Starry Blossoms and Ocean Clusters

[Qualia]

The nights have come on. A dewy freshness has filled the silent air and for many evenings this week there has been no mist, cloud or moon to obscure the serene nights.

This week I've been visiting galaxies, soaring tens of millions of light years to those mysterious, starry blossoms of the night sky. And even though their distance is beyond my comprehension and what goes on within their timeless swirls beyond my most disturbing dreams, there they are in the still. Words fail me, they fade and all that I feel is tranquility and awe. I also had time to make a couple of gorgeous cluster sketches set within the slow, chilly ocean of our own galaxy.

[jetstream]

Great sketches Rob, can't wait to see some of this stuff again. The new location seems to be working for you ( in between the clouds!)

[estwing]

Just wow....nice to see your getting time at the eyepiece...

[cotterless45]

Double wow from here !

Nick.

[Astro Imp]

Great stuff Rob, you really are getting the hang of this sketching lark.

Well done and thanks for posting.

[Qualia]

Thank you for the kind comments It was a nice week and this week looks equally as good. It's clear out tonight but it's already 1.30am and I've only just eaten and feel a little shattered after work. Probably leave it for tonight and hope for some clear skies tomorrow evening I'm not too bothered though, for I know the sun will shine tomorrow and I'm a little intrigued as to see how that huge sun spot continues to develop.

Thanks again everyone

[Scooot]

I'm a bit late seeing these but smashing sketches again. I wonder why the uhc s helped the galaxy view, that looked tremendous.

[Special K]

Lovely sketches, Qualia, thanks again.  I'm curious, do you sketch white on black paper or invert the colors when saving as a picture? 

[DeepSkyBagger]

Lovely sketches. Good work.

[Ruud]

You're an artist, Rob. I love these sketches. On average, how long do you take to complete one?

[Qualia]

I'm curious, do you sketch white on black paper or invert the colors when saving as a picture? 

Yes, I sketch on white paper and invert the image. I typically use a CD disc to make the circle. A 4B pencil for the stars and a blending stub or shammy cloth for the faint smudges. To make the larger stars shine a little more, rather than press harder with the pencil, I prefer to shade around them a little with the blending stub.

Sometime during the week I will scan the sketches into the computer. I use grey scale, set at 600pp, with brightness reduced to -40 and contrast increased to +40. I will then use Gimp to cut out the circle and place it on a solid black background, while doing this the image is inverted and reduced to 820-500 size, for the scan is simply too big.

Rarely will much else be needed. Perhaps a star has been smudged and needs to be tidied, perhaps the sketch demands a very colourful star like in the example below of NGC 584 and this will be coloured in.

Finally, I use the Paint.net program to write in the words, why? Because I haven't figured how to do that with Gimp

Thanks again, for your kind words and support

You're an artist, Rob. I love these sketches. On average, how long do you take to complete one?

You're very kind, Ruud but it's not true! Everyone can sketch little dots and a smudge - even me!

It's difficult to answer with anything solid. Once the object has been found, it typically dances before the eye as it slowly materialises with increased dark adaptation, averted vision, and just time spent at the eyepiece.

When I first centre my telescope on a galaxy, for example, it's generally easy to spot but will appear as nothing more than an indistinct blob. Overtime, perhaps the outer edges of the galaxy begin to emerge, particularly if I use averted vision. Moving the eye around may bring dust lanes into view, defocussing the image, may increase the cores brightness.

Gradually, overtime an entire observation can be built up out of numerous, smaller, more detailed glimpses of structure. The galaxy doesn't ever appear as a detailed composite view all at once. Never. So, in effect, these sketches are the accumulation of discrete observations.

Unlike galaxies or nebulae, open clusters typically reveal themselves almost immediately. Their tricky component is plotting the stars which can take ages and is one of the reason I don't do to many.

Regarding time, something simple like 1056, may take around 20 minutes but something more complex like M33, may take anything up to an hour or more at the eyepiece. And if I was to do something like M 42, I would probably do the sketch over a number of nights, gradually building up what the eye can see. Due to the time it takes, and being a rather exhausting process (especially for the eye), I'll probably do a sketch or two a night.

Thanks again for your kind words, but seriously, I'm no artist. I can't draw hands or faces, but a grey smudge is within my capabilities

[Scooot]

Gradually, overtime an entire observation can be built up out of numerous, smaller, more detailed glimpses of structure. The galaxy doesn't ever appear as a detailed composite view all at once. Never. So, in effect, these sketches are the accumulation of discrete observations.

So it's a bit like the sketching equivalent of stacking. -

Great information!