Author: richardhandy

A Delicate Triple

Object name: Theta Virginis (Sigma 1724/H III 50)

Object type: Double/Multiple star

Location: York, UK

Date: 24th April 2011

Media: Graphite pencil sketch on white paper at eyepiece, colour added digitally after scanning and reversing.

I often find springtime rather hectic, tracking down all those dim galaxies whilst the sky conditions permit. This year I have rediscovered relaxing in front of the scope, thanks to a birthday gift of the Cambridge Double Star atlas. Double stars allow you the time to enjoy colour and light and pattern without all the frustration of hunting for barely perceptible objects in uncontrollable sky conditions. Here is one of my favourites from this spring; Theta Virginis. The primary is 4th magnitude, I noted as white, with two “brown-orange” companions of 9th-10th magnitude at pleasingly different distances (7’’ and 70’’) and angles from the primary.

I used a Skywatcher Skyliner 152mm f8 Dobsonian with 10mm eyepiece.

Magnitude 13.4 and Rising

Object names: SN2011by, NGC 3972, NGC 3977
Object types: supernova, galaxy, galaxy pair
Location: Cherry Springs Dark Sky Park, Pennsylvania
Date: May 5, 2011
Media: digital

Notes
16” Dobsonian, 75-300x. The supernova SN2011by is the brightest star in the field. It is superimposed on the NE edge of the elongated galaxy NGC 3972, just to the left of the galaxy’s core in the drawing. The round galaxy is NGC 3977, in which recorded supernovae occurred in 1946 and 2006.

As of this writing, supernova 2011by is still the brightest currently in the sky, and still rising at magnitude 12.5. The magnitude in the sketch title refers to the time of my observation. It is in NGC 3972 right next to Gamma Ursae Majoris. This is very nice intermediate-inclination spiral that I saw last year with my 4”. I still retain the mental image of a nicely elongated blob. It can now serve me as something that supernova photographers would call the “pre-discovery image.” SN2011by was discovered at the end of April. At the redshift distance of NGC 3972 (46 Mly) it should become mag. 11.5, according to my rough calculations, and at the mean Tully-Fisher distance from NED (18 Mpc) it should still become 12.0. I.e. it might become a worthy target for “department-store scopes.”

I was curious about the structure in the host galaxy, which is featured in The de Vaucouleurs Atlas as a paradigmatic SA(s)bc. The southwest edge, which is opposite the supernova, is the one closest to us, judging by the photos. I thought that with some appropriate effort expended, the arm running along this edge and even some enhancements in it could potentially be visible in a 16”. But, somewhat disappointingly, all I could see was this edge being sharper than the one with the supernova. The view was essentially identical under a range of magnifications from 100 to 300x. On the other hand, this means that my “post-discovery image” (the view through the 16″) is only subtly different from my “pre-discovery image” (last year’s view throught the 4″), as far as the galaxy itself is concerned.

The field overall is very impressive. Not to mention the supernova, the elongation and asymmetry of NGC 3972 have their counterpoint in the perfect roundness of its apparent companion, NGC 3977. Unlike NGC 3972, this face-on spiral could not be just casually swept up last year with the 4”, and I did not stop to look for it then. NGC 3977 itself was host to two recorded supernovae, 1946A and 2006gs. About them I can only find that 2006gs reached mag 17. The only distance for NGC 3977 in NED is by redshift, 263 Mly. This is far indeed – 5 times farther than NGC 3972, adding to the perceived depth of this remarkable field.

At the eyepiece, I make a schematic in ball pen that records the essential information about positions, sizes, and the contrast, and concentrate on preserving my dark adaptation and building the mental image instead of detailed sketching. Subsequently I use a pressure- and tilt-sensitive digital pen tablet to simulate pencil, blender, and other traditional tools, to create the clean digital drawing, concentrating on conveying the visual appearance of stars and nebulosity.

Magnetic Fields and Plasma Trees

– Object Name: the Sun
– Object Type: Star
– Location: Lith, the Netherlands
– Date: 7-5-2011
– Media: red pastel pencil, black paper, photoshop

The sky was clear today, so i aimed my new solartelescope at the Sun to see some Solar Flares. There where pretty much of those flares visible today. As you can see on the sketch, three huge flares where visible on the leftcorner of the sun.
Our Sun reaches the Solar Maximum in 2013, so it will become more and more active. This is the time to buy a solartelescope!

