Category: Charcoal

Connecting the Two Galaxies

Object Name (M51)
Object Type (Galaxy)
Naxxar, Malta
April 2nd, 2011 @ 22:38UT
Graphite pencil, charcoal, blenders, white paper, scanned and inverted using GIMP)

M51 under averted vision.
200mm SCT, f/10, 25mm, eyepiece, 81x, binoviewer, light pollution filter.

On April 2nd, 2011 I spent an hour observing this magnificent Messier object. I have produced the sketch using graphite pencils and blenders on white paper, scanned and inverted the digital image using GIMP. It is based on the intensity sketch shown below drawn at the eyepiece under averted vision.

I wanted to portray the ‘ghostly’ appearence of the two galaxies to mimic the actual eyepiece view. Most of the observing time was spent detecting under averted vision the very faint streak that connects the two galaxies as well as the spiral arms.

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.

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.

A Scarp, a Wall or a Sword

2010 10 16, 2351 UT – 2010 10 17, 0142 UT Rupes Recta
PCW Memorial Observatory, OH, USA, Erika Rix
Zhumell 16”, 20mm TV, 3x Barlow, 270x mag, 13% T moon filter
Temp: 7°C, 59% humidity, S: Antoniadi II, T: 2.5/6
Sketch created scopeside with Rite in the Rain paper and charcoal.

Phase: 65.2°
Lunation: 9.33d
Illumination: 70.9%
Lib. Lat: -3°50’
Lib. Long: +2°56’
Az: 209°37’, Alt: 32°06’

Rupes Recta: Scarp, 7.7° W, 22°S
Imbrian period (-3.8 billion yrs to –3.2 billion yrs)
Length: ~110 km, Height: 240-300 m, Apparent Width: 2.5 km

Located in Mare Nubium, this scarp, also known as the Straight Wall, was
apparent by the shadow cast from illumination from the east. The shadow
wasn’t very wide, but rather narrow and smudging to the west. The
eastern side of it was crisp and sharp. During the waning phase, this
same feature would appear as a white line from the illumination coming
from the west. The slope incline is ~30-40° (ref. Virtual Moon Atlas).
For a good comparison between the waning and waxing phases for this
feature, please have a look at this site:
http://www.astrosurf.com/lunascan/Rupesr.htm

Lightened areas around Birt (Copernician period) made a path from the
crater to the fault, showing off Birt A as well as a “V” shaped area
nestled between Birt and the companion craters K, J, and H (you will
have to look at an atlas for those craters as I wasn’t able to see them
during my observation last night).

The ridges to the south of Rupes Recta formed what I always pictured as
a scoop, make the ridge and the fault look like a ladle. Funny that a
woman should think of it a ladle whereas 17th century selenographer
Christiaan Huygens reckoned it looked more like a sword (ref. Modern
Moon, page 147). A lightened area to the south (top of the scarp in my
sketch from last night) outlined the circular ridge of Thebit S. It’s a
pity it wasn’t more defined during my observation. What I found very
interesting to observe was the darkened cirlce that Rupes Recta and the
wrinkle ridges to the west formed. I believe the ridges to the east
outline the ancient crater that Chuck Wood dubbed Ancient Thebit in the
Modern Moon.

Rima Birt looked more like a thin shadow than a rille. Looking back to a
sketch I rendered in 2005 using an LX200 Classic, not only was this
rille visible, but I also caught Birt E, which I didn’t see during last
night’s observation.

Resources
Rukl plate: 54 Birt
“The Modern Moon” by C. Wood pg. 146-147
Lunar Orbiter:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_orbiter/bin/info.shtml?300

Best regards,
Erika Rix
www.pcwobservatory.com

The Double Cluster and a Comet

Object : Comet 103P/Hartley and Open Clusters NGC 884 / NGC 869
Date : October 07, 2010
Time : 19:00-20:00 LST / 02:00-03:00 UT
Location : Wittmann, Arizona USA
Medium : Charcoal pencils, fine markers, painting brush, windows paint for inversion and color touch up, white paper.
Magnitude : comet-( ~7,5 or 8) open clusters combined magnitude of ( 4.2)
Weather : New Moon!, dark and clear skies, no clouds, no winds, ambient temperature of 85 deg. F.

