Mike JW

Hi Ruud,

Wow, what a super sketch. Just love the technique and the way you have executed the drawing is so evenly and consistently done. Very accomplished. Envious. How have you done this sketch? Grey paper? materials? Mike

Cheers, thanks for that. I keep going back to your sketch - it has an ethereal feel to it. I am always going to be up against it because I wish to be accurate. Grey paper - now that's a thought. Mike 

Hi, I have been out and bought charcoals, Derwent Pencils etc as you (Lurcher) suggested. I have spent an hour or so this afternoon sketching Gassendi from a photograph similar to my telescope view.

You should see the mess I am in - major clear up/wipe down required. Not sure I would do this at the telescope for fear of wrecking eyepieces with charcoal fingers but maybe I will. Might have to consider using Smart Phone and take a picture at the eyepiece to then sketch - I shall ponder the best approach. Been fun trying the technique - rather like the medium, apart from the mess.

Mike

Thanks for the guidance and encouragement. Mike

Hi Lurcher, This sketch has blown me away. You will be exhibiting soon.  It is on my list to try your pencil sketching technique and now I want to rush out and buy charcoals - inspirational work.  What type of paper do you use/where buy?  What type of charcoal - pencils or sticks? Any suggestions for suitable YouTube sites to illustrate how to sketch in charcoal. Did you do all of this at the eyepiece or finish it later.

I shall have to drop all my commitments to have a serious crack at these techniques - if only - life is way too short.

Many thanks for posting.

Mike

Hi Tony, it is also addictive. Mike

You did well. Particularly like Hickson 68. Mike

Wonderful sketch. When ever I tried the chalk and charcoal technique I put the end result in a bin. Lovely to see such competent artwork. Mike

I am never brave enough to tackle a whole sea - great effort. You could try doing a outline before hand to the correct scale and then sketching in the details at the eyepiece.

Eratoshenes - love it, cracking technique. You certainly have this technique sorted.

Mike

Hi, Refractors (quality ones) are excellent for doubles but quality Mak Newts are right up there (enjoyed a MN76 for a couple of years - apo like views with 7" aperture). Orion Optics OMC 200  (F20) also are amazing - very expensive new but they do come up second hand. It has been the best doubles/lunar/planetary scope I have ever owned. The extra aperture enables faint double companions to be picked up as well.  Mike

In my post for IC 1103, Bill mentioned IC 1101, so I grabbed the one hour gap last night and went for it and glad I did. It is an elliptical at a touch over 1 billion lyrs away. Noting the size on the image it must be big, in fact it is one of the largest elliptical known (a super giant in the world of galaxies). It is about 50 times the size of our Milky Way, about 2 million lyrs across.

In the image I have marked the brighter galaxies but I gave up marking the many mag 18 galaxies in the capture - at least 20, if not more.

C11 @ f4.5,  30 x 15 sec subs. (no significant improvement after 23 subs)

Mike

Hi Bill, Dale  and I met up recently for a yarn about video. I always enjoy his sketches from the set up he uses. Mike

Thanks for the info Bill. IC 1101 is in a string of faint PGCs - I shall look forward to spotting this target sometime. Now on a list. Mike

I agree Paul. I had the same thought about the link to  Kemble's Cascade. Mike

A bit of a noisy shot but this little chap is a touch over a billion light years away. A mag 16 elliptical - the fuzz patch with a bright core  just to the right of centre and up a bit.

Mike

Last night was very transparent. Despite no true darkness, at the zenith mag 5.4 stars visible but unsteady skies. I had a look at several Arps last night but Arp 330 is a particularly good one. It is classified in the "galaxy chains" section of Arps for obvious reasons but I am not sure how many galaxies Halton Arp included so I have ringed the ones in the chain. Note the bottom circle has 3 galaxies in it as does a circle off to the right. They are mainly mag 16 -17 galaxies. The third ring up is a mag 19 galaxy as maybe some of the other fainter ones in the shot. All of these were way beyond my 20" Dob.  C11 @ f6.3, ultrastar mono.  Mike

On 26/05/2019 at 14:25, mdstuart said:

Lovely. What camera and mount are you using to get these shots?