– Weather: hot and dry
– Seeing: (very) bad
– Telescope: Coronado P.S.T.

I’m ready for the Solar Maximum!

Rutger Teule
www.rutgerteule.com

Modeling the Moon

Inspired by the beautiful model of Archimedes by Richard Handy, I organized a clay workshop during the weekly gathering of our local astronomy club a few weeks ago.
Modeling the Moon is not new at all. The Scottish engineer and inventor James Nasmyth (1808-1890) already made some impressive plaster models of the Moon based on his visual observations. More information on this can be found on the internet, check it out!

Chosen subject for my sculpture was Tycho, since the Japanese Selene mission (Jaxa) yielded some extremely detailed pictures of this crater – available for everyone on the web. Alternative option would be crater Clavius.

Armed with only primitive tools (bare hands and a wooden clothes-peg) to work with, and no experience in clay-modeling (occasional childhood experience set aside) a group of 15 enthusiasts bravely accepted the challenge. After about 90 minutes of hard work combined with healthy doses of humor and self-relativism everyone was quite impressed with the result. You really should try this yourself!

The attached photos are unfortunately not the best quality, however they provide a good impression of what to be expected. Hope you like it!

Thanks at Paul Aka for correcting my English.

Clear skies
Jef De Wit

Object Type and Name: crater Tycho and Clavius
Date: 5 May 2011
Medium: clay, hands and a clothes-peg

A Nebulous Study

Hi all,

Sydney’s skies have been terrible for a long time. Finally tonight we got a clear, cloudless and dewless night. And I wasn’t going to let a little Moonlight get in the way.

As Sydney’s skies are also loaded with light pollution, the full potential of the Eta Carina nebula isn’t realized. The Homunculus Nebula isn’t visible at 29X – it’s too small. However, its distinctive colour is visible, it is the bright, orangeish star.

This sketch was more a case of blowing out some cobwebs from my pencil case. Modest gear, short time, and a refreshing ale. A target I wish to revisit in the coming New Moon from a dark site.

Object: NGC 3372, Eta Carina Nebula
Type: Emission nebula
Scope: 8” f/4 Newtonian, dob mounted
Gear: RKE 28mm (29X) and OIII filter
Location: Sydney
Date: 23rd March, 2011
Conditions: Awful Sydney sky + last ¼ Moon.
Media: White pastel, black & white charcoal, white and coloured ink on black paper

Cheers,

Alex M.

Looking Glass Pythagoras

Object Name: Pythagoras
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Bristol, UK
Date: 16th April 2011

Media (graphite pencil sketch at the scope and then digitized using graphics tablet and Photoshop)
I usually sketch in some detail at the scope (mainly HB and 2B). I then scanned the result into Photoshop and used a Bamboo Pen graphics tablet to remaster the sketch. The final sketch was then “blurred” a touch to simulate the actual view which is never as sharp as I would like to see!)

Observational date: I use a Nexstar 8SE teamed with a Hyperion 8-24 mm zoom. Most of the sketch was at the 8 mm stop and was drawn in good seeing conditions. The moon was 13 days old.
I could see the two central peaks but not sharply. However the terracing along the rim walls was obvious as was Babbage to the south. Because of the foreshortening I could see shadowed craters to the north.

New Active Region

2011 05 09, 1429UT-1550UT
Solar NOAA 11203, 11204, ??, 11209, 11208

www.pcwobservatory.com

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA – Erika Rix
DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell, ETX70 AT w/tilt plate and white light glass filter.

All sketches done scopeside and flipped in Photoshop to match standard orientation. H-alpha sketch created with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil. White light sketch created on photocopy paper with 0.5mm mechanical pencil and #2 pencil.

Transparency made it nearly impossible to view prominences at the start of the session with the thin layer of cirrus creating a milky white sky. There were small breaks that allowed me to sketch in some of the detail on a western prominence, that later as the transparency improved, showed an abundance of thin whispy structure that wasn’t captured on paper. By that time, I was already working on a full disk sketch in h-alpha. Seeing was terrific until I started on the white light observation, but had I set up the ETX at the beginning of the session to let the scope adjust to the warmth, it would have been much better by the time I observed with it. As it was, I observed in the observatory for protection of the wind as I view with a shade attached to the objective and wanted to avoid vibration.

