The Sombrero Galaxy
By Michael Vlasov
Messier 104, The Sombrero Galaxy
The Sombrero Galaxy is 50,000 light years across and 28 million light years away is about 50,000 Light years in diameter. A large and dusty spiral, it lies on the southern boundries of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. Deep imaging of M104 shows it to be surrounded by a halo of dust and gas extending up to 7-10 galactic diameters from the galaxy’s center.
A Christmas Day solar collage
By Erika Rix
2007 12 25
Solar
Erika Rix
PCW Memorial Observatory
Lat 40.01, Long -81.56
It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to observe, but I was fortunate today to get
out behind the Maxscope to soak up a bit of Sun in the observatory. Even with the
low altitude of the Sun at 26.5 degrees, the winter is still my favorite time of
year for solar observing.
In the ENE region just inside the limb was a short, but thickened filament visibly
reaching out beyond the limb with two hairline branches, forming an intricate
network of prominences. At lower magnification, this filament looked like two
separate sections. Increasing magnification from 19x to 57x, the outer portion of
this filament looked like an elongated “X” with hair-like branches connecting to the
inner filament that swooped to the north. The prominences consisted of two
brighter, almost “A” shaped areas with several very faint, wispy lines reaching out
to each other as well as other areas of the limb edge.
Adjusting the outer Etalon, I observed a network of hairline fibrils across the disk
that, along with spicules, made a beautiful show of dark mottling across the
Chromospheric network. There was an area of plage to the NE quadrant of the solar
disk. It was separated into two sections, at times looking like three, with a few
very tiny dark dots around it. I didn’t get out my white light filter for
cross-reference, so am not sure if these dark dots were actually pores.
Reaching further NNW, were more filaments, much thinner than the NE filament, but a
little more obvious than fibrils. And then off the limb was a very bright prominence
(at the bottom left of the sketch) that at first glance looked like a pair of cat
ears peeking over the limb. The peaks of it first appeared to be swaying to the
East, but then forty-five minutes later, the two peaks turned toward each other.
Bumping up the magnification allowed me to see the amazing intricate structure of
this prominence.
To the WNW, a tiny little round prominence formed. It was very bright and dense.
Over the observation period, it reached out in a spraying fashion. I thought this
one would change faster or maybe even break off or collapse before I called it a
day. But the prominence stayed the same, only growing a few more tiny fingers off
the limb around it.
There was only one other significant prominence, located to the SE, and several
spicules reaching out from the limb.
The sketch was done on black Strathmore Artagain paper and a combination of white
Conte’ and Prang pencils, sharpened piece of black charcoal, and a white Conte’
crayon. I sprayed it with a fixative afterwards.
Post processing after scanning involved -24 lightness, +15 contrast and then just
cropping and moving the sketches around for the finished collage.
Comet 17/P Holmes sketch 2
By Leonor Ana Hernandez
Hello friends!
This is my vision of this wonderfull comet, I have spent several nights
watching it an thinking: ” Oh! how beautifu!”
I take my graphite pencil and draw it in white paper two times with
different optics.
Comet 17/P Holmes sketch 2
By Leonor Ana Hernandez
The big one was with a TMB Refractor 20cm and 2010 F. and the smaller one
with a binocular 12 x 80. The night was esplendid, the place was located in
La Hita Observatory in Toledo (http://www.lahita.arrakis.es/). With
binocular I could see an halo around the comet, very very pale but visible.
With the telescope was possible to see stars through the comet.
I hope you enjoy them.
Leonor
Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis
By Giorgio Bonacorsi
Hello, my name is Giorgio Bonacorsi, I live in little town named Pergola, in Marche, center Italy. My night sky is good, I live near mountain Catria(1702m). My observation site are at 3-4 minutes from home and are at 400-500 m of altitude. I go there for my sketches of galaxy and other object of deep sky,but also behind my home I have a good sky, principally for Moon, planets and comets. My instruments are: Newtonian telescope 15cm 750f, acromatic80/1000, maksutov-cassegrain 110/1035, 16×80 binocular.
The Eta Carina Nebula
By Rob Esson
10B Graphite pencil on white sketch paper with blending stump. 18in f/4.5 Obsession
Dob with 17mm Nagler, giving a 0.7 degree field of view and magnification of 121x.
