Twilight Globular

Messier 5 Globular Cluster
Messier 5 Globular Cluster

Object Name: Messier 5
Object Type: Globular cluster
Location: Deventer, The Netherlands
Date: June 2, 2014
Media: White pastel and white gel pen on black paper

This time of year the sun never drops low enough under the horizon for
true astronomical darkness. Only after midnight we get a few hours of
relatively dark skies, but a faint blue glow always remains visible
above the northern horizon. However, bright objects can still be very
impressive in the eyepiece. Messier 5 is a fine example: a very bright
ball of stars, loosely scattered amidst a few dozen foreground stars.
When I made this sketch, the sun was only 12 degrees below the horizon.
What is very striking visually is the off-center core of M5. The
brightest part seems to be slightly to the west of the cluster.

I made the sketch using a white gel pen for the stars and a white soft
pastel pencil for the glow of unresolved stars. It was the first time I
made a positive deepsky sketch, normally I use graphite on white paper.
The image is the original field sketch.

Clear skies!

Roel Weijenberg
www.roelblog.nl

M78, A profile of tropical fish

Messier 78, Reflection nebula
Messier 78, Reflection nebula

Hi everyone!

I observed M78 &34 in Nov. midnight with my 15″ Dob.

While I drew M78, I reminded of tropical fish, it’s side face 🙂

The nebulousity of NGC 2071 is shine dimly.

Where does this tropical fish came from?

Deep cosmos? Deep see? or My eyes? 🙂

Object Name : M78
Object Type : Reflection Nebula
Location : S. Korea
Date : Nov. 11, 2013
Media : Black paper, Jelly pen, Pastel pencel

M53 Globular Cluster

Messier 53 Globular Cluster
Messier 53 Globular Cluster

Object Name: M 53 (NGC 5024)
Location: RA: 13h 12m 55.2s; Dec: +18° 10′ 08″
Magnitude: 7.7
Dimensions: 13′
Constellation: Coma Berenice
Type: Globular Cluster
Description: GC, B, vC, iR, vvmbM, star 12.
Location: Viso del Marqués. Ciudad Real. SPAIN
Date: May 3, 2014.
Time: 00:15 UT.
Material used: pastel pencils on black paper.
Celestron Telescope S / C 8 “Mount Cgt-5
Eyepiece: ES 14mm 100Âş;
Magnification: 145x.
Condition: NEML: 5’6 (Zone 11 Bootes).

More information: http://astrodibujo.blogspot.com.es/

Lunar Terminator Near to the Western Limb

LunarTerminator West Limb-February 25, 2013
LunarTerminator West Limb-February 25, 2013
LunarTerminator West Limb-February 25, 2013
LunarTerminator West Limb-February 25, 2013

Lunar Terminator Near to the Western Limb

On Sunday evening I was getting a wonderful view of the lunar terminator near the western limb just a half day before full Moon. The favorable longitudinal libration of -04° 40’ was creating an opportunity to see craters along the terminator that are often poorly placed for viewing.
With storms on the way from the southwest this was a good evening to attempt a sketch. The calm before the arrival of storms often leaves the seeing fair to good as was the case on this night. Craters such as Vasco da Gama (99 km.), Bohr (73 km.), Dalton (63 km.), Balboa (71 km.) and part of Einstein (175 km.) were all seen. Craters Cardanus (51 km.) and Krafft (53 km.) and the crater chain (catena) between them were in bright sunlight. The views all along the terminator were magnificent.
Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper (9” x 12”), white and black Conte’
pastel pencils. In addition a small artist’s brush and powdered Conte’ white crayon was used for blending. Contrast was slightly increased (+2) using a scanner to better match the original.
Telescope: 13.1 inch f/ 5.9 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 327 X
Date: 02-25-2013, 04:00-06:30 UT
Temperature: 0.0° C (32° F)
Partly cloudy, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 86.9 °
Lunation 14.87 days
Illumination 99.5 %

Frank McCabe

Three days in the life of crater Philolaus

Philolaus Crater
Philolaus Crater

Three nights in a row clear sky, it doesn’t happen a lot in cloudy Belgium. I guess I was just lucky. Nice to see the changing shadows and libration. I hope you like it too.

