Category: interacting

The Blackeye Galaxy, M64
By Michael Vlasov

This beautiful sketch of M64, the Blackeye Galaxy, was drawn by Michael Vlasov from the Negev Desert in southern Israel. M64 is some 17 Million light years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. Studies have indicated that the galaxy has recently ungone a merger, resulting in the thick, dusty, star forming region that give this galaxy it’s unique appearance. Deep inside this turbulent spiral, a ring of stars 3000 light years in diameter revolves about the galactic nucleus in a direction opposite than the stars on the outskits of the galaxy.

Tremendous sketch Michael!

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

  

 

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

 

Arguably one of the finest galaxies for visual observation, M51 shows some structure
with averted vision under moderately light polluted skies. The core of the captured
dwarf galaxy hanging on to the edge of a spiral arm is quite apparent and makes M51
a favorite of many observers.
This sketch was rendered on Strathmore Windpower Sketch paper with a .5mm mechanical
pencil. MGI Photosuite III was used for post processing.

Jason Aldridge
North Port, FL

 

M81 and M82 are a galactic pair that I found to be a rewarding target. Structure in
M81 was visible with averted vision, while M82 showed no detail. I always find it
nice to have more than one galaxy in my field of view.
This sketch was rendered on Strathmore Windpower Sketch paper with a .5mm mechanical
pencil. MGI Photosuite III was used for post processing.

Jason Aldridge
North Port, FL

M51

May 29, 2006

Raw pencil sketch (HB lead), negative view lightly processed with
Photoshop Elements

Raw sketch was drawn at the eyepiece

28 inch f4 Newtonian at 710x

Seeing 8/10

Transparency 8/10

Limiting magnitude 6.4

Once upon a time, or last May 29th to be exact, I was lucky enough to
experience one of those amazing nights that we all hope for every time
the sky clears. The sky was dark, transparent and steady and the
temperature was surprisingly comfortable. In short, just about perfect.
But the best part was seeing something new and surprising in an object
I’ve looked at many, many times through all sizes of telescopes.

M51 was near the zenith and looked great at first glance, which wasn’t
unexpected since I was looking at it through a 28″ Newtonian after all –
it should look great! But it looked even better than normal because of
the excellent sky conditions which to me means piling on the
magnification. One of the features I enjoy trying to see within M51 is
the beginning of one of the main spiral arms coming out of the core.
They look like two faint prongs projecting out from the northern side of
the core and quickly blend into that spiral arm. These prongs are
visible in almost every M51 photo which inspired me to try to see them
visually in the first place. I’ve seen them well in a 16 inch scope and
suspect a 12 inch would be able to pull them in too.

 

At 710x I started seeing small glimmerings of light shimmer in and out
of view within the prongs, like they were studded with tiny, barely seen
stars. But at 31 million light years distant M51 I must have been seeing
something else. Looking at the latest HST image of M51 these objects are
probably HII star forming regions and huge star clusters and probably a
Milky Way foreground star or two.

A brief aside on my sketch – I concentrated on the core area and the
star-like points that glimmered in and out of view and that the farther
from the core I got the less detail I put in the sketch. Also, the fine
textures around the core and prongs are probably an artifact originally
caused by the texture of my notebook paper. The original pencil sketch
was scanned and enlarged about 300%, and then lightly processed in
Photoshop.

Howard Banich

Portland, Oregon