White Paper – Page 128 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

The King’s Scar

Jupiter and Wesley Impact Scar
Sketch and Details by Michael Kießling

Two times I could see the Wesley Inpact Scar, first time on Aug. 1 at 3:55 CEST, second time on Aug. 4 at 0:45 CEST. Seeing was poor, (4-5/10 Pickering), but there were some useful moments for drawing. I used my TMB 130/780 refractor, magnification was 195x. I saw the Impact Scar as a faint spot, a little diffuse on its west margin and sharper in east. – In the lower sketch you see right beside the NTB/GRS the 5m.9 star 45 Cap minutes before its occultation by Jupiter.

Object Name: Jupiter with Wesley Impact Scar
Object Type: Planet
Location: Melbeck, Germany
Time: 2009 August 1 and 4

CS and best regards,

Michael Kießling

Ghost of a Blue Saturn

NGC 7009, The Saturn Nebula in Aquarius
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Saturn Nebula NGC 7009

This planetary nebula was one of the first “nebulae” seen and recorded by William Herschel during the summer of 1782. Since my skies are loaded with sky glow, it is not possible to see the ansae (handles) at the ends of the long axis of this beautiful bluish planetary nebula. With the ansae visible this planetary nebula very much resembles a blue version of the planet Saturn with its rings edge on. At high magnification the white dwarf central star is easily detectable with 18” of aperture although the view is much better under dark transparent skies.

Sketching:

NGC 7009 Saturn Nebula (planetary)
Date and Time: 8-25-2009, 4:15 4:50 UT
Scope: 18” f/5 Dobsonian. 24 mm eyepiece 95x
8”x12” white sketching paper, 2H, HB, graphite pencils, light brown color pencil,
blending stump, scanned and inverted
Seeing: 7/10
Transparency: Average 3/5
Faintest stars visible overhead 4.3
Temperature: 20°C (68°F)
Nebula magnitude: 8.0, Central star 11.5
Distance: 2000-4000 ly
Location Constellation: Aquarius
Position: R.A. 21 hrs 4 min
Dec. -11° 22′

Frank McCabe

Crater Pair Klaproth and Casatus

Lunar craters Klaproth and Casatus
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

While observing the moon on the last evening of August, I was looking for a target to sketch while I was enjoying the view. I wanted to pick a crater or two I had never sketched before but one that would be an interesting target. It wasn’t long before the ancient crater pair of Klaporth and Casatus caught my eye and both together became my target. Klaproth and Casatus are Pre-Nectarian period impact scars on the lunar southern highlands. Klaproth is the larger and older of the two with a diameter of 119 km compared to 111 km for Casatus. It is easy to see that crater Casatus slightly overlaps the southern wall of Klaporth but both craters appeared to have taken a terrific beating over a very long time. Neither of these large walled-plain craters exhibits a central peak and both have nearly flat floors. Small craters on these floors were appearing off and on in the eyepiece during the sketch as the seeing improved for brief intervals. The rims of both craters are high above the floors. The top of the rampart of Casatus stands nearly 6 km above its floor. The light color to the floors of these craters has led lunar geologist Chuck Wood to speculate they may be the result of non-mare volcanism (see LPOD for August 5, 2006).

I feel I spent quality time observing and attempting to capture the view of this southern highland pair.

Frank McCabe

Concave Convex

Crater Milichius and Lunar Dome Milichius Pi
Sketch and Details by Michael Kießling

This drawing I made with my Tak FS-102 refractor, magnification was 205x. Transparency was very good, seeing 5-6/10 (Pickering scale). I used white printer paper, HB and 2B pencils.

Object Name: Crater Milichius and Lunar Dome Milichius Pi
Object Type: Lunar Crater, Lunar Dome
Location: Melbeck, Germany
Time: 2009 Jan. 6, 20:00 UT

CS, Michael.

Mountain Swan

M17 (NGC 6618) the Swan Nebula in Sagittarius
Sketch and Details by Dan Israël

Object Name M17
Object Type Emission nebula
Location Molines-en-Queyras, France
Date 20/08/09

This sketch was made in a small hamlet in the French Alps (elevation 1900m), using a 250mm Dobsonian telescope with a 13mm wide field eyepiece (92 X) and an Oxygen-III filter. The sketch was made on the spot with graphite pencils on white paper.

regards,

Dan

Jupiter’s blemish Shearing Away

Jupiter and Wesley Impact Scar
Sketch and Details by Michael Rosolina

I made another observation of the Wesley impact site in the early morning hours of August 3rd. Jupiter was rising but still low as the impact scar neared the preceding limb so I did not get the best view of the King of Planets. In spite of conditions, I could see that the impact plume had expanded and dimmed. I haven’t tired of seeing this debris cloud in the Jovian cloudtops.

