Category: Pastels

The Crater King

Dear artists Hi:
last night, my brother asked me to find an image of Copernicus for
his thesis, I had found one of my first sketches from Moon for him…
Can you imagine what happened when he saw this Sketch?

Note: a little edited with Photoshop.( light angle)

Object name: Copernicus crater/Moon
location: Iran/Tehran
13.Feb.2011
Optic: Tel. Skywatcher( 8”.Dabson.)
Eyepiece: 10 mm multi coated
Media: Pastel/ Black pencil/Chalk and Charcoal/White Paper
Moon Phase: Full Moon
Seeing : Fairly Clean

Clear Sky.
Pasha Majidi

Glorious Globular of the Keel

NGC 2808
Globular Cluster
Carina
30/01/11
Ilford NSW Australia
56cm f5 Dobsonian telescope
Field: 17′
Magnification: 354x
Sky quality meter reading: 21:62

Black Canford paper
White pen
White pastel pencil
White pastel chalk
White oil pencil
Paint brush

This sublime globular cluster proved to be a difficult object to sketch.
I almost threw in the towel on this one, as it was so dense with innumerable stars that it was just not turning out as planned.
Then I thought so what if a few stars are miss-plotted, a sketch of a deep sky object is never 100% perfect otherwise you may just as well copy it off an image.

3½ hours at the eyepiece later and I was satisfied enough to call it a day on this one.

NGC 2808 was discovered by James Dunlop in 1826.
It is one of the Milky Way’s most massive clusters and is estimated to be around 12.5 billion years old.

Scott Mellish

Interacting or Not?

NGC 2294/2291/2289/2288/2290
Galaxies
Gemini
12/12/10
56cm f5 dosonian telescope
Field: 17′
Magnification: 354x
Sky Quality Meter reading: 21:58

Black Canford paper
White pen
White pencil
White oil pencil
White pastel chalk
Paint brush
Blending stump

This was quite a nice collection of galaxies in Gemini that viewed well in the 56cm dob.

The brightest member of this group is NGC 2294, as is quite evident in the sketch.
Descending to the right is NGC 2291 a diffuse mag 14.0 galaxy, followed directly below about 6′ by two
quite faint and small galaxies NGC 2289/2288 which are only some 2′ apart.

The last object in this group is NGC 2290 another diffuse mag 14.0 galaxy about 1.0′ x 1.0′ in size.

This was a fairly faint group, but they were not overly challenging from a dark sky site.

I do not know whether any of these galaxies are in interaction, but looking at some DSS images of this
group it seems unlikely.

Scott Mellish

Hind’s Variable Nebula

NGC 1555
“Hind’s Variable Nebula”
Reflection Nebula
Taurus
11/12/10
Ilford NSW Australia
56cm f5.0 dobsonian telescope
Field: 29′
Magnification: 166x
Sky Quality Meter reading: 21:60

Black Canford paper
White pen
White pencil
White pastel chalk
Paint brush

This somewhat mysterious reflection nebula was discovered by John Hind in 1852.
It began to fade in 1861 due to the wide fluctuations in brightness from the illuminating star T Tauri.
By 1868 it had disappeared from view to even the largest telescopes.
It was not observed again until 1890 when Edward Barnard and Sherburne Burnham managed to locate it.
Since the 1930s it has been gradually brightening but remains an observational challenge to deep sky observers.

In my 56cm dob the nebula could only just be seen as a diffuse patch about 1.0′ x 0.8′ in size just of to the lower right of T Tauri (top star).
Whether you can see it or not will depend on your monitor screen.

T Tauri is an irregular variable star around 600 ly away that can range from magnitude 9.0 to 14.0 in brightness.

I also noticed that the mag 8.4 star HD 27560 towards the bottom of the sketch seemed to have a very faint haze around it, which was either some light fog on the eyepiece, or the region around it may contain an amount of interstellar dust.

Incidentally a nebulosity was reported by Otto Struve in 1868 and known as “Struves Lost Nebula” in the vicinity of Hind’s Variable Nebula and given the catalogue number NGC 1554 by Dreyer.
The nebulosity was not seen by observers after Struve’s discovery and has not been located since.
Some Catalogues such as Sky Atlas 2000.0 group NGC 1554 and NGC 1555 together as a single object.
The Palomar Sky Survey plates do not show anything at the reported position.
It is possible that the Lost Nebula may have been a transient portion of the reflection nebula in this section of the sky.

