Lurcher

Wow. They are amazing. Worth the wait!

Ah blimey, that's frustrating! I hope you get an opportunity to get out soon with your new scope. (Even if it's to see the moon again; and hopefully when it's darker). Let us know when you do!

Hi thanks for your kind comments. And yes sorry I should have said, I drew it in pencil and shaded with one of those rubbing stumps, and then inverted the colours on the computer. Given more time it would be great to use both methods on the same object in the same evening; positive and negative, and then compare the results afterwards. Thanks!

I kept looking at the clear sky and seeing that the forecast was for rain and cloud for the next few days I decided to head out to make the most of it being a clear night despite it being a Monday and worrying I might pay for it the next day! Unfortunately the skies were of course very bright as we're now into June, and the clouds were now starting to appear despite the forecast saying it would be clear until the early morning. I soon realized I was struggling to see anything really. Jupiter was up but not clear due to the seeing conditions and so I was about to pack up and head home again when I noticed Hercules was clear. I had been admiring JackCooke's sketch of M92 and said I hadn't ever tried sketching any globular clusters so thought I'd take that opportunity to have my first try. Please bear with me everyone as the seeing wasn't good with bright skies, clouds rolling across, and the batteries were dead in my favourite red light so I had to make do with another torch that was far too bright really. (I'm getting all my excuses in for a bad sketch early!). Anyway, here's my first attempt, hopefully next time things will be a little more in my favour and I can improve. (I was going to go on to do a wider field version but the clouds prevented that so that will be for next time, along with M92 hopefully). What I did find difficult actually, was that stars would appear in the view, but then as soon as I moved my view across the cluster, due to averted vision I suppose, the stars I had been seeing disappeared and new ones suddenly jumped up in new places altogether! Anyway, here it is. Thanks all.

That's exactly what I was experiencing last week when Jupiter was low. I went out again last night after checking my collimation but I suspect the improvement was down to Jupiter just being higher as John says. I hope you have better luck soon, I think it is all down to poor viewing at the moment.

Great sketch. M92 is always overlooked by M13 as you say, and yet it's beautiful isn't it? I was lucky enough to get out last night and enjoyed seeing the globular clusters M3, M5, and M10 and M12, but I'm pretty sure when I look at them I would make a complete mess of trying to sketch them, so haven't tried yet. Maybe next time. Very inspiring! Thanks for posting.

I do hope it's not going to be that bad. I was reading the other thread on here about the space X satellites where everyone was expressing concerns for the effect on astro photography. It does seem ridiculous that this can happen without any debate before hand. Not that our voices would make any difference, but I obviously hope we won't notice any difference. Fingers crossed. I wonder how NASA or the ESA feel about all these extra satellites?? Must be another worry trying to launch rockets through them. I suppose they can all be tracked but what a mine field.

My friend Nick and I were lucky enough to see this too. It looked like a sparkling vapour trail from an aircraft. - I actually said to my friend at the time, that it looked like a long train in the sky, and I now see that's what other people are referring to it as. Nick managed to get a photo of it on his phone. I wish I had known what it was at the time!

Very interesting report Stephan. Brilliant.

Hi, I hope the links others have posted help. I've started checking out a few double stars and I believe SAO numbers are useful for finding them. Also useful for lovely stars like the Garnet Star for example. You can find it manually but a quick SAO number and hopefully the scope should go straight to it.

Ahh brilliant. Thanks for that. I should be able to find a PDF version online. I've only got the actual skywatcher manuals. Thanks.

I went out last night in the hope of trying a few SAO numbers for the first time but couldn't get it to work, and I've just read on another post on here that you have to enter the first four digits, then press enter, and then scroll through the last two digits using the up and down keys to complete the number. Thanks to this and your post I'm ready now for the next outing. 🤞 Why don't they print this on some instruction manual somewhere!?? Thanks! and all the best.

Ahh well done Mike! I didn't realize that. I thought it must just be a modern term given to it. Thanks. But yeah I've just done a very quick search to see if I could find out why it was called Mare Iridium and couldn't see anything. Although I suppose the next bay I believe is Mare Imbrium which means "showers" (I've just looked that up too), so maybe they thought rainbows followed showers!?? Is this getting too scientific for most people??