The sketch was done at the eyepiece with 2B and HB pencils on photocopy paper. I flipped the drawing digitally to give the “classic” south up, preceding to the left view before I added the text. Notes are with the sketch.

Thanks,

Michael Rosolina

Jupiter and Wesley Impact Scar
Planet
Friars Hill, WV USA
03 August 2009

Jupiter Wearing its New Mark

Jupiter and Wesley Comet Impact Scar
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Finally after several attempts I was able to capture the new look of Jupiter with its Wesley impact scar still visible. Clear skies were predicted for my area but it wasn’t looking good when I set up at sundown. Scud clouds were moving across my area most of the night and when they went through the sky near Jupiter’s position they made the planet boil. I increased my chances for success by using an aperture stop on the 18″ inch scope, to more than double the f ratio and reduce the aperture to an unobstructed 8 “.
The scar was well past the ideal viewing position at the time I began sketching but it was clearly visible in intervals of average seeing.

Sketching:

8/5/2009 5:15 – 6:00 UT
Scope used 18″ f/5 masked to 8” f/10.5
Eyepiece used: 9mm UO ortho. For 222x
Sketch made on copy paper using graphite pencils
HB, 4B and 6B, and a blending stump.
Contrast increased +2, brightness decreased -2 using the scanner
Seeing: 5/10 for short intervals
Transparency 2/5

Frank McCabe

400 years of Telescopic Lunar Sketches

The First Lunar Sketches
Sketch by Thomas Harriot and text by Rich Handy

This amazingly simple sketch is one of the first telescopic sketches of the Moon ever made. It even predates Galileo’s beautiful ink wash sketches. It was made by Thomas Harriot of England on July 26, 1609. Between 1609 and 1610 he did several full phase sketches as well as lunar maps. Thomas Harriot was a mathematician of considerable genius who corresponded with some of the greatest scholars of his time. (Image courtesy of the Galileo project), please take some time to visit this fine site to see more of Thomas Harriot and Galileo Galilei’s first sketches of the Moon.

Jupiter’s New Facial Feature

Jupiter with Wesley Comet Impact Scar
Sketch and Details by Juan Perez

OBJECT: Planet Jupiter
DATE: July 29, 2009
TIME: 1:30 LST / 8:30 UT
LOCATION: Harquahala mtns, near Aguila Arizona USA
INSTRUMENT: Celestron CPC1100 w/ 40,32,25 and 10mm Plossl’s
DETECTOR: Visual sketch
MAGNITUDE: -2.8
WEATHER: Clear sky, moderate winds, temp. 95deg F
COMMENTS:

After the monsoon season, We’ve had some very cooperative days or nights in the sense of clear and dark skies for those of us here in Arizona. Of course most of you know, the
impact scar first found on Jupiter by the Australian amateur astronomer has now been seen by virtually everyone interested in this field or hobby. I finally got a chance to haul my
CPC 1100 to a dark and remote site in the Harquahala mountains.
At sunset, I began to set up but had to wait and give Jupiter a chance to rise higher from the horizon and to lessen the effects that turbulent hot air has on the seeing.
Patience and counting Aquarids helped me kill a few hours while allowing Jupiter to rotate and start showing its scar. My attempt at searching took several tries since I could not detect the tiny blotch or dark patch on the Southern Polar Region. Once it came into view, I waited for it to position itself in front of the planetary disk.(about 1:30 am LST)
The scar is easily detectable with the CPC 1100, I used various Plossl’s interchangeably to get different views and details. Tha scar has taken and elongated appearrance and seems to be in the vicinity of 5 or 6 arcseconds in length. North from the impact site is a noticeable white round storm very small in comparison to the scar.Two and a half or so hours later, the scar
rotated out of view and the show was over but, the visual experience and excitement will last for many days. I hope the impact scar can linger for many more days too so that more people can have a chance to look and enjoy this -out of this world- phenomenon.
By the way, I counted over 60 Aquarids in the span of about 5 hours !! “juanchin”

On the Trail of a Rocket

Cosmos 1154 Rocket Booster, on June 13th, 2009
Sketch and Details by Janusz Krysiak

Object Name:Cosmos 1154 Rocket
Object Type:Satellites
Location:Pyrnik(Poland)
Date:13.06.2009(11.40 a.m.)

medium: pencil, white paper

Hi,
This is Satellite Cosmos 1154 Rocket. I made this sketch in
Pyrnik(Poland) on 13.06.2009(11.40 a.m.)

Janusz Krysiak