Object Name: M42, M43
Object Type: Nebula
Location: Russia, Strelech’ya Polyana
Date: 23 october 2011
Media: graphite pencil on white paper, inversion and little star correction (so they’d look more round) in PhotoShop CS2
That night I actually saw the Great Nebula for the first time in normal conditions and under pretty dark skies (somewhere 5.7m stars were seen). And this sketch is the second attempt to draw it. Using my 12″ Dob it took me about 1.5 hours.
M42 looked fantastically bright, but it’s a pity I didn’t guess to put 12.5mm eyepiece instead of 25mm while sketching the brightest part, the one around trapezium, because only then the structure of nebula’s filaments was easily seen. Under the wings, the space of 10′ maybe, was filled with such dense cloud, that it reminded me of M31’s core, but lower it became more diffuse and slowly disappeared. Above M42 M43 was also visible, like a fat comma. And it seemed to me, that its tail was a little bit separated from the main body.
Wow, how light pollution has reduced the view of bright objects! This drawing is similar to the view through an 80mm refractor under dark skies. That this is drawn through a 12″ scope is simply hard to believe and a little saddening.
To the artist, who is quite skilled, and I encourage him to continue sketching, I recommend transporting your 12″ to darker skies if you can, or trying higher magnifications for the details in the nebula.
To those of you looking at this drawing, rest assured the nebula will display a lot more detail than this in even smaller apertures if you can just get to darker skies.
This IS a good representation of what can be seen in typical urban backyards, however.
And there I speak from experience, as I live in Los Angeles.
That’s one of my favorite targets. Great sketch.
Terrific sketch, Irina
the stars are fairly well placed and to my point of view this sketch is outstanding. I wish I could have this skill.
Thanks for sharing!
Jean
Irina,
You have created a nice looking sketch of the great Orion nebula.
Always a pleasure to see here and at the eyepiece.
Frank