  Lunation: 27 days
  Illumination: 7 %
  
  Frank McCabe

One Hundred Thousand Strong

M5

I find Messier 5 to be one of the most beautiful globular clusters in the catalog.
Individual stars resolved nicely around a bright core at medium magnification.
This sketch was rendered on standard copy paper with a .5mm mechanical pencil. Post
processing was done with MGI Photosuite III.

Jason Aldridge
North Port, FL

A tilted cup

Fracastorius 

Walled Plain Crater Fracastorius
  
  Lunation day five has walled plain crater Fracastorius (124 km.) basking in the
morning sunlight on the south edge of Mare Nectaris  as it has each lunar orbit
for more than three and three quarter billion years. The shallow plate shaped
basin that Fracastorius rests upon subsided from accumulated lava mass and this
over time tilted the crater toward the center of the basin. Eventually the lava
building up in the basin was able to find a breach in the low tilted north wall of
the crater and continued to flow in hiding the central peak and most of the north
wall beyond the breach. Some of the floor of Fracastorius is covered by lavas that
are lighter in color than the dark lava covering most of the Sea of Nectar.
  Northward out into Mare Nectaris is the much younger, small (12 km.) bright rimmed
crater Rosse standing alone in this part of the lava sea.
  
  Sketching:
  For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
  pastel pencils and a  blending stump. Contrast was slightly adjusted after scanning.
  Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 241X
  Date: 5-22-2007 1:09-2:15 UT
  Temperature: 22° C ( 72° F)
  High thin clouds, calm
  Seeing:  Antoniadi  III
  Colongitude 331.8 °
  Lunation 5.24 days
  Illumination 32 %
  
  Frank McCabe