There is a possible new active region between 1209 and 1208 that, while observing in white light, had several little spots forming an elliptical shape with pointed ends like a football. I noticed facula around 1208, but the seeing was so bad that I couldn’t make out a definite shape. The umbra of the preceding spot in that region was displaced, as was the preceding spot in 1203. I didn’t notice any sunspots in 1209 during my observation, but that may have been the result of the seeing.

The band of active regions is still putting on a nice show in h-alpha with more-defined plage around them.

Well Tuned Antennae

Object Name: NGC 4038/9
Also Known As: H.IV.28, Arp 244, the Antennae, Ring Tail Galaxies
Object Type: Interacting Galaxy Pair
Constellation: Corvus
Right Ascension (2000.0): 12h 01m 53.2s
Declination (2000.0): –18° 52′ 38″
Magnitude: 10.7
Dimensions: 4.5′ x 3.6′
Hubble Class: S?/pec
Distance: 63 million light years
Discovery: William Herschel on 7 February 1785 with 18.7-inch reflector
NGC Description: 4038 – pB, cL, R, vgbM; 4039 – pF, pL

Telescope: Parks Astrolight EQ6 • 6″ f/6 Newtonian Reflector
Eyepiece/Magnification: 7.5mm Parks Gold Series Plössl • 120x • 26′ Field of View
Filter: None
Date/Time: 30 April 2011 • 04:15-05:00 UT
Observing Location: Oakzanita Springs, Descanso, San Diego Co., California, USA
Transparency: NELM 6.2; TLM 14.2
Seeing: Pickering 7-8
Conditions: Clear, calm, cold, humid

This interacting galaxy pair is best located about 50 arc minutes NNE of the fifth magnitude star HD 104337, the brightest star on the western border of Corvus. While you are in the area you might do well to look for NGC 4027 30′ NW of HD 104337 and NGC 3981 68′ WSW of that star. The Antennae would be a challenging target for binocular observers.

At 30x magnification, this galaxy pair appears as a soft asymmetric patch of nebulosity, larger and brighter toward the north, smaller and fainter toward the south, but with no other details readily visible. Another soft, featureless patch of nebulosity may be glimpsed in the same field of view, 42′ away to the SW; this is NGC 4027, an 11th magnitude barred spiral galaxy and a fine target in its own right.

At 60x magnification, the Antennae or Ringtail galaxies are clearly resolved as two separate (though attached) objects. Together they look like a lopsided heart or a bloated “V”, with occasional glimpses of mottling across the face of the nebulosity. At 120x magnification the western rim (shaped like a backward “S”) of the pair is clearly brighter and more distinct than the rest of the object. During moments of good seeing this bright rim breaks into several distinct knots. The central region of NGC 4038 appears almost hollow by comparison; perhaps this is why Herschel catalogued this object as a planetary nebula. Averted vision revealed occasional glimpses of the base of the southern tail.

At 120x magnification NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 share the 26′ field of view with 9th-magnitude TYC 6097-326-1, white, about 6.5′ NW, 10th-magnitude TYC 6097-415-1, orange-red, about 9.5′ S, 11th-magnitude TYC 6097-619-1, yellow-white, about 10.8′ NE, 11th-magnitude TYC 6097-288-1, yellow-orange, about 13′ NNW, and 11th-magnitude TYC 6097-629-1, yellow, about 12.5′ NW. The remaining field stars are in the 12-14 magnitude range.

The sketch presented here depicts the view at high magnification (120x). The sketch has been rotated so that north is up and west is to the right. The sketch was executed with a No. 2 mechanical pencil with 0.5 mm lead, and two blending stumps (8948B, 8941B) on 100 lb. white card stock. The original drawing measures 7½ inches across.

This observation was made from a reasonably dark site (borderline blue-green on LP maps) at an elevation above 4,000 feet. The NELM was estimated at 6.2, the TLM at 14.2 in the vicinity of the target. The seeing conditions were above average (Pickering 7-8), but the humidity was quite high and care had to be taken to prevent dew from accumulating on optics and sketching materials. The temperature was 37°F. The air was very still and the high magnification views very steady.