Comments :
I finally gave it a try to sketch this all inclusive view of the Double Cluster and comet Hartley. The naked eye open clusters of NGC 869 and NGC 884 are clearly visible, but the elusive comet 103P/ Hartley is still a bit of a challenge to notice without the aid of binoculars or a rich field telescope. Comet Hartley is so diffused it was reported to have a 31 arcminute coma as of the date of this report. Depending on how much light pollution you are pestered with, that might keep you from seeing the comet in its entirety- or you may be looking at only the brighter portion of the nucleus. Speaking of brightness, I was able to compare its magnitude to some defocused stars nearby and I conclude to estimate it at 7.5 or 8. Obviuosly not a naked eye object, just yet! It would’ve been nice to detect the color but the diffused nature of comet Hartley doesn’t bring out the green hue comets are associated with. Right now only in photographs will you enjoy that treat.

The Double Cluster with an average magnitude of 4.2 is best appreciated under the view of binoculars. From the city, it’s hard to notice the the faint misty glow, but from rural areas, it stand out almost immeadiately if not with averted vision. Through the binoculars or a 4 to 6 inch telescope the clusters show their true beauty. Mostly composed of young blue stars, they also host a sprinkled few orange stars that add to the visual interest. Both are great low magnification targets to be admired. Keep looking, keep sketching, keep submitting, maybe comet Hartley has a surprise for us in the next few weeks!

Dark and clear skies,

Juanchin

A Collapsed Lava Tube

2010 08 29, 0820 UT Rima Hyginus
PCW Memorial Observatory, OH, USA, Erika Rix
Zhumell 16”, 20mm TV, 5x Barlow, 450x mag, 13% T moon filter
Temp: 12.8C, >90% humidity, S: Antoniadi I
Sketch created scopeside with Rite in the Rain paper and charcoal.

Phase: 307.3°
Lunation: 19.38d
Illumination: 80.3%
Lib. Lat: -6°04’
Lib. Long: -6°03’
Az: 260°08’, Alt: 34°57’

Rima Hyginus: Linear Rille, 7° E, 7.5° N
Imbrian period (-3.8 billion yrs to –3.2 billion yrs)
Dimension: ~226 km, Height: unknown
Named after Caius Julius Hyginus, 2nd century BC Greek Astronomer

http://www.lpod.org/archive/archive/2004/02/LPOD-2004-02-25.htm
“The key to understanding the origin of Hyginus is probably the small
pit craters visible in the rille on the northwest (left) side of
Hyginus. These pits almost certainly formed by collapse of the roof over
a lava tube.”

A lot of the features were washed out surrounding the rille, but the
flat floor of Hyginus was evident as well as its irregular shape. I
could make out some of the pits to the northwest half of the rille and a
couple hints of the craterlets (or pits) to the southeast half. The
subtle variances in albedo were difficult to render, however,
interesting to observe. If I remember correctly, the dark patch to the
north of H consists of volcanic ash.

While searching for information on this rille, I came across yet another
amazing image from Wes Higgins. The pits Chuck Wood wrote about in the
article above are clearly shown.
http://www.higginsandsons.com/astro/Pictures-iin-templets/Rima-Hyginus-08-03-07.htm

Resources
Rukl plate 34
“The Modern Moon” by C. Wood pgs. 58-59
LPOD:
http://www.lpod.org/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=search&type=full&search=rima+hyginus

Erika Rix

Geminus and Bernoulli

2010 08 26, 0737 UT Geminus and Bernoulli
PCW Memorial Observatory, OH, USA, Erika Rix – www.pcwobservatory.com
Zhumell 16”, 12mm Burgess, 2x Barlow, 300x mag, 13% T moon filter
Temp: 15.1C, > 90% humidity, S: Antoniadi III-I
Sketch created scopeside with Rite in the Rain paper and charcoal.