Scott Mellish

Revisiting Two Old friends

Hi all,

Tonight I received one of my biggest and most pleasant surprises at the eyepiece. It wasn’t using a half metre + monster, nor from an especially dark site. Rather, it was using my nearly 30 year old 2” f/12 Tasco refractor, and from my home in Sydney!

Over a year ago I purchased an adaptor to allow me to use 1.25” eyepieces with this little refractor, with the idea of one day making it into a finder scope. Tonight I finally got to try it out, and dust off the little refractor after many years of being unused. What I didn’t expect was the image I was to see of M42. Even the eyepiece used was a modest Super Plossl 25mm.

When I first used this little telescope, all I could see of M42 was the inner core nebulosity that surrounds the Trapesium. Tonight, despite the extra light pollution, but with 30 years experience, and I guess better eyepieces than the original, DIDN’T I SEE DETAIL!!

I even managed to see the faint, nebulous glow that makes up the Running Man nebula too.

This is the first sketch I managed to do at the eyepiece, since my meeting with Scott Mellish, nearly 2 months ago!

Scott, many thanks again for showing me your amazing technique. It has changed the way I sketch DSO’s with a pencil, paper and a dry paint brush!

Gear: 2” f/12 thirty year old refractor
Eyepiece: 25mm Super Plossl, 24X
Filter: OIII
Media: white pastel, white and black charcoal on black paper
Date: 30th December 2010
Location: my backyard, Sydney

Alex M.

Hypergiant Star

VY Canis Majoris
Hypergiant Star
Canis Major
11/12/10
Ilford NSW Australia
56cm f5 dobsonian telescope
Field:12′
Magnification: 404x
Sky Quality Meter reading: 21:67

Black Canford paper
White pen
While pencil
Yellow oil pencil
White oil pencil
Red pastel pencil

The hypergiant star VY Canis Majoris is not a particularly well known observing target, but it is however a very interesting object.

Sometimes referred to as the “Little Humunculus” this object is currently thought to be the largest star in the Milky Way.
Visually in the 56cm dob at fairly high magnification this strange object exhibits a tiny tail of ejecta as can be seen in the sketch.

The last time I observed this star was about 4 years ago in my old 41cm dob when I looked at it a couple of times over a three month period and
noticed it to be slightly fainter on occasions, so it must be slightly variable.

The first mention of VY Canis Majoris was in a star catalogue by Jérôme Lalande in 1801, where it was listed as a mag 7 star.

Needless to say that it is a star of stupendous dimensions estimated to be around 1800-2100 solar radii, and about 450 000 times brighter than our sun.
However the true size and nature of this remarkable star is still debated.

It is a highly unstable star that is shedding an immense amount of mass and is quite possibly a supernova candidate.

RA: 07 22 58 DEC: -25 46 03

Scott Mellish

Sunset Terminator Across Mare Crisium

Mare Crisium is that interesting isolated sea on the northeastern side of the visible lunar surface. Only about half of it was visible during this sketching session.
The Nectarian Period event that formed this feature occurred more than 3.8 billion years ago. The mare portion of the basin is about 500 kilometers across. In the grazing sunlight across the floor, wrinkled ridges were visible in the north to south direction. Also on the western floor craters Picard (24 km.), Peirce (19 km.) and Swift (11km.) stood out in the low light. I could clearly see the lighter colored bench lava that partly buried craters here such as Yerkes (37 km.). Tall flat top mountains (massifs) beyond the shore stand at 2-5 kilometers above the sea. Also beyond the sea to the West crater Proclus (28 km.) with its remarkable bright rays was reflecting some sunlight.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: 400 series black Strathmore Artagain paper 9″x 12″, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils , and Conte’crayons, a blending stump, plastic eraser. Brightness was decreased -2 and contrast increased +1 using the scanner for this sketch
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian with 6mm (241x)
Date: 12-23-2010 10:00 – 11:30 UT
Temperature: -8°C (18°F)
Weather: clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co longitude: 120°
Lunation: 17.7 days
Illumination: 94.5%

Oak Forest, Illinois

Frank McCabe