Mike JW

Last night I could not resist drawing Kepler (again). The more one looks at this crater and its rays the more one appreciates the angle the asteroid struck the surface. One side has a general splatter but the opposite side has very definite rays which indicate the asteroid came in from left to right on my sketch. The other main crater is Encke. The crater with a ray going through it is Kepler C. Mike

Hi Lurcher? I use a mix of 6b,4b,2b, pencils or what ever is to hand. For the the very dark areas I use 6b graphite pencils. I am also experimenting with small dark areas by going over with black ink or felt. I have used charcoal and for me it is one big mess. Crazing effect - pencil ( HB or H) - a series of squiggle marks to give the impression of crags/rocks. To achieve the smooth effect I use blending stumps, to smooth/soften the shading. You may not believe this but I am not an artist (thrown out of art at school). It was sheer dogged determination that I taught myself this style for lunar drawing, ask me draw anything else and I have little idea. As to keep drawing the same area - so do I. Below are my previous visits to the straight wall. Never see the same thing twice? Magnification was about x 100. Sometimes I might up the magnification just to be sure of some detail. Mike

Hi Steve, Glad you have posted your sketch. Easily recognized and I would be proud of it. Keep it and as you do others in this style you will build up a lovely record of your "visits to the moon" My first lunar sketch was pathetic - long thrown away. I keep meaning to teach myself other techniques. My technique takes too long as I fiddle over detail but at the eyepiece it does force me to really look hard and see the detail. Have fun and post more sketches. Mike

Hi Steve, my sketches are an hour at the eyepiece followed by a couple of hours afterwards. No doubt yours are a good representation but in a different style. I enjoy seeing folk's different approaches, so no need to hide your skills. Thanks for your comment. Mike

Hi Rob, I like "pretty" arrangements. Cheers, 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

Hi, two nights ago it was a very clear, steady night which lent itself to a lunar sketch in twilight, to then switch to observing doubles in a moonlit sky. I do the rough outline at the eyepiece to then complete it at my leisure later. Scanning the sketch, never makes black truly black so I blacken it in photoshop. I love the "straight wall" area for sketching - so much going on that I don't know where to stop - find myself sketching the dark side of the moon????? The straight wall is always easy to spot but on this occasion the nearby fault running from crater Birt was easily spotted. Careful inspection of the surface at the end of the fault line showed what looked like a dome structure (totally failed to be able to sketch it) - possible volcano? At the eyepiece various hints of submerged craters/swamped craters by lava flows could be seen. Wonderful area to wander around. Mike

Hi Alan, When ever I went faint galaxy hunting with my 20 inch, all I ever found was grey smudges with hints of cores. Going down the EAA route is very rewarding to be able to turn grey smudges into something more meaningful. Mike

12/05/19 had very clear, steady skies under a bright moon. The Hickson's in Serpens seemed an obvious target. Very enjoyable session. Mike C11 @ f6.3 ultrastar mono. HICKSON 74 Hickson 74 Serpens Name Mag Type NGC 5910-1 a 15 E1 NGC 5910-2 b 16 E3 PGC 54692 c 17 SO PGC 54697 d 17 E2 PGC 54694 e 18 SO HICKSON 75 Hickson 75 Serpens Name Mag Type PGC 54804 a 15 E4 PGC 54803 b 18 Sb PGC 54827 c 16.7 SO PGC 54824 d 16.7 Sd PGC 54818 e 17 Sa PGC 54802 f 17.3 SO Hickson 76 Serpens Name Mag Type NGC 5944 a 16 Sa NGC 5942 b 13.5 E2 NGC 5941 c 15.6 EO d 15 E1 PGC 55325 e 16 SBO PGC 55325 f 17.3 SO PGC 55307 g 17.6 Sc HICKSON 77 Hickson 77 Serpens Name Mag Type UGC 10049 a 16.4 SO UGC 10049 b 16.6 SO UGC 10049 c 16 Im UGC 10049 d 17.4 Im HICKSON 79 Hickson 79 Serpens Name Mag Type NGC 6027A a 15 EO NGC 6027B c 14.5 SO NGC 6027C d 15.5 SO NGC 6027D e 17 Scm NGC 6027E b 16.6 Scd

Thanks Martin for posting your capture. I enjoy comparing folk's different results. Doubles is another passing interest of mine. I decided to ignore them on this occasion as I get distracted by them. So great to have them labelled up on your shot. I suspect that there is a high chance of these doubles being line of sight as there are so many stars in the fov, rather than true binaries. I must try to look them up. With the moon in the sky for the first hour I was lunar sketching, then switched to enjoying doubles. For the final hour or so of the session I then popped the camera in and did EAA. With my narrow fov I really needed to do 2 shots to cover the area and then stitch them together. Re an earlier post where you suggested to up the number for pixel displacement - it seems to work. I will try to post the Hickson shots in Serpens that I did after the Crescent. Mike

The wonder and fun of re sketching the same area is that it is never quite the same due to the constant changing shadows. It would be rare to be viewing the moon at exactly the same time/sun's position in the lunar sky. The different sun's angles reveals different details each viewing. Have fun sketching. Mike

