Messier 51 and NGC 5195

Messier 51 and NGC 5195
Messier 51 and NGC 5195

ASOD: ” M51 and NGC 5195″

Object Name: Messier 51 and NGC 5195

Object Type: Galaxy

Date: 04/12/15

Location: A Coruña, Galicia. Spain.

Media: pencil, white paper, color invert with Gimp.

Dobson 305 mm and Vixen LVW 17 mm (88x)

Seein: 2/5 (regular-bad)

This is my draw of this beautiful pair of galaxies. That night the seeing was not very good and Jupiter vision was suffering a lot, so I pointed at some galaxies. My north sky has some luminic contamination so the sky background is not totally dark. Nonetheless M51 shows a very contrasted image. I could see two arms and a darker space between them. The end of the arm opposite to NGC 5195 had weaker light but the arm that touches 5195 was clearly visible. A wonderful sight¡¡

Crinkled Solar Surface – 21 March 2015

H-Alpha Solar - 21 March2015
H-Alpha Solar – 21 March2015

Aloha,

Todays solar surface showed some interesting features that I tried to capture. There were a lot of long detailed filaments as well as a region to the east that looked like a piece of silk that had been crinkled and then flattened. To the west of this area was a brightening plage, at the moment the brightest region in the observation besides a bright spike on the limb. The prominences to the north were more subtle and dim.

White sketch paper
Grey charcoal, Tombow pencils 2H, 6B
White acrylic paint (plage)
Blending pencil
Photoscape to adjust contrast

60mm Lunt h-alpha 36x
3/21/2015 2010-2035 UT
Seeing Wilson 4/5 Transparency 2/4
Cindy (Thia) L. Krach
Maui, Hawaii

Comet Lovejoy from Chinese Skies

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) - 20/30 December 2014
C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) – 20/30 December 2014

Object name: C/2014 Q2 Comet Lovejoy
Object type: Comet
Location: Lijiang, China
Date: 20th and 30th of December , 2014
Media: Graphite pencil and yellow notebook paper. Scanned, inverted and processed in photoshop CS6
Equipment: 15×70 Binoculars

Seeing Conditions:

20th Dec: Clear, seeing 2/3, T 0° C, moonless, some direct light over the observation site, Bortle 5
30th Dec: Clear, seeing 1/3, crescent moon, artificial sources of light close to the observation site, Bortle 5.

Hello dear ASOD friends,

Since I saw this wonderful comet on last december, I haven’t had the opportunity to process the raw sketches on photoshop.
I was initially planning to do one sketch, but since on 30th December there was a “conjunction” with M79, I decided to compare how bright they seemed compared each other. There was an enormous difference in apparent magnitude between the two objects as you can see in the sketch. I have the “feeling” of having seen the comet tail but being honest I could not adapt well my night vision since there was a lot of artificial lights around and therefore It could be just a “feeling” than a real view.

Once again let me invite you to check other of my sketches in my blog: pollutedskiesstargazing.blogspot.com.

Thanks,

LG

Sunrise at Mare Crisium

Mare Crisium
Mare Crisium

Hi,

find attached a charcoal and pastel sketch of the sunrise at Mare Crisium. I hope you like it.

Object Name: Mare Crisium, eastern part
Object Type: Lunar Maria
Location: Germany, Dusseldorf area
Date: 2015-03-22, 2020-2100 CET
Media: chalk pastel pencil and charcoal pencil on black sketching cardbox
Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT
Eyepiece: TS HR Planetary 7mm

Clear skies

Achim

Partial Solar Eclipse – 20 March 2015

Partial Solar Eclipse - 20 March 2015

Hey ASOD!

I send you the great eclipse of the sun from Trondheim, Norway.
with 94% of the sun eclipsed!
I also measured the temperature (in shadow) before and during
the eclipse. The sky was clean until just before the end of the partial
phase. I enjoyed the max. partial phase very much. Beautiful!!!
I used crayons (watercolor) on black paper.

Best wishes from Per-Jonny Bremseth.

Cluster of Gems

NGC 3293
NGC 3293

Hi ASOD. My name is Renato Trono Figueras. I’m 15 years old. I’m from Lincoln, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Object Name: NGC 3293

Object Type: Open Cluster

Location: Lincoln, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Date: 01/03/2015

Media: Graphite Pencil- 2H, 4H, HB, 2B and 4B- PS

Telescope: Celestron 114mm/900mm

Eyepiece: SP 32mm

Seeing: Regular

Transparency: Regular

Weather: Clear

I hope you post my sketch soon. Thanks you very much!

Regards & Nice Skys

Craters Diophantus and Delisle

Craters Diophantus and Delisle
Craters Diophantus and Delisle
Craters Diophantus and Delisle - Labeled
Craters Diophantus and Delisle – Labeled

On the western side of Mare Imbrium are craters Diophantus (19 km.) and Delisle (25 km.) with mons Delisle in between and closer to the crater of the same name. A dorsum or ridge here is perhaps a buried crater rim and creates a sharp edge curving demarcation on the terminator side of the Moon at the time of sketching. Some of the massifs in this region such as mons La Hire (1.5 km. high), mons Vinogradov (1.4 km.) and mons Delisle( 0.8km. high) are described by some geologists as likely left over remnants from the rings of the Imbrium impact. Additional craters seen at this observation included Euler (2.8 km.), Artsimovich (9 km.), Gruithuisen (17 km.) and Heis (15 km.)and numerous smaller unnamed.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 9”x 12”, white and black Conte’pastel pencils, a soft charcoal pencil, brush and a blending stump.

Telescope: 13.1 inch f/6 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 221x
Date: 01-31-2015, 03:10 – 04:25 UT
Temperature: -7°C (20°F)
clear, breezy
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co longitude: 38.7°
Lunation: 10.33 days
Illumination: 84.9 %
Phase: 45.8°

Frank McCabe

Venus and Mercury After Sunset, release 2

Venus, Mercury and Meteor - 10 January 2015
Venus, Mercury and Meteor – 10 January 2015
Venus, Mercury - 10 January 2015
Venus, Mercury – 10 January 2015

Object Name (Venus and Mercury)
Object Type (Plante conjunction and meteor)
Location (Artignosc-sur-Verdon France)
Date (Jan 10th 2015)
Media (watercolor, white paper, inverted after scan)

January the 10th the two inner planets of our solar system are very close. Following the nice pastel sketch made by Frank Jan 6th (ASOD Feb 2nd) I will take the opportunity to compare its view with this I made 4 days later.
While my watercolor session, a probable Quadrantide meteor produce a brilliant flash.

The two planets are easily seen in the field of my UWA EP.

Clear sky to you all !

Michel Deconinck

http://astro.aquarellia.com