Sketched at the Deepest South Texas Star Party held at the Warrumbungles Mountain
Lodge in New South Wales, Australia on March 22, 2007.
I thought that I would follow up Jeremy Perez’ drawing of the Eta Carinae region
with binoculars (11/29/07) with a more detailed telescopic view. The Eta Carinae
region of nebulosity goes on – seemingly – for ever. This is merely a sketch around
the middle, and due to clouds coming in, is not as detailed as I might have liked if
I had had more time. The ‘blob’ about 2/3rds of the way towards about 12:30 on the
sketch is the Eta Carinae homunculus. Words are difficult to find to describe this
sight: it is probably the most impressive area in the sky. Although this sketch was
made using a Dob, binoculars or a wide field telescope are needed to take in the
nebula in its entirety. The Hubble pictures are no doubt fun to look at with all
their false colors, but the visual effect through the telescope, when the photons
are extinguishing on your own retinas as opposed to a ccd, is one of absolute
wonder: there are just numerous areas crying out to be examined in detail, like M42
on steroids!
Rob Esson, Kansas City MO
The transit of Venus June 4th, 2007
By Michael Rosolina
While listening to the McDonald Observatory’s StarDate, I was surprised to hear that
this week marks the 125th anniversary of the 1882 transit of Venus. In my mind I
was transported back to June, 2004 eagerly anticipating the first Venus transit
since 1882. No one living at that time had ever seen such an event.
The transit would be nearing its end when the Sun rose at my location so I set up my
small, portable Astroscan telescope equipped with a homemade white light filter on
the mountaintop behind my home. I wanted my wife to see this rare event too, so I
lured her out by saying I needed her to watch my back for bears (not entirely
untrue–it was mating season and the black bears were very active).
As the Sun rose, we were completely enveloped in a cloud but soon the mist thinned
and we could see the small black dot against the solar disk with the unaided eye.
As conditions improved, we employed filters on the scope and on a pair of 10×50
binoculars to track the progress of Venus towards the Sun’s limb.
During egress, I was fortunate to detect the aureole created by the planet’s
atmosphere. This halo was first seen during the 1761 transit by Russian scientist
Mikhail Lomonosov, who rightly concluded that Venus had an atmosphere. The egress
created some interesting contrast effects which I have tried to render as I saw
them.
I later discovered that there was indeed a small sunspot group near the Sun’s
central meridian, but I could not see it because of the poor transparency.
The sketch was done in the field with 2B and HB graphite pencils on Strathmore
paper. I used a 4 inch template for the Sun and a penny to make the template for
the inset.
Seeing the transit was a peak experience for me (my wife was glued to the binoculars
through the whole thing, too). It was also very gratifying to see how the event
brought the global amateur astronomy community together as we shared sketches and
images via the Internet.
The next Transit of Venus will be June 6th, 2012. Clear skies to all in 2012–there
won’t be another transit for over a hundred years.
Lunar crater Albategnius
By Dale Holt
I awoke not particularly early at around 6am on Saturday December 1st, well it is
the weekend! I noted a fine gibbous Moon high in the South West from the bedroom
window. Hmm I haven’t made a Lunar sketch for a while, so out I went to the
observatory with my brew of tea and spent a while scanning the terminator for a
likely subject.
I picked out Albategnius. This is an ancient lunar impact crater 129km wide and
4.4km deep located in the central highlands. It is named after the Arabic Prince
and astronomer Al-Battani. The level interior forms a “walled plain”, surrounded
by the high, terraced rim. The outer wall is somewhat hexagon-shaped, and has been
heavily eroded with impacts, valleys and landslips. It attains a height above
4,000 meters along the northeast face. The rim is broken in the southwest by the
smaller crater Klein 44km wide and 1.5km deep.
The third prominent crater featured in my drawing is Halley to the North East of
Albategnius spanning 36km at a depth of 2.5km.
Telescope 14” F5 Newtonian reflector
Denk binoviewer with 2.5x nosepiece
x2 Celestron Axiom 23mm eyepieces giving 193x
Drawing on Black A5 Daler Rowney artist paper using Derwent pastel and water
colour pencils, conte sticks, black ink and blending stumps.
Plato
By Frank McCabe
After 3 weeks of cloudy nights I was anxious to get out in the moonlight to attempt some moon and Mars observing. The seeing was too poor for a good view of Mars but with the moon just past first quarter many targets were available for examination and sketching.