Amazing!

Brilliant sketch again Mike, and another good target to choose. (If I'm in the right area, some people refer to this area as the "bay of rainbows" don't they?. - A very grey rainbow!).

Good one Mike. I always think of Tycho when I think of bright ejecta rays, but Kepla is amazing too. Nice target to sketch and nicely done.

Thank you Mark. I can't wait to get out again. It already feels like it's been quite a while. Thanks again for your kind and positive comment.

Ha haa! Thanks Achim. Somebody on here, and I wish I could remember who, just happened to mention they preferred the image showing the whole page or something along those lines, so I always do it like that now! I suppose it shows the sketch in scale with the size of the A5 pad. Thanks. Thanks for your kind comments Mike. Yeah this is where I'm a bit naive really, as I just went out wanting to increase the magnification a little, and just ended up with over 400x magnification as it worked. But you're right I really should have made more of that at the time. It's a bit like the night a friend and I saw Clavius through the scope and we both thought it looked great, but only my friend really remembered how great it was, and now I need to go back for a second time to really appreciate it! Thanks for your comments!

I couldn't resist making the most of what could be the last clear sky for a while. Also, I'd been searching on-line to see if I could find any original sketches produced by Sir Patrick Moore. Sadly I wasn't finding any of his work, but I stumbled across a drawing of "Bulliasladus" by Erika Rix, which was just fantastic. I noticed along with other things, she'd used a larger magnification than I tend to so I really wanted to get out and try something around 300x magnification. Once again I was slightly limited for space in my back garden, and it was too bright when I started to do any alignment using the stars so I set the scope onto auto tracking which seemed to help a little although I was once again forced to continually move the scope to keep the view in the eyepiece. I ended up using 440x magnification and started drawing the Gassendi Crater, which again I have already drawn, but at least this time I recognized it and remembered I had already drawn it; so I'm getting better! Anyway enough waffle. Here's the sketch done at the telescope. A bit rough and ready as always with me, but I was pleased that I did manage to capture more detail than in my first attempt again. Clear skies everyone. (And please do search for Bulliasladus - Erika Rix if you've got time. And if anyone knows where you can see details of Patrick Moor's drawings please let me know). Thanks!

Brilliant sketch Mike. Is that Charcoal you've used? I keep meaning to have a go with those again. Nice crazing effect between the craters as CraigT82 has said. How do you achieve that? Looks like a special paint effect. Looks like a good area. I stupidly keep drawing the same areas! (I'll show you what I mean later). Thanks for posting. Can you remember what magnification were you using? And if you don't mind me taking this opportunity to also say . . . . Yeahhhh! Thanks for posting Steve. Nothing wrong with that at all. A nice clean and crisp sketch.

Wow. Thanks very much, and well done to everybody. This was a great competition/challenge. Really pleased to have received a nomination at all.

Thanks for all your comments everyone again. Go for it! So much more to enjoy and get stuck in to.

I took advantage of another clear night to get out to a field which is quite good for viewing, and being slightly later than the previous evening I had the luxury of completing the sketch after doing an alignment so the telescope tracked ok and didn't require me to continually adjust the view between every line. It seems so long since I've had the luxury of doing that for one reason or another it made such a change. It wasn't until today when I was looking up the names for the craters that I realized I had already drawn the same area before. Which is a little worrying as I haven't done that many areas to start forgetting already. I've attached my earlier version which seems barely recognisable from this latest version. I thought it was interesting how I'd obviously focused on completely different elements the first time to the second time. Thanks all.

Hi everyone, Not the most inspiring of images, but I was pleased to get out in the back garden to an unexpectedly clear sky. I rushed it a bit unfortunately. (I'd just bought a 2nd hand 20mm Tele Vue eyepiece on E-bay. It wasn't the ideal focal length for this last night but I wanted to check it was ok so stuck with it). I must remember to spend more time on maybe a smaller area soon. Maybe just one crater next time. Anyway, here's a quick sketch I did of a small area of the moon, near the terminator again. All the best.

Beautiful. I love the pin-sharp detail and contrast of the craters nearest the terminator.