Mark

Hi Mark, I used a C11 @ f6.3 and a Starlight Express, ultrastar mono guide camera, mounted on a iEQ45 Pro mount. 22 x 15 sec subs and no binning. Mike

Hi Martin, Thanks for posting your shot.  I tend to lose some of the faint smudges as I tweak the settings to remove noise. Lately I have been noting at what point it does not seem worth stacking anymore subs. It seems to me that beyond 20 there is little improvement?  As you say now that the moon had got out of the way the skies are cloudy, frequently triggered by the ever increasing aircraft con-trails. No astro dark now until early August.

I like your description of tectonic plates sliding under each other - a new class description for galaxies????

Mike

Last night I manged to grab a 45 minute session and visit some Draco Arps. Arp 310 and 311 are in the same fov and are odd in that Arp 311 (galaxy group classification) includes Arp 310 ( an interacting pair)

Arp 310 is the top two galaxies - IC 1259 and Arp 311 is all four galaxies.

                            
Arp 293 is classed as galaxies with wind effect (as if a wind is blowing stars away from the galaxy). They are actually interacting and I just caught the tidal stream between the two. NGC 6286 (on the left) is possibly in the process of forming a ring structure, which might explain why the two arms are slightly off set (just got a hint of this). A bit of noise in this shot - claggy skies and dust spots did not help.

Mike

Iridium from the latin word iris - meaning rainbows - just looked it up - enjoy the origin of words (iris as in eyes, iridescence........). I wonder why this lunar area was thought to be multi-coloured ?Mike 

This is the last of my lunar sketches from this week. Sinus Iridium - what a sight it would be to be sitting on the promontory overlooking the larva field below. At this moon phase the many wrinkle ridges are apparent - fascinating to try to follow them across the wide open expanse. The mountains surrounding the sea are complex with tiny valleys, numerous peaks. I love the way some of the peaks light up yet the rest of the mountain lies in the black of the terminator. Just into the terminator I got glimpses of many more peaks soon to be illuminated.  I struggle to get the perspective correct as the lunar surface gets closer to the terminator. That is it for lunar sketching for awhile.  Plenty of artistic licence in this sketch. Mike

Hi, This SN was spotted quite recently. So last night with the moon close by I gave it a look. "Two for the price of one" - a supernova and a Hickson in CVn. The SN is the star on the left of NGC 5353 (the left hand galaxy). Mike

M57, C11 at f6.3 with ultrastar mono.  I was impressed that both central stars could be picked up in 5 seconds. 

Shot below is after 5 seconds - both central stars just visible.        Shot below 10 x 5 seconds - definite improvement.                      Shot below 5 x 15 seconds  and cropped. Like it.

Hi, I am amazed and impressed as to what can be achieved using NV. (equally amazed by the cost of the equipment). In my experience (here in GB) the views you are getting are easily at and beyond my 20" Dob (no longer have it) under SQM 21 - ish skies. On one of those rare nights I chanced to use a friend's 22" driven Dob - views of the Veil where superb but your views out do my recollections of what I saw. I have looked at the Crescent with a 24" on average nights and once again your views are beyond it. I note there has been discussions about where NV might fit. Thank you for posting them in this forum.  Mike

Hi, I have just been going back over some earlier Arp shots.

Arp 241 in Bootes, Arp classified this galaxy as having the appearance of fission , that is pulling apart/breaking up. Galaxies do not actually do that by themselves.. Later images have shown that Arp 241 is really two galaxies doing a merry dance and in time will be come as one. I just managed to catch the swirling arms as a result of the merger.  Arp 241 is the double blob in the centre of the shot. However as I studied the shot and then looked up decent images I realised that some of the noise is in fact distant galaxies. I have drawn lines to some of these distant galaxies and the number by them indicates the distance in billions of light years - mind blowing stuff. Must re-visit this one and mess about with time/subs/settings and focal length.

Details: 20 x 15 sec subs, C9.25 @ f 4.4, (March 2019)

Mike