Clear skies
Jef De Wit

Object: Philolaus (+ Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Mouchez and Poncelet)
Object type: lunar crater
Location: Hove, Belgium (51°09’ N 4°28’ E)
Date and time: 11-13 January 2014
Equipment: 8 cm refractor (WO Zenithstar 80 FD)
Eyepiece: 3,5 mm Nagler T6 (158x)
Medium: white, gray and black pastel pencils on black paper, scanned, contrast
adjustments with Paint Shop Pro, compilation and text with Paint

Geminid’s Rain

Geminid Meteor Shower - December 14, 2013
Geminid Meteor Shower – December 14, 2013

Object Name (Geminids)
Object Type (Meteor shower )
Location (Provence France)
Date (14 dec 2013)
Media (graphite pencil, watercolor, white paper, digital inversion )

From 4UT just after the moonset, I was observing one hour looking around the Leo area.
I begin to sketch the sky region where I was looking, +/- 45° from the radiant. We can see the Leo and the red Mars underneath.
Each time a meteor was burning out I put the trace on my white paper link with the estimated magnitude. Let says one minute after, because already years ago, I realized that sometime a meteor is following shortly by another one, just on the same track, like a double meteor. This morning I saw 42 Geminids and 2 sporadic’s, I don’t sketch the sporadic meteor here. The speed was quite low and the magnitudes quite brilliant.
The small village where I’m don’t care about light pollution, ok then, I use this to sketch the Christmas street decoration like it is.
Here follows my result of the watch,
December 14, 2013 (Val d’Issole, France)
Longitude 006 degrees 05′ 25″ East,
Latitude 43 degrees 18′ 15″ North.
UT Period Field Teff LM GEM SPO
4:00-5:05 60SSE 1.00 5.20 42 2

Total Meteors: 44
Magnitude Distributions:
Shower  -5  -4  -3  -2  -1   0   1   2   3   4   5

GEM      0   0   2   4   5   5   6  10   8   2   0
SPO      0   0   0   1   0   1   0   0   0   0   0

Based on this, my ZHR observation reaches 250!

It was a nice watch, a wonderful spectacle indeed.

Clear sky to you all

Michel Deconinck
http://astro.aquarellia.com/

The Art of Line

Messier 34
Messier 34

Hi everyone!

I observed M34 in Nov. midnight with my 15″ Dob.

The center of M34 has big & bright ‘Y’ shape, and many lines follow the ‘Y’!

It is very impressive and huge.

I drew all of the stars in my eyepiece through two nights.

But I couldn’t express M34 perpectly..

Who makes this fantastic star chains?

God? or My eyes? 🙂

Object Name : M34
Object Type : Open Cluster
Location : S. Korea
Date : Nov. 11, 2013
Media : Black paper, Jelly pen, Pastel pencil

Jupiter from November 4, 2011

Jupiter - November 4, 2011
Jupiter – November 4, 2011

Dear Asod,

I send you here attached my sketch of Jupiter made on 5th November 2011. Although the seeing was not so good I was able to see fine details I have not seen before, so that was a lucky day. I have even seen the colour so I decided to make my sketch with colour pastel pencil.

Equipment used: 130/650 SW, 130x
Date: 4th November 2011
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Media: brown shades of pastel pencils used on white paper.

dr. Hannák Judit

Saturn and Enceladus

Saturn and Enceladus- June 20, 2013
Saturn and Enceladus – June 20, 2013

I have not sketched Saturn this go around until now because of extremely poor weather so far this year. On Wednesday evening the atmosphere cooperated and I had a scope outside cooling down. I did not have access to any Saturn templates because of a computer crash. So I took out my old mechanical drawing equipment and made an ellipse of the approximate eccentricity of Saturn’s rings and sketched from there. It’s a bit crude but reasonably close to the view. Seeing was good and the atmosphere was transparent. I was able to see Mimas but it was just beyond the way I framed the sketch for posting. Enceladus was about 12th magnitude.

Sketching:
Date: 06/20/2013, 01:45 – 02:45 UT
Sky Conditions: Partly cloudy
Transparency: 3/5
Seeing: Pickering 7/10
For sketching I used 10” x 12” Canson black paper, white, gray, charcoal and black pastel pencils, powdered Conte’ crayons, white Pearl eraser, blending stumps.
Equipment: 18” f/4.95 Dobsonian with a 9mm ortho eyepiece for 250 x.
Neodymium filter and single polarizing filter
Frank McCabe