White Paper – Page 126 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Former moon of the Moon

Lunar crater Schiller
Sketch and Details by Árpád Szent-Andrássy

Object Name: Schiller crater
Object Type: Lunar crater
Location: Hungary, Debrecen
Date: 29th November 2009
Medium: white paper, graphite pencil.
Instrument: 5” Maksutov

Hi
This is my first sketch that I would like to share with you on ASOD. I used my 127/1500 Maksutov scope with a start diagonal to observe the Moon from my balcony, and finished the sketch next morning. After scanning, I slightly adjusted contrast and brightness of the image with Gimp, and that was all.

Best regards: Árpád

A Visitor to the Swan

Comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen)
Sketch and Details by Diego González

Hello,

Comet Christensen (C/2006 W3) was probably one of the most interesting views I had last summer. Although not a bright comet, it was small and concentrated, making it easily visible from my moderately polluted backyard. On July 17th it had a size of about 3Â and a roundish shape, with a rather high surface brightness. The cometÂs center is slightly brighter but not prominent. It was moving through constellation Cygnus, near Zeta Cygni, so the starfield in the eyepiece is very rich even at high powers. In summary, a small but beautiful comet for a summer night.

Sketch: 2HB graphite pencil on white paper, scanned and processed with Photoshop Elements 2.0
Object Name: Comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen)
Object Type: Comet
Location: Asturias, Spain
Date: July 17th, 2009
Instrument: 120mm f/8,3 refractor + BO/TMB Planetary 9mm eyepiece (111x)

Regards,
Diego GonzÃ¡lez

Radiance and Reflection

M78 (NGC 2068) Diffuse reflection and emission nebula in Orion
Sketch and Details by “wanderer”-Piotrek Borek

Object Name – M78
Object Type – Reflection Nebulae
Location -Poland,Krosno/Rogi
Date – 11.26.2009 hour 01:20 local time
Graphite pencil,white paper
Newton 203-1200,eyepiece Plossl 25mm
Viewing condition – strong wind, temp, 5 * C, clarity good.

Falling Towards Andromeda

M31 (224) and M32 (NGC 221)
Sketch and Details by Ignisdei (Robert Twarogal)

Hi!
I made a sketch of the most popular pair of galaxies: M31 and M32.
Yesterday in my garden the NELM was about 5 mag , but in the zenith – it
slightly increased.
M31 was nicely visible to the naked eye.
Sketch took me about 45 minutes,

Sincerely yours
Robert

Object Name: M31 amd M32
Object Type (Galaxy)
Location (Oborniki, suburbia, Poland)

Date (19-11-2009)
Equipment: Meade LB12? + WO SWAN 40mm and 25mm
Autor: Ignisdei (Robert Twarogal)

Orion’s Belt

Orions Belt Asterism
Sketch and Details by Oscar Ll. (Almach)

Orion’s Belt with 15×70 binoculars – Sketch by Oscar Ll. (Nickname: almach)

Object Type: Asterism

Location: Barcelona – Spain

2009 November, 16

To start enjoying astronomy is not necessary to have a telescope.
With a few simple binoculars, affordable to everyone, you can see a
number of really interesting objects. Even, there are wonders in the
sky because of its size, it is almost an obligation to observe with
binoculars, not with telescopes.

One of these objects is in the Orion constellation and is known as
Orion’s Belt. This is my sketch, made with a HB2 pencil, on white
paper. Inverted and modified some paremeters with Photoshop Elements.

Great Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka with her evanescence companion.

For more details of my observation you can visit my blog:

http://laorilladelcosmos.blogspot.com/2009/11/el-cinturon-de-orion.html

Orion’s Belt (Asterism)

Date and Time: 2009-11-16, 21h 45m UT

Binoculars: Celestron Skymaster 15×70 with tripod.

White paper, HB2 graphite pencil, and scanned and inverted with Photoshop

Seeing: 3/5 (5 the best)

Transparency: Clear. Moderate light pollution.

Location Constellation: Orion

Position: R.A. 05 h 36 min

Dec. -01° 12′

Webmaster’s note: Oscar kindly sent along this text and sketch data. Thank you sir.

Early November Mars

Mars on November 8th, 2009
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

November nights are typically the cloudiest nights of the entire year in the Chicago area. Last evening and early this morning the transparency and seeing were both pretty good despite the high humidity (80%) and temperatures approaching the dew point. Mars has already become a good target for high power examination through telescopes at 8.3″ of arc. Mars at 104.6 million miles away is still farther from us than the sun but we are catching up. I observed the planet not too far from the Beehive (M 44) with the central meridian at 220° shining at magnitude 0.6.
The gibbous phase of the planet was clearly evident as was the North Polar Cap, Utopia, and Maria Cimmerium and Tyrrhenum.