The selected region along the terminator for this sketch is walled plain crater Plato. Since I am viewing through a Newtonian telescope the drawing is inverted from the direct view. Plato is a beautiful 100 kilometer diameter crater with a dark, flat, thick, lava covered floor. Normally in average seeing four of the craterlets across the dark flat floor are visible but not on this night with the poor seeing conditions. Shadows of peaks created by the 2 kilometer high irregular eastern crater rim stood out across the crater floor. The enormous amount of lava flooding the crater floor has completely buried the central peaks. Although the impacting rock that created Plato more than three billion years ago came later than the much larger Imbrium impactor, the lava flooding of the region was subsequent to both events. The triangular massif on the western rim (right side) of the crater was difficult to see clearly because of the poor seeing. To the southwest of Plato across the Imbrium basin floor stands the sentinel peak Pico and on further towards the terminator westward the Teneriffe peaks. A small portion of Mare Frigoris can be seen north (below) of crater Plato.
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: 12-16-2007 2:30-4:00 UT
Temperature: -6°C (21°F)
partly cloudy, windy
Seeing: Antoniadi IV
Co longitude: 15°
Lunation: 8.4 days
Illumination: 58 %
Frank McCabe
IC 1633
Elliptical Galaxy (cD) in Phoenix
Parks Astrolight EQ6 • 6″ f/6 Newtonian Reflector
7.5mm Parks Gold Series Plössl • 120x, 26′ Field of View
11 October 2007 • 06:30-07:15 UT
IC 1633 is the antithesis of NGC 55. It is located 1° northeast of 3rd-magnitude Beta (β) Phoenicis, half the distance between that star and 5th-magnitude Nu (ν) Phe. Small, and faint, its feeble glow is best detected with averted vision. In the eyepiece it is completely featureless. In reality, IC 1633 is a gargantuan elliptical galaxy lurking in the heart of galaxy cluster Abell 2877 (of which it is by far the most prominent member). Its distance from Earth is estimated at 325 million light-years! That fact alone, made this observation worthwhile.
As I observed this pale mist of ancient photons (and futilely scanned the field for other cluster members – or even a few more field stars), IC 1633 became entangled in the fire-blackened boughs of an oak tree victimized by the 2003 Cedar Fire. On a whim (and growing a little bored with my fruitless search for anything else to add to my sketch) I hastily added the twisted limbs to the drawing, providing a surreal juxtaposition of objects near and far.
James Dunlop apparently discovered IC 1633 during the 1820’s from the Brisbane Observatory at Paramatta, New South Wales, Australia. As this object failed to appear in the NGC, we may presume it was one of the (many) objects discovered by Dunlop that could not be recovered by John Herschel. In the Second Index Catalogue, DeLisle Stewart and Lewis Swift share credit for the discovery (or “re-discovery”) of IC 1633.
The Leo Triplet – M65, M66 and NGC 3628
By Michael Vlasov
This striking deep sky trio lies some 35 million light years away and consists of three spiral galaxies. Their varied appearance is due to the different angles they present to our point of view.
NGC 3628, at the top of Michael’s sketch, is seen edge-on and displays a bisecting dust lane. Deep astrophotography shows that the outer edges of this dust lane are strongly distorted by gravitational interactions with its other two neighbors.
M65 (lower right) is a normal Sa type spiral galaxy with tightly wound arms, a prominent central lens, and dust lane. There are some knots visible near the dust lane which may be areas of star formation. Although it appears to be gravitationally bound to it’s neighbors in the Leo Triplet (M66 and NGC 3628), it does not appear to have been structurally disturbed by any interactions.
M66 (lower left) is a spiral galaxy whose shape has been distorted by interactions with its Leo Triplet companions, giving the appearance that the arms are raising above the plane of the galaxy. There are many emission and reflective nebulae evident, showing active star forming regions. The dust in the core of M66 is thought to be heated by older stars, as opposed to younger stars as is usually the case.
Sources: SEDS – NGC 3628, M65, M66.
On a personal note: my sincere appreciation and thanks go to Jeremy Perez for his wonderful job of maintaining ASOD in my absence, as well as those contributors who have submitted their sketches and reports to this website while I was away. You folks are great.
Rich Handy- ASOD Webmaster
