Astronomy Sketch of the Day – Page 115 – Drawings and sketches of an astronomical nature

Triplet du Lion

Hello,

I send you the last sketch I made.

Because of the winter and school, two months passed during I didn’t go outside to observe the sky ! To much time without observing. This night, I had the time and, trought the window, sky seemed clear. Then I got out with my 10 inch telescope, enter in the car and… notice it was foggy in my city. Then I tried to find a place without fog. I found the place.

Leo triplet

Because the wet weather, before I pointed m66 group with my 25mm plössl, I was sure I would see nothing, but, surprise ! I saw m66, m65 and, when I took care, NGC 3628 below, all I the same field of view. I cannot resist to the tentation to draw them. Then I jump in the car to get my sketch equipment. I zoomed with my 13mm Celestron LX to get better view for details. But, one of the must pleasure I had, it was to compare the sketch with picture after at home and notice that my star was approximatelly at the good place 😛

It was the first time I observed them. Sky condition was poor. I wonder wath they will look like with good sky condition and with bigger telescope !!

Object Name: Leo triplet: m65, m66 and NGC 3628
Object Type: Galaxy group
Location: Saint-Félicien, Quebec, Canada
Date: March 16 2012
Media: HB sketch pencil and shader brush
Instrument: Skywatcher 10 inch, 1200mm of focal length
Eyepiece: 25 mm Plössl and 13 mm Celestron Ultima LX for the details

Enjoy !

Solar Prominences

– Location: Lith, the Netherlands
– Date: 22-3-2012
– Media: pencil sketch on white paper & PS CS5

Today was a beautiful day. The sky was clear, the birds were singing and the sun was shining bright.
I decided to take a look at our star with the Coronado P.S.T. There were not so many sunspots visible, but the prominences were very spectacular.
When looking through the telescope, three huge ‘flares’ were visible at the right side of the sun.

Thanks for watching!

Rutger Teule
www.rutgerteule.com

Mars – March 14, 2012

I was able to enjoy a rare break in my schedule to observe the planet Mars just past opposition. The night sky was affected by intermittent clouds that eventually obscured the view, but allowed me a brief look at all the same (the limited view did not allow me to use a blue filter). What initially struck me was the amount of cloud activity noted over the Martian disk (especially over the preceding (evening) and following (morning) limbs. The North Polar Cap (NPC) was small but brilliant (10/10) with some dusky (4/10) streaks noted within it. I welcome any comments on my observation.

Date: March 14, 2012
Time (U.T.): 03:30
CM: 209.5ºW
Ls: 83.0º, De 21.6º, Ds 24.6º
Phase 99%, -1.1m, 13.7”
Instrument: 9-inch (23-cm) F/13.5 Maksutov-Cassegrain
Magnification: 310x
Filters: None (IL)
Seeing (1-10): 5-6 (moments of 7), T: 4/6

The North Polar Cap (NPC) was small and brilliant (10/10) with thin, dusky (4/10) streaks noted with it (especially over the preceding half). The NPC was surrounded by a dark (3/10) collar. The NPC remnant Olympia (~210ºW) was noted south of the NPC as a thin, very bright (8/10) streak. The preceding (evening) limb was very to extremely bright (8-9/10) and an orographic cloud (associated with Olympus Mons?) was noted attached to it. The region east (preceding) Elysium (Amazonis/Arcadia/Azania/Phlegra) appeared dusky (4/10) and mottled (fine detail noted when the seeing steadied). A very bright (8/10) cloud was noted noted over Elysium (7/10), possibly Albor, that appeared to extend towards the north over Cebrenia and into Panchaia. Mare Cimmerium appeared dark to dusky (3-4/10) with fine mottling noted within it, especially when the seeing steadied. The fine, dusky (4/10) parallel streak north of Mare Cimmerium, Valhalla, was noted as well. Clouds were noted over Aetheria towards the following (morning) limb (very bright to extremely bright (8-9/10).

A digital image produced in Pixelmator.

Carlos E. Hernandez

A Small Meeting in Leo

Hi,

In attachment you can find sketch of extraordinary event on the sky – “conjuction” of Mars and two galaxies M95 & M96

Short description:

Object Name: Mars, Messier 95, Messier 96
Object Type: planet, two spiral galaxies
Location: Budy Dłutowskie – small village in central Poland
Date: 17.03.2012
Media: graphite pencil, white paper, color invert
Telescope: Columbus 320UL (320/1384 Newtonian) + Orion Q70 26mm
Seeing: 4/5 (poor)
Transparency: 4/5 (poor)
NELM: 5,2 mag

Two days ago I had opportiunity to observe very rare event on the sky – Mars “met” two spiral galaxies M95 & M96. Galaxies were really hard to observe because Mars was really really bright. I didn’t notice any details inside galaxies but the whole view in large FOV was really impressive.

