Pastels on Black Paper – Page 6 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

The Eagle Has Landed

Hi all,

HOORAY! A clear dark sky!

This was my first visit to Wiruna, the dark sky site of the Astronomical Society of New South Wales (many thanks to Alex Comino for organizing my stay there 😉 ). This was the stomping ground of Scott Mellish, and it was such a great experience to meet some of his friends up there. He is so sorely missed.

Conditions started marvelously. Using my 17.5” dob, my first squiz of M16, had me gasping “There it is! There’s the Eagle!” So clear was the dark pillar system. So much so that I could also make out the distinct highlighted leading edge of the pillars! Even with an OIII filter! So cool!

This sketch of the Eagle took around two hours to complete.

It was also my first use of another treasure of an eyepiece, a Unitron 16mm Konig eyepiece. What a marvelous eyepiece! Not as long in eyerelief as newer eyepieces, but the image is one of the brightest I’ve seen, and easily has a 70* FOV.

Object: M16, The Eagle Nebula

Scope: 17.5” f/4.5 dob, push pull

Gear: Unitron 16mm Konig, 125X, + OIII filter, 33.6’ AFOV

Date: 2’nd June, 2011

Location: Wiruna, Ilford, Australia

Materials: White pastel, black & white charcoal pencils and white ink on A4 size black paper

Cheers,

Alex M.

The Whirlpool Welcomes a New Visitor

Object Name : M51, SN2011DH
Object Type : Face-on Galaxy, Supernova
Location : South Korea
Date : June 5th, 2011
Telescope : 15inch Discovery Dobsonian
Media : Black paper, White conte, White pastel

Nightwid (Cho Kang Uk)

Hi all, Supernova SN2011DH was easy to observing.
And I saw beautiful arms and bridge.. Because seeing is very good!

17.5″, 3 Hours, and the Eta Carina Nebulae

Hi all,

Scope time has been very scarce this year. This sketch was done in April.

Encouraged by my attempt at Eta Carina through my 8″ dob, I trained my 17.5″ dobbie at the same target, again from Sydney.

This time, I also used my Grand Daddy of all eyepieces, a 35mm Masuyama. A bit long for this f/4.5 scope, but my only OIII filter was a 1.25″.

Eta Carina is not only huge, it is a very busy place. There are multiple shockwaves within it, masses of star formation both just initiated in the form of dark pillars, of those whose nuclear fires have just kicked in, nebulae within nebulae, and a super massive star about to go supernova.

This magnificent NASA site shows all of these details.

Again, the Homunculus Nebula is too small at 57X, but the supermassive star, Eta Carina, it is associated with is the bright reddish one.

Armed with a battery of sketching implements, the result of 3hrs is below. Ooooohhh, I am going to have soooooo much fun redoing this one at a dark sky site!

Scope: 17.5″ f/4.5 dob
Gear: 35mm Masuyama, 57X, OIII filter
Date: April 8, 2011
Location: Sydney
Media: white pastel, white & black charcoal pencils, white chinagraph, white and coloured ink on black A4 size paper

Cheers,

Alex M.

A Lunar Sketching Duet

Dale Holt of the UK and I have sketched from across the Atlantic in the past more or less at the same time and even on the same target. This past week it was all different as we met in Phoenix, Arizona and for five, dark, dry, transparent nights observed on the Peralta trail road near the base of the SuperstitionMountains not far from Apache Junction. Following crescent moonsets each night we scrutinized many deep sky targets up to the predawn hours and beyond on one occasion. This was possible as my daughter Michelle generously provided her two Dobsonian telescopes for our use all week. Back at our respective home observing sites, we are thankful to get that rare, clear transparent observing night but for this entire week, we never encountered a single cloud daytime or night time and fantastic transparency around the clock.
A highlight of our week together was lunch with Jeremy Perez in Flagstaff, during a day trip to northern Arizona.
On the last night of our observing, it was time to sketch the first quarter Moon and this time side by side from our base in Mesa, Az. Dale chose for his sketching target the lunar Alps including the front range from Promontorium Agassiz past P. Deville to Mons Blanc and including Mons Piton out on Mare Imbrium. Dale used the ten-inch Orion dob. telescope f/ 4.7 with a 9mm Ortho.eyepiece. Note the long shadows extending from the peaks and pointing towards the terminator, an awesome view in the eyepiece. I used the six- inch dob. telescope f/ 7, a 12mm Plossl eyepiece, and my targets were the three craters Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel along the terminator further on to the south.
If you have the opportunity to do a sketching duet, do not pass up the great opportunity; it can be great fun as we quickly discovered.

