M51

[davhei]

Hi everyone,

Had a night out yesterday going through the Virgo cluster and a couple of globulars. Decided to also take some time to observe M51 and NGC 5195, what better way than to take out the sketch book and play around.

Here’s the result:

[MarsG76]

Cool sketch.. that would be awesome to see in the EP....

 

[davhei]

4 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Cool sketch.. that would be awesome to see in the EP....

 

My first time observing it in my telescope, had only seen it in binos before, and then only faintly. The sketch is the result of hard staring with averted vision so doesn’t really show how it looked at a glance in the EP. Still a breathtaking sight though.

[Ruud]

Now that's a lovely sketch!

[mariosi]

Wonderful result. Very nice observation and sketch of M51. Thank you for sharing it with us all 

[Lurcher]

Well done Davhei. Great sketch. I always have trouble seeing M51 with any size due to the light pollution in my area I suppose. (I have a to use a long exposure photo to see it. It's always difficult I think drawing these very faint galaxies. You've done a nice job.

[Stu]

Very nice sketch, you've captured it nicely. I was looking at this the other week in a 4", and the haloes around the galaxies were quite clear. I found my brain forming spirals out of them but am sure that was a false effect. 10" is a much better option! ??

[Pete Presland]

Lovely sketch of the magnificent M51, a tough target from my light polluted skies unfortunately.

[Paul73]

Nice sketching. Some observers use sketching as a way to concentrate the mind and tease out all of the detail. Seems to have worked well for you.

Paul

[Piero]

Very beautiful. Congratulations. How dark is the sky you observe? The moon was also out last night.

[davhei]

2 hours ago, Piero said:

Very beautiful. Congratulations. How dark is the sky you observe? The moon was also out last night.

Thank you sir!

I observe from a bortle 4 site that according to the light pollution map has 21.03 mag/arc sec^2.

The waxing crescent moon was just setting at the time of observation and didn’t cause any problems as far as I could tell.