SwiMatt

Are there other filters (e.g. colored filters) that are suggested for observation in white light? I'm planning buy a Baader ASTF very soon!

Absolutely right @josefk! I like coming on this side of the forum and getting inspired by what other people are doing. For me, it makes it feel like more of a community, if that makes sense - we exchange views and reports in a way that wouldn't be fully possible without sketching. Although the M44 you posted yesterday was from another universe (in terms of quality at least)

This won't last... 58 N is a terrible latitude to be doing astronomy during summer... 🥲

The seeing was quite poor here tonight, but I got a nice view of the Beehive, first through binoculars and then at the lowest magnification that my Mak allows - 60x. The building in which I live gave me an assist and protected my view from the moonlight. I ended my (cold!!) evening with a binocular look at the feet of Gemini where I think I glimpsed a washed out M35, and then found the Cheshire Cat in Auriga, but couldn't see any of the clusters in there.

After Joe's inspiring sketch, I wanted to give a go to M44 myself. The Beehive (or Praesepe according to Romans) was my first "real" deep sky object after the easy Pleiades. I remember like it was yesterday when I tracked it down with binoculars, one week into the hobby. A year later, tonight, there it was showing its beauty in my Mak (at an excessive 60x - but I don't have longer eyepieces) and I picked up my trusted HB pencil to draw it. Lots of fainter stars needed averted vision to pop in my field of view - the Moon is behind my building but its effects could be felt. Here's the inverted image. I find that I prefer sketching open clusters in pencil, while I will keep white-on-black techniques for more nebulous objects.

Thanks! I want to give this a go next time the Moon is visible from my balcony. I really like the way your sketch looks!

Nice sketch! I really like the way the highlights pop. Do you draw on black paper? Are the black shadows just the paper coming through, or are you also using the black pastel? And are you using pastel pencils for the fine details?

Such a lovely idea and sketch, @josefk! I really like the composition. I can also imagine how complicated it must have been! Great work!

Very beautiful sketch!

I wish the Moon was available from my balcony tonight. Unfortunately after a few amazing nights, now it's behind my building and tonight I was too tired to get elsewhere. I still managed to bag M38, M36 and M37, not without frustration. I had to search at 100x to increase contrast 🤣 Seeing was decent and it gave me some OK views at 166x !

I confirm! I kind of already forgot my first time on Saturn (I had owned a telescope for a few months when I saw it first)... but my first views of the Pleiades the night my binoculars arrived and the Beehive the night after, those are etched in my memory!

Can't wait to be rich so I can buy that star tracker without second thoughts 😂

Yesterday night I took some time to sketch the busy area including Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel, and down below the trio Purbach, Regiomontanus and Walther. The 6 big craters together formed a pretty tiara on the terminator. The sketch isn't super good, but it was a tough (and beautiful!) one. (Date and time of the sketch are included on the page, but I only clipped the sketch in the pic)

No aurora for me here in Sweden (I went to bed way too early anyway), but I caught some marvelous views of the Moon and sketched Ptolomaeus et al. from my balcony. Each night feels like it could be the last of the season - as I seldom can stay up very late to observe...

I will go find the movie to understand this better, but your analogy seems already funny to me