Category: reflection

Southern Beauty

Object Name: Eta Carina Nebula (NGC3372)
Object Type: Nebulae
Location: Itajobi – SP – Brazil
Date: 30/12/2010 – 05h15min U.T.
Media: 0.5mm 2B graphite pencil on white paper, scanned and inverted.

Telescope: 180mm f/D=6 reflector, dob. mount.
Eyepieces: Antares Plössl 10mm; GSO Super Plössl 32mm (as seen in the picture).
Barlow: GSO three-element 2.5x
Turbulence: 3/5 (regular).
Seeing: 4/5 (good).
Fair wind, no clouds, high temperatures.

If you are allowed to point your telescope (or even a bino) toward south, you’ll be able to see this stunning deep sky object. I was waiting Saturn to rise, the sky was nice, cloudless. I had observed this object sometimes before, without knowing its name. That night I decided to sketch it, so I could search for its name later. Positioning each star was surely the hardest part. I’ve observed it from my backyard, not thoroughly dark, but enough to see incredible features, specially using the barlow lens. The Keyhole Nebula, inside Eta Carina Nebula, was amazing. That’s the way I like to sketch: knowing nothing about the object in advance, not to influence the register. I prefer researching about it after observing, it’s much more pleasant. I hope you enjoy it, I loved the image I’ve seen.

Clear sky to all,
Rodrigo Pasiani Costa.

Hind’s Variable Nebula

NGC 1555
“Hind’s Variable Nebula”
Reflection Nebula
Taurus
11/12/10
Ilford NSW Australia
56cm f5.0 dobsonian telescope
Field: 29′
Magnification: 166x
Sky Quality Meter reading: 21:60

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

This somewhat mysterious reflection nebula was discovered by John Hind in 1852.
It began to fade in 1861 due to the wide fluctuations in brightness from the illuminating star T Tauri.
By 1868 it had disappeared from view to even the largest telescopes.
It was not observed again until 1890 when Edward Barnard and Sherburne Burnham managed to locate it.
Since the 1930s it has been gradually brightening but remains an observational challenge to deep sky observers.

In my 56cm dob the nebula could only just be seen as a diffuse patch about 1.0′ x 0.8′ in size just of to the lower right of T Tauri (top star).
Whether you can see it or not will depend on your monitor screen.

T Tauri is an irregular variable star around 600 ly away that can range from magnitude 9.0 to 14.0 in brightness.

I also noticed that the mag 8.4 star HD 27560 towards the bottom of the sketch seemed to have a very faint haze around it, which was either some light fog on the eyepiece, or the region around it may contain an amount of interstellar dust.

Incidentally a nebulosity was reported by Otto Struve in 1868 and known as “Struves Lost Nebula” in the vicinity of Hind’s Variable Nebula and given the catalogue number NGC 1554 by Dreyer.
The nebulosity was not seen by observers after Struve’s discovery and has not been located since.
Some Catalogues such as Sky Atlas 2000.0 group NGC 1554 and NGC 1555 together as a single object.
The Palomar Sky Survey plates do not show anything at the reported position.
It is possible that the Lost Nebula may have been a transient portion of the reflection nebula in this section of the sky.

Scott Mellish

Small Mist Above the Horse Head

Short description:

Object Name M78 in Orion
Object Type Reflection nebula
Location Budy Dłutowskie – small village in central Poland
Date 04.01.2011
Media graphite pencil, white paper, color invert
Telescope Meade SCT 8” f/10 with 40mm Willam Optics SWAN
Seeing 3/5
Transparency 3/5
NELM 4,5 mag

When we think or talk about Orion constelation, we usually mention M42, Horsehead nebula or Flame nebula.
And we forgot about small mist above horsehead – M78.

You can observe it in 15×70 bino (maybe in 10×50 too but I haven’t tried) – it looks like small fog around two small central stars.
In 8” telescope you can observe the “bell” shape of this nebula which is little brighter on the edge.
Soon I will look at it through the 13” Newtonian and I expect quite impressive view.

Clear sky
Łukasz

Big Binocular Orion Nebula

Subject: big binocular M42

Hello Artists,all o.k.?I’m depressed about the weather..i hope in 4 of January for the partial Eclipse of Sun.
I made only one sketch,M42 made with my big bino Astrotech 25×100 behind my home.The night was very icely but the sky was great,the Nebula in the bino was spectacular , in one full field of stars….I hope,next day to continue my sketch with the stars of belt and Flame Nebula.At the end i made one “poster”of Orion!
Happy New Year at all.
Ciao,Giorgio.
.
Location:Pergola,10 December 2010 at 11,45 p.m. l.t.
Instrument: Big bino 25×100 (straight vision)on wood heavi trypod in steady mount
Seeing.Excelent
Temperature:Icely,no wind.
Technics:withe pastel and penn on black paper Fabriano 3.