Sketching:
Dale Holt
White pastel on black Daler Rowney paper at 133 x

Frank McCabe
Graphite on white recycled Strathmore sketching paper at 89 x

Time: 9 June 2011 beginning 04:25 UT we finished in about an hour
Lunar information:
Lunation: 7.3 day old Moon
Illumination: 51.2%
Co-longitude: 4.1°
Phase 88.6°

Frank McCabe

A Globular Offering from the Altar

Hi all,

We’ve had some poor conditions in Eastern Australia for most of this year. I still haven’t had a single productive dark sky night yet! Last night it did clear, but for home, and on a Sunday evening! J LOL!

NGC 6397 is a real treasure of the Southern Sky. This globular cluster is just visible to the naked eye from a dark site. It has many mottled concentrations of stars within its confines, even some extending way beyond its core. Some of these, however, may just be incidental line of site features of other open clusters within our Milky Way as 6397 lies quite close to the centre of the Milky Way in the constellation Ara.

6397 also shares a feature with its more famous brother M4 of a “belt” of stars that cuts through its middle. The component stars of this belt in 6397 are much fainter though, making for a ghostly feature. It is a truly beautiful cluster, and a joy to sketch.

One thing I am not a fan of in my sketches is the blaster “Circle of Confine”, that all to dominant circle that describes the field of view. I rarely use it, but I do have to admit that it has a place. Here I’ve gone for a variation/compromise, laying down a very, very faint arc, rather than a full circle. I really want the sketch to be the feature, not a circle.

Object: NGC 6397
Scope: 17.5” dob, push-pull
Gear: 15mm GSO Superview, 133X
Date: June 5, 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Media: White soft pastel, white & black charcoal & white ink on A4 size black paper.

Cheers,

Alex M.

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

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.

Sunrise at Rainbow Bay

Object Name Sinus Iridium
Object Type Lava plain on the Moon
Location Deventer, the Netherlands
Date April 13, 2011
Media White pastel on black paper

I have made a pastel sketch of one of the features on the Moon which beauty always strikes me whenever it’s visible: Sinus Iridium (Bay of Rainbows). It is a very large feature and always looks very nice in even the smallest telescopes. On that evening of April 13 the Sun’s angle was just right to give the surface that gradient view: dark near Montes Jura with a gradual brightening towards the west. A few rilles were also visible. It was a very pretty sight through my 300mm f/4 truss Dob using a 5mm HR Planetary eyepiece (240x). The sky was a bit hazy while I made the sketch, but the seeing was great.

Kind regards,

Roel Weijenberg
www.roelblog.nl

Galaxy with a Grand Design

NGC 2997
Galaxy
Antlia
01/01/11
Iford NSW Australia
56cm f5 dobsonian telescope
Field: 27′
Magnification: 218x
Sky quality meter reading: 21:70

Black Canford paper
White pen
White pastel pencil
White pastel chalk
Blending stump
Paint brush

NGC 2997 has a certain sentimental value for me. Many years ago when I
first got a chance to look through a large dobsonian telescope it just
happened to be the first galaxy
that I was able to see spiral structure in, goes to show that on some
occasions there is no substitute for sheer aperture.

The only drawback with trying to sketch this elegant galaxy from my
location is that when it is at the zenith it is right up in Dobson’s
hole, making for some very
precarious conditions for sketching atop my observing platform.

Despite the balancing act the sketch came out reasonably well. Subtle,
somewhat large and diffuse spirals can be tricky to portray accurately.

NGC 2997 was discovered by William Herschel in 1793, and it lies about
25million light years away.
The plane of the galaxy from our vantage point is about 45°, so imagine
the view if it was directly face on.

Scott Mellish

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.

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.

Cheers,

Alex M.