Hi, What is good about your technique is that you capture the key details and feel for the area, rather than get bogged down with the detail. Nice idea to put the diameters on the sketch. Enables an appreciation of the size. Mike

This is my first attempt at the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus. It was low time and 6 days before full moon so very bright skies. This nebula is an emission nebula and about 5000 lyrs away. Apparently it can also be called the Euro Nebula as it vaguely resembles the Euro sign!!! I was impressed at just how well I could pick up some of the detail from what is after all a low surface brightness object. I only ever detected it with a 20" Dob in very transparent, dark skies in GB. The nebula is the result of a bright Wolf-Rayet star shedding its outer layer. C11 at f6.3, ultrastar mono. 10 x 15 sec subs.

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 Bill, I too have the problem you described and save as I go along. I have had a look at Jocular but not being particularly computer savvy - it unnerved me a little but no doubt once I followed the guidance I would be OK. Mike

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html?#2019bic has all the supernovae data and well done. Mike

I recently was made aware of distant galaxies within the NGC and IC catalogues. Last night I thought I would give the Bootes candidates a look. They are always going to be small so aesthetically the shots are not interesting but who cares when one is spotting galaxies over a billion light years away. An interesting astro journey lies ahead. Mike IC 4481 - Mag 15.8, Type – SBbc, Gyr -1.44 . It is the fuzz patch near the centre and then see the insert. NGC 5609 - Mag 15.7, Type - S, Gyr 1.32. See the circled fuzz patch and insert. The big galaxy is Arp 178. NGC 5914B-2 – Mag 15.4, Type – Sb Gyr 1.01. The two tiny galaxies above the obvious fuzz (NGC 5914), see insert.

Hi Louise - yes I agree cloud (thin high stuff) can be an issue at times. As buying more equipment. I have always tried to use the equipment to its fullest extent before buying more . Hi Rob. I use an Altair Astro 0.5 reducer. I too have had similar thoughts about tracking issues. Last night I was very closely aligned to the NP so error was low. Thanks Martin. I will try changing the max pixel displacement from its very low current setting to something higher. I do not actually understand what is does.

Hi Tony, Just looked at your link - wow. Must rush out and get a hyperstar? Wonderful shot and so full of detail. At heart I am a visual observer (without getting into all the discussions about what is EAA) and I am determined to study an image that I take as if I was still using my big Dob, read up about it, make notes, do labels etc. Otherwise I feel I am simply "seeing" something, ticking the box and moving on. Hence my post, but it takes a long time to read up etc about something I have imaged. Thanks for your positive comments. So much to see and learn about. As to stacking issue. I remove the bad sub and carry on but the next sub to come in has all the extra noise...mystified. Mike

Hi, Rob's post "finally managed some spring galaxies" 30/04/19, prompted me to have another go at observing Arp 120, noting the settings Rob had used. Very pleased with the outcome. Arp 120 -sometimes called The Eyes is NGC 4438 (the big galaxy) and NGC 4435. Arp classified them as ellipticals close to and perturbing spirals. Since Arp looked at this pair it seems that 4435 is not affecting its big neighbour as it a line of sight association. The most likely candidate is nearby M86. The mass of stars around NGC 4438 is quite thin and in fact I was able to pick up a distant galaxy at about 1.6 billion lyrs away shinning through this thin tidal cloud of stars - see line with number on attached image. I was also pleased to get hints of the wonky dust lane that zig-zags its way through the galaxy - see lines. On the southern end of the galaxy I picked up PGC 40913 (mag 17). In the southern part of the star cloud I picked up the long brighter section. Details: C9.25@ f4.5, ultrastar mono. I tried subs at 1x1 but the best was using 2x2 binning and 6 x 25 sec subs. (20x 25 secs was no better). HELP. I have often noted that during the stacking the image suddenly jumps and noise increases dramatically and that to get back to where the image was requires a few more stacks. This seems to happen after about 20 stacks - any thoughts. Mike

Hi Rob, Enjoyed looking at the shots. Particularly impressed with you getting the tidal plumes on Arp 120. My earlier attempts this year failed to get the plumes, so well done. Interestingly I read somewhere that these two galaxies are no actually interacting? I wonder what the correct situation is? Noting that it has been a long while since you got a chance to do any EAA. Here in E. Anglia myself (and fellow observers) think we have had one of the cloudiest periods we can remember. Very little observing achieved from October 2018 until now and we suspect climate change will mean this becomes the norm - depressing. 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

Chaps - just gone through this post twice now and followed links. So helpful (and confusing at times due to my limited knowledge), many thanks to you all. Ultrastar Mono - would buy another one. I have tried the Lodestar x2, a couple of early GPCAMs and also a Watec 120. I would go for the Ultrastar anytime, partly because I find the software so simple to use. I sort of copped with Sharpcap but the Altair software defeated me - after all, I simply wish to stick a camera in the focuser and get views similar or deeper than a big dob and in a short time as possible, with minimal tweaking at the laptop. Cheers, Mike