Phase: 342.4°
Lunation: 16.19d
Illumination: 97.6%
Lib. Lat: -5°48’
Lib. Long: -2°06’
Az: 206°48’, Alt: 46°49’

*Geminus:* complex crater, 56.7° E, 34.5°N
Eratosthenian Period (-3.2 billion yrs to –1.1 billion yrs)
Dimension: ~88×52 km, Height: 5400 km
Named after Geminus of Rhodes. Depending on which reference you use, he
was said to have lived in 70 BC or in 50 AD (or thereabouts) and was a
mathematician and astronomer.

Although this is a circular formation, it appears oblong because of an
effect called foreshortening caused by its position near the limb. Even
the central ridge appears offset from the midpoint of the crater floor.
The moon filter helped bring out more details not only in the terraced
walls of the crater but also the extensive ejecta and formations
surrounding Geminus. An area of interest is northern rim of the crater.
In the sketch, there are two bright circular areas representing notches
that I first believed were craters. The rim itself appeared well-defined
and very sharp.

Geminus C (16×16 km) is located just southeast of Geminus and Messala A
(26×26 km) is located a little further to the northwest.

*Bernoulli: *crater, 60.7° E, 45° N
Upper Imbrian period (-3.8 billion yrs to –3.2 billion yrs)
Dimension: ~49×49 km, Height: 4000 km
Named after Jacques Bernoulli, 17th century Swiss mathematician and
physicist

The central mountain in this crater was visible just outside of the
encroaching shadow. The terraced southern rim appears to spill into the
outer surroundings and the northern edge seemed to plateau connecting
like a bridge to Bernoulli A.

The full report can be found here:
2010 08 26, Geminus and Bernoulli

Erika Rix

Timocharis

Timocharis
Timocharis Crater
Erika Rix

2010 06 21, 0300 UT
Timocharis
PCW Memorial Observatory, OH, USA
Erika Rix
Zhumell 16”, 8mm TV Plossl, 225 x

Phase: 64.8
Lunation: 8.66. d
Illumination: 71.3%
Lib. Lat: 7°30’
Lib. Long: 4°47’
Az: 215°14’, Alt: 27°21’

This complex crater has a crushed central relief and the area was completely enveloped with shadow. I could make out some of the western terraced walls within the crater. Heinrich (9.5 km), B (5 km) and C (4 km), were very clear as well as a small portion of the wrinkle ridge to the southeast. Timocharis was formed ~ 3.2 to 1.1 billion years ago during the Erathosthenian period. Height is estimated to be 3110 meters. Faint small rays can be spotted with decent seeing conditions.

Sketched scopeside on black Strathmore Artagain paper, charcoal, black wax pencil, white Conte’ crayon and pencils.

Video Assisted Messier 66

Sketch of Messier 66

Messier 66
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt
Hover cursor over image to view the original negative sketch.

On the evening of Monday 15th I had meant to go after more elusive prey but as my telescope GOTO isn’t very accurate and I therefore I need to star hop from the park position to my quarry I couldn’t help but stop off at M66 (as I was passing that way 🙂 to see how it looked with the 20″ & Watec 120N camera.
The view was stunning so there I stopped & sketched, the sky deteriorated quickly dropping to around mag 2 by the time I had completed my sketch. I took a look at nearby NGC2628, impressive & huge it stretched the full width of my b&w monitor plus a little more and resembled an old ‘British Rail’ sandwich with the upper slice curling up and exposing the filling at each end 🙂 no sketch I knew the poor sky outside was hiding much detail so I will need to return on a clearer evening.

Warm regards, Dale

Telescope: 505mm F3.7 Newtonian
Watec 120N video camera + 0.5x focal reducer giving real time image on 14″ b&w TV monitor.
Sketch made with graphite pencil & charcoal onto white paper, blending stumps used. Drawing scanned & Inverted

Location Chippingdale Observatory, NE Hertfordshire, UK

Observer Dale Holt