Mars on November 8th, 2009 (labeled)
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Sketching: White sketching paper 8″ x 10″; 4B, HB, and 2H Graphite pencils; I used my fingers and a blending stump for blending. No adjustment after scanning was needed.
Date 11/8/2009 – Time 9:40-10:50 UT
Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 4mm eyepiece 360x Temperature: 9°C (49°F)  clear, calm
Transparency 4/5 Seeing: Pickering 8/10
Frank McCabe

Mars in the “Beehive”

Mars moving through the Beehive Cluster
Sketches and Details by Giorgio Bonacorsi

Hi all , how are you? I see yesterday the last sketch of Jeremy Perez and i say to myself: “I made the same sketch from home in the same day!” and i decide to sent you my last four sketches of “Mars in the Beehive” made with my bino bresser 10×50. I observe Mars also with my refractor 80/1000 at 333x and i see only the polar white zone but no partycular of surface.The best image of this event was throug bino 10×50, very stereoscopic and magnificent vision.
This is all for this moment.Thank you for your kind words, i’m o.k. at the moment, i hope next to sent you my new sketches of deep sky with my Dobson 10″.
Clear sky and good new sketches to all artists!!!

Ciao, Giorgio.

Name:Giorgio Bonacorsi
Site:Pergola,Marche,Center Italy
Date:from 31 October to 3 November
Instrument:Bino Bresser 10×50
Seeing:Good
Temperature:Cold,humidity,no wind.

Mars moving through the Beehive Cluster
Sketches and Details by Giorgio Bonacorsi

Rille with a Hook

Rima Sirsalis
Sketch and Details by Peter Mayhew

Object Name: Rima Sirsalis
Object Type: Lunar Rille
Location: York, U.K.
Date: 31st October 2009
I used graphite pencil on white paper. My observing instrument was a
Skywatcher Skyliner 150mm f8 Dobsonian with a 10mm eyepiece and x2 Barlow.

Labeled sketch of Rima Sirsalis
Sketch and Details by Peter Mayhew

I have just endured twenty days of grey cloud without sight of the
stars: it was almost unbearable. This came with unseasonal mild weather
for October for the UK. On 31st, there was a brief gap in the clouds at
20:00 UT and I got the scope out to look at the day 13 moon; I spent a
few minutes deciding whether to sketch Wargentin or Rima Sirsalis, and
as you can see decided on the latter. High cloud rolled in but I kept on
going, and managed a passable sketch in decreasing visibility as the sky
turned foggy. The terrain which the rille cuts through is fascinating;
from the Ocean of storms in the north (bottom) past craters Sirsalis and
Cruger A, and then on reaching De Vico A it makes a westward hook
towards Lamarck and Byrgius before petering out. The nearby craters
Darwin and Cruger make excellent background scenery. I include a
labelled version. The rille is 420km long and 5km wide.

Eastern Limb Huggers

Lunar craters Humbolt and Hecataeus
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Two old large craters near the eastern limb of the moon were putting on such a nice show at sunset that I could not resist sketching them. First was the floor fractured crater Humboldt (207 km.). This is an ancient Upper Imbrian period depression on the lunar surface. The mountain range in the center of this crater was catching the last rays of sunlight while the northeastern rim was already consumed by darkness as was most of the crater floor. Along the limb below Humboldt to the north in the eyepiece is the Nectarian walled plain crater Hecataeus (167 km.). The floor of this crater was completely in shadow while the inner, far, steep wall was directly illuminated by the sun and showing some interesting structure and texture.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: white sketching paper 12”x 9”, HB, 4B, 6B graphite pencils, a blending stump and a plastic eraser the sky was darkened using black Conte’ pencil. After scanning, Brightness was decreased (-2) and contrast increased (+2) using Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 241x
Date: 11-3-2009, 4:45 – 6:00 UT
Temperature: 7° C (45° F)
clear, calm, low humidity
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 99.1°
Lunation 16 days
Illumination 99.8 %

Frank McCabe

The Beacon of Oceanus Procellarum

Lunar craters Aristarchus, Herodotus, Vallis Schröter
Sketch and Details by Tamás Ábrahám

Hello,

here is a sketch about Crater Aristarchus and Herodotus with Vallis Schröter.
The seeing was poor on this evening but the transparency was acceptable.

Details
Date: October 30, 2009
Equipment: 8 inch f/5 Newtonian reflector with 4 mm SW Planetary eyepiece
Location: Zsámbék, Hungary
Technique: white paper, black pencil

Regards,
Tamás Ábrahám
www.vadakcsillaga.hu