Lunar “Yin-Yang”

Lunar Terminator
Lunar Terminator

Hi!

I have always been fascinated by the shadows on lunar-terminator.

This is a contact of the brightness with the dark side. It’s looks like an ancient symbol “Yin-Yang”. The eternal meeting of day and night. The marvelous spectacle of metaphysical shadows dancing in craters basins.

These seemingly chaotic formations in fact fascinate observer by their complexity and repetition of forms!

Oh! I love sketching the Moon!

With a large mirror (41cm) and eyepiece with good contrast we can admire a lots of details on the lunar surface

My telescope Capella 41 + 14mm ES eyepiece, pencils + paper.

Yours, Robert
Sketch details:
Object Name: The Lunar “Yin-Yang”,
Object Type: Moon
Location: Poland, Oborniki
Date: 20-11-2012
Equipment: Newtonian telescope 409/1800 (Capella 41), 14mm ES eyepiece
Object: – Artist: Robert Twarogal (Ignisdei)

NGC 40 – A Fine Planetary Nebula

NGC 40
NGC 40

Object Name: NGC40 (also Caldwell 2)
Object Type: Planetary Nebula in Constellation Cepheus
Observing Location: Sudelfeld, Bavaria, Germany
Date: 16. November 2012, 11:50 PM
Observer: Christian Rausch
Telescope: 12inch/F5 Dobson (Hofheim Instruments)
Used Filters: none
Power: 300x (Nagler 5mm)
Conditions: SQML = 21,45 mag/arcsec*2, seeing good, transparency very good, Temp. +3C, rel. humidity 40%
Media: Chalk pencil on black paper

The night from the 16. to the 17. of November was exceptional here in southern Bavaria. A very good transparency combined with good seeing conditions is very rare in our area. In addition the fog down in the valley damped the artificial lights.

It was a great night!

Best Regards
Christian

http://www.licht-stimmungen.de/

Stock 2 – Open Cluster in Cassiopeia

Stock 2
Stock 2

Stock 2
Object Type: Open Cluster
Location: Barcelona – Spain

Easy for small telescopes and binoculars, Stock 2 is a wide open cluster situated in Cassiopeia. Is a good target after a visit to the famous Perseus Double Cluster. Don?t forget STTA 26, a double star with twins components (yellow and white) in the same Stock 2 field of view.

For more details of my observation you can visit my blog:
http://laorilladelcosmos.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/stock-2-cumulo-abierto-extenso-en.html

Stock 2 – Open Cluster
Date and Time: 2012-11-15, 21h 55m UT
Telescope: SC Celestron Nexstar 5i (127mm) with Celestron focal reducer f6.3.
Eyepiece: Hyperion Aspheric 31mm (25.40x)
White paper, HB2 graphite pencil, and scanned and inverted with Photoshop
Seeing: 4/5 (5 the best)
Transparency: Clear. A little light pollution.
Location Constellation: Cassiopeia
Position: R.A. 02 h 15 min
Dec. +59° 16′

Thank you and best regards.

Oscar

Harpalus Crater

Harpalus Crater
Harpalus Crater

Hello,

a very nice crater is “Harpalus” with it´s surface that remember us to Aristarchus. The fine terraced levels inside the crater and the small Central Mountains give the property an interesting look.

Faint dark “rays” extending from the crater rim north.

Object Name Harpalus Type moon crater Location near Tauberbischofsheim Germany Date 03.05.2012 Media graphite pencil and white Paper

The telescope was a 120/840 Esprit APO from Skywatcher on Vixen SXD

Best greetings

Messier 7

Messier 7
Messier 7

2012 08 23, 0409 UT – NGC6475 /M7

Erika Rix – Liberty Hill, Texas

www.pcwobservatory.com
AT6RC f/9 1370mm, LXD75, AT 38mm Titan (70 degree FOV), 36x

78.8F, 54% H, calm/clear, Pickering 6, T 2/6

Open cluster in the constellation Scorpius containing 80 stars, Tr Type I 3 r, 017h 53.9m, -34deg49´, 80´, m3.3v, distance 820 ly, diameter ~20 ly.

In the 2nd century A.D., Ptolemy noted M7 and M6 as little clouds (unaided eye). Charles Messier cataloged it in June 1764. It’s located as a brightened haze between the “sting of Scorpius” and the handle of the teapot asterism in Sagittarius, just SE of M6.

M7 was fairly low on the horizon just above the sky glow from Austin to the south. Altitude was 28 degrees at the beginning of the sketch then lowered to 19 degrees by the end of the observation. The wide FOV of the 38mm Titan gave wonderful views nonetheless. The faintest stars were difficult to see and I detected them with averted vision. Once they were located, I could see them straight on. The center of the open cluster was “cross-shaped” at first site. Once the fainter stars were plotted in the sketch, the cross turned into two arcs touching in the middle (one facing north, the other south) with opened ends pointed away from each other. I wish I could say that star color was noted, but other than a couple that perhaps had slight orange tinges, they were all fairly similar color-wise to me.

Sketch created with AL template, #2 graphite pencil, super-fine Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen “S”, 0.5mm mechanical pencil.

Sun by Juliette

Sun - November 16, 2012
Sun - November 16, 2012

This is the first sketch of my daughter Juliette, 10 years old.
Félicitations Juju!!
Object Name : The Sun
Object Type : Star (!)
Location : Gatineau, Qc, Canada
Date : November 16 2012
Media : graphite pencil on white paper

Baader AstroSolar filter on a Sky-Watcher 80 ED with a 8mm Orion Stratus eyepiece.

Étienne Morin
139 Church,
Gatineau, Qc
Canada

“Vivid” sketch of Jupiter & Io

Jupiter and Io - November 18, 2012
Jupiter and Io - November 18, 2012

Dear reader,

Last night (November 18) Io was transiting Jupiter. I made a sketch of the event from 19:30 – 20:00 UT. The telescope used was an Astrosib 250 mm f/8 Ritchey-Chretien, with magnifications between 91x and 370x (Vixen LVW 13 & 22 mm + Barlow). The sketch has been made behind the telescope and drawn with a 3B graphite pencil. However, I played with it in Photoshop (CS4) to mimic the seeing.

Best regards,

Maurice Toet
Zoetermeer, Netherlands

Abell 426 – Perseus Galaxy cluster

Abell 426 - Perseus Galaxy cluster
Abell 426 - Perseus Galaxy cluster

Object name: Perseus Galaxy Cluster (Abell 426)
Object type: Galaxy Cluster
Observation location: Meldert (Belgium)
Date: 17th November 2012
Media: Graphite pencil type 1B on white paper 120g, digital scan & inverted

Equipment used:
– Celestron CGEM mounted SCT C11 (279mm f/10)
– Eyepiece Hyperion 24mm = 35 arcm widefield view @ 117x
– Eyepiece Televue Nagler 13mm = 23 arcm detail view @215x

Sky conditions:
– Limiting magnitude: NELM 5.7
– Transparancy: clear sky, slightly foggy
– Seeing: moderate

Notes:
More than 25 individual members of this impressive Galaxy Cluster could be observed in a rich Perseus milkyway starfield and were recorded on this sketch during a timespan of more than 3 hours.
In particular the area around the massife Seyfert galaxy NGC 1275 was a visual adventure with faint galaxies popping up in the eyepiece!
For more details on the observation & overview of the individual galaxies: check www.deepskylog.be
Clear skies!
Tom