Revisiting Two Old friends

Hi all,

Tonight I received one of my biggest and most pleasant surprises at the eyepiece. It wasn’t using a half metre + monster, nor from an especially dark site. Rather, it was using my nearly 30 year old 2” f/12 Tasco refractor, and from my home in Sydney!

Over a year ago I purchased an adaptor to allow me to use 1.25” eyepieces with this little refractor, with the idea of one day making it into a finder scope. Tonight I finally got to try it out, and dust off the little refractor after many years of being unused. What I didn’t expect was the image I was to see of M42. Even the eyepiece used was a modest Super Plossl 25mm.

When I first used this little telescope, all I could see of M42 was the inner core nebulosity that surrounds the Trapesium. Tonight, despite the extra light pollution, but with 30 years experience, and I guess better eyepieces than the original, DIDN’T I SEE DETAIL!!

I even managed to see the faint, nebulous glow that makes up the Running Man nebula too.

This is the first sketch I managed to do at the eyepiece, since my meeting with Scott Mellish, nearly 2 months ago!

Scott, many thanks again for showing me your amazing technique. It has changed the way I sketch DSO’s with a pencil, paper and a dry paint brush!

Gear: 2” f/12 thirty year old refractor
Eyepiece: 25mm Super Plossl, 24X
Filter: OIII
Media: white pastel, white and black charcoal on black paper
Date: 30th December 2010
Location: my backyard, Sydney

Alex M.

Head of the Seagull Nebula

Van den Berg 93
aka Sh2-292, RCW 2, Gum 1, the head of the Seagull nebula
emission and reflexion nebula
20’ x 20’ in Monoceros

Date of observation:

14 déc. 2010 02:58 UT

Length of observation:

30 min

Object position:

Alt: 30.1°, Az: 210.5°

Weather conditions:

V0/R10kmh t-4.6° hu56%

Observation conditions:

SQMZ 21.25(MW) SQML 21.11 (?!), FWMH 3.5″, mvl(UMi) 6.4 VI2, 6.6 VI4, T0.5 P1 S5/100 !

Observing site:

Observatoire des Baronnies Provençales (Southern French Alps)

Instrument:

TN 635 Dobson Obsession

Main eyepiece:

Televue Panoptic 24mm / Deepsky filter

Magnification:

130x

Observing notes:
Although my SQM and SQML gave rather low values, the sky was remarquably transparent. Light pollution is totally absent from the Observatoire des Baronnies Provençales, overall excellent conditions to observe a large and faint target.
vdB 93 is an interesting nebula because of its dark lanes from each part of its lighting star. With patience, they can be analysed and sketched with a lot of details.
Numerous stars are scattered in the halo, which presents a beautiful light blue, enhanced by the Deepsky filter.

Clear skies

Bertrand

The Great Gas Nebula in Orion

Hey!

I send you the central part of M. 42, “The great gas nebula in Orion”.
The greenish filaments of gas that surrounds the four stars. Theta Orionis is the most beautiful object you can see in the sky in both small and big telescopes! The central part of the nebula is so bright that it is easily seen with naked eyes in the middle of Orion’s sword.

I made this sketch with crayons (watercolours) on black paper.
The observation from outside Trondheim city, Norway.

Best wishes and dark sky to all artists!! MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

From Per-Jonny Bremseth.

Open Cluster with Heart and Soul Nebulae

The data of the drawing:
NGC 1027

Telescope: 7×50 binocular
Date: 11.25.2010

Observing Location: Zakany – Hungary, 46° 15′ N 16° 57’E elev.: 129m
This digital drawing preparated GIMP 2.6 programs.

Thank you for it!

Clear Sky !

Tamas Bognar

http://tamasasztro.haminfo.hu/

M42 and Her Companions

Object Name M42, M43 and NGC1977
Object Type Emission and Reflection Nebulaes
Location Budy Dłutowskie (near Lodz) in Poland
Date 01:00, 13th of November 2010
Media (graphite pencil, white paper, color invert)
Equipment: Binocular Celestron Skymaster 25×100
Observing conditions: Seeing 4/5; low light pollution (naked eye range – 6,2 mag)
Hi !
This is sketch of Messier 42 (Great Orion Nebula) and her companions M43 and ‘The Running Man’ (NGC 1977) in Orion Constellation.
During the observation through this big bino, arms of M42 are clearly visible. Structures inside the nebula are also visible but they are really really faint.
M43 and NGC 1977 are shapeless, lighter areas around nebulas central stars.

Greetings,
Łukasz