SwiMatt

Auriga was one of the first constellations that I got to know when I started my adventure as a visual astronomer back in Spring. Unfortunately I didn't manage to catch the open clusters there before summer, so I had to wait until now. It was quite cold outside, so of the three Messiers there I only found and sketched M36, using soft pastels on black paper for the first time. This was also my first skecth on the field - that is, not from my balcony where I have a table and every comfort.

I just went out for a little hour in the snow, at -10°C, hoping to be able to sketch some DSOs using pastels on black for the first time, but from my perspective everything was either hidden by trees or too high in the sky for sketching comfortably. Still, I caught some good views of the double cluster, M31 and M103 in Cassiopeia. Jupiter wasn't amazing, probably due to some haze lower on the horizon. The "nebulosity" of the Pleiades was a very nice sight for me who normally lives in a city

As a first test with pastels, I reproduced one of my earlier sketches of M71 (see linked thread). Not bad, although probably a bit more visible than I remember... https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/415928-noob-dsos/

It was quite hazy here yesterday, but when it cleared a bit I could find the Pleiades close to the full moon with the 10x50. But there was too much light to hope for much more. I'm spending 10 days under skies at Bortle 3-4, and of course the forecast is cloudy for the whole week to come...

I was just out. Despite the bad seeing (I couldn't push past 120x) the transit of Io was perceptible for me. It's my first transit I couldn't make out the Red Spot though. I also took some time on Saturn (better seeing in that direction, going up to 200x - barely acceptable though), and then added a couple of L100 objects to my list. I definitely need a filter for the Moon, it hurts my eye and I have a hard time focusing on any detail... Super chilly tonight!

Thank you @Nicola Fletcher! Sounds like I need another run to the art store... I'll let the others use their money on astronomy gear

I have to admit I'm still a bit intimidated by the Moon... What pastels did you use, just white on black? I never ever used soft pastels in my life, my drawing is so far limited to pen and ink or pencils! It's gonna be fun to experiment. I will definitely start from the Massey video, step after step, to get used to the whole process and medium... Either way, I'm just back from my favorite art store and I picked up some black paper, white pastel and a couple of charcoal pencil (white and black) to play with! 😍

Thank you @mikeDnight! I will try to make up a collection of sketches I want to replicate

Somehow my brain rejected the idea of sketching other sketches 😂 but indeed this might be the best way forward. Thank you for the resource @Nik271! I had seen that website some time ago when I was looking for sketches of the Messier objects - it's a wonderful source of inspiration.

Because the weather is so horrible all the time, I want to start training some sketching techniques for DSOs - notably I want to start learning and experimenting with the Mellish technique (for pastels on black paper). But here's the catch: most images of DSOs that can be found online are extremely far from the reality of visual astronomy - and are not ideal for training for the field. Do you know of any sources of images that bear some resemblance with what one might see in the eyepiece? One thing I am doing is to scour the astrophotography DSO forum of SGL, but it's a lot of variety and it takes a lot of time to find images that are interesting for this purpose. I also tried using Stellarium, but it's not particularly satisfactory for this.

Thank you! I never worked with pastels, while I have experience with pencils on white paper for non-astro sketching: that is why I went with this technique - but I don't exclude to try something else soon. For example, it's quite hard to get colors on the paper if one needs to invert (although orange becomes blue and viceversa, so we are covered at least for Albireo) 🤣

I guess learning is different for everybody, and maybe you just got the wrong books. As long as you enjoy the process, there is no shame 🤨🤩 Maybe all those things, but for me it's much more about learning to take my time with these objects. I suck at being patient and look for details, but if I'm sketching I will have to and will enjoy the process much more that pleasure alone is worth it!

Weirdly, I also believed that of myself until this summer... just sayin'

Thank you! Your appreciation means a lot 😄

I can't believe it! The forecast was finally right I was just out a couple of hours on my balcony. I managed some good views and sketches of M13, M57, IC4665, Albireo, M27, M29 and even M71. Light pollution is bad here (bortle 7-8) and my backyard is full of artificial lights, so what I can do is limited, but I'm really grateful for this session. Some objects were underwhelming (especially M27), but I'm loving small open clusters like M29 more and more! EDIT: I went out for a bit later and I got to split Epsilon Lyrae, in addition to spending some more time on Albireo. And also gave a good look at M39 with the 10x50. Great evening!

I just had a session on my balcony, and sketched some DSOs: I started from IC 4665 (not particularly overwhelming in the telescope, but good training), then found the open cluster M29 and the globular cluster M71. Here are the results, with inverted colors (I will need to use my scanner at work for better results on the inverting). It's only my second sketching session, so the results are still very rough, but I'm enjoying the process! EDIT: uploaded versions with better contrast.

The setup from my balcony facing West. The red lights is a temporary solution and it's a bit bright, but it's serving me well!

Absolutely right. And whatever recognition we could have will always be biased by our own culture and our own specific way of interpreting the spirituality of Nature. 4000 years and more are a hell of a long time, especially when it comes to human thought...

Just saw the clouds disappear just before sunset. It held until it got darker. I went out with the Mak, set it up and... 5 minutes with Jupiter before the clouds got back. I didn't even even the time to push past 100x. It looked very crisp too...

I didn't mean to forget or disparage pencil and charcoal at all! What I meant to convey, sloppily, is that pencils and charcoal are common tools in astro-sketching, while I haven't seen much with water colours and paint, which makes me want to try. You might not be an artist, but you are on a good way

Very interesting, thank you! Nice to see people experimenting with water colors and paint. And it add greatly to the effect

Great work! Was the wash uniform in value? And if yes, how did you manage to create variation in the color shading? Some parts of the wash seem darker than others!

Good to see Ruggles already cited here. If you manage to put your hands on his book "Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland", it contains a lot of valuable information and a good summary of his studies and of the state of the field at the end of the 90s (and it hasn't evolved too much, from what I can gather). I also urge you (as would Ruggles) to be careful on what sources you consult, since the field of archaeoastronomy is filled with extraordinary claims with very little evidence. Unfortunately, studying astronomical knowledge so far back in time is very very difficult (studying ANYTHING historical so far back in time is difficult). We lack the ethnographic sources to make sure inferences: we know basically nothing sure about religious and spiritual thinking of neolithic people. It is still a fascinating exercise to imagine what our ancestors thoughts when looking up, it's just hard to say anything factual - just a lot of hints and possibilities. One thing we know, is that they definitely looked at the stars This such an amazing subject, so good luck and I hope you'll enjoy your presentation!

The Moon is out now showing the beautiful Waning Crescent while I'm going to work. You know, just to remind me that new moon is close and the forecast looks aweful for weeks to come

Keep it classy please... Those of us who have been seeing only clouds for a month could start feeling offended by such bragging 😛