Clear Sky
Łukasz

Bow-Tie Nebula

OBJECT NAME: NGC 40 The Bow-Tie Nebula
TYPE: Planetary Nebula
CONSTELLATION: Cepheus
LOCATION: Long Eaton, Derbyshire, England.
DATE: 25th October 2011
TELESCOPE: 12″ F5 Dobsonian
MEDIA: Pencil, white paper

NOTES: Prominent central star surrounded by slightly oval area of nebulosity. The nebula appears to fade slightly towards the star but this may just be a contrast effect.

Heveluis

2012 01 07, 0200UT – 0340UT Hevelius, Lohrmann, Cavalerius
PCW Memorial Observatory, OH, USA, Erika Rix
www.pcwobservatory.com
16” Zhumell f/4.5 on a non-tracking Dobsonian mount, 24-8mm Baader Planetarium Mark III Hyperion, 225x, Moon filter
Temp6.5 C, 58% humidity, S: Antoniadi I-II, T: 4/6
Eyepiece sketch black Strathmore Artagain paper, Conte crayon and pastel pencil, charcoal pencil
Phase: 25.8 deg, Lunation: 13.35 d, Illumination: 95.0%
Lib. Lat: +01:33, Lib. Long: -04:22
Az: +206:07, Alt: +30:18

The trio of Hevelius, Lohrmann, and Cavalerius were the first to catch my eye along the terminator tonight. After a quick tour near the terminator, I settled on the trio and their surrounding area for a closer study. Grimaldi’s western rim was etched south of Lohrmann and had begun to fill with sunlight creeping over the waxing edge. The small central mountain of Hevelius and crater Hevelius A were spotted easily and the only hint of Hevelius rimae was a softened dark line reaching north to south just east of the central mountain. I didn’t realize it was even there until I came inside after my session and compared my sketch with an atlas of the area. The tormented outer slopes of the crater chain were very clear and sharp, making them very enjoyable to study and even more so to draw (in my feeble attempt to capture all the detail as accurately as I could). Cavalerius was completely filled in with shadow.

The fantastic find of the night was the Hevelius D 1 (dome) along the wrinkle ridge between Reiner and Hevelius. Reiner and Reiner Gamma were added as the sketch progressed, as they were too tempting to leave out.

Maurolycus & Co.

Object Name: Craters: Maurolycus
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Sulejówek, Poland
Date: 01.2012 – lunation: 7,5d
Media: graphite pencil, white paper
Equipment: Newton 8″ + 13mm+Barlow 2X

Mars Opposition 2012

Welcome.
Sketch of 04/04/2012 by Vixen refractor 80/1200 mm and 10 mm eyepiece with a set of sky watcher, seeing good moments, details: the polar caps are clear detail, darkening around them too, it was hard narrowing and identifying the continent, but could advice :). Enlarge small because a small, but gave the (120x)
Clear Skies !

Swirling Fire of AR1429

Object name: AR1429
Object type: Active region on the solar surface
Location: Deventer, The Netherlands
Date: March 11, 2012
Media: White pastel pencils on black paper
Equipment used: 90mm h-alpha solar telescope, magnification 70x

Finally, finally, finally! A clear day! The last week has been mostly cloudy with only a few minutes of sunshine at a time; too short to make a sketch of the Sun. But today started with a deep blue sky with just a few tiny clouds. I set up my 90mm solar telescope around noon and made a sketch of AR1429, the region which might deliver northerns light in the night to come (a very rare sight in the Netherlands). The whole thing was swirling very slowly, changes could be noticed within minutes at 70x so I had to draw quickly. I would like to take a few hours to sketch all the tiny details, but because of the movements solar sketching is always a race against time. I made the sketch with white pastel on black paper, later mirrored to match the real orientation (north up, west right). Color added with Photoshop.

Kind regards and clear skies!

Roel Weijenberg
www.roelblog.nl

Venusian Vision

Object Name: Venus
Object Type: Planet
Location: Lombard, IL, USA, 41° 52′ 48″ N / 88° 0′ 28″ W
Date: 13 Mar 2012, 20:00 CDT
Media: Pencil
Comments: This is my Venusian vision, sketched using pencil, as observed through my 8″ f/5.9 dob at 240x. The picture was turned negative after scanning. Venus is a blazing sight in an eyepiece, it’s really challenging to see any surface (atmospheric) features. I think I noticed slight decrease in brightness in some regions towards terminator. Current Venusian phase is 57%.