More Messiers

[miguel87]

As you may have seen I have been posting my progress sketching the entire Messier catalogue.

Last night saw another 5, taking my total to just 18 currently.

M105, 96, 95, 53 & 57

[Swithin StCleeve]

These are lovely! Can I ask what paper and pencils you use please? I'd love to have a go at this myself.

[miguel87]

Thanks, I use a really cheap pencil from my corner shop that isnt even marked HB or anything. And the paper is a sketch pad from amazon, decent thick paper tho, I can send you a link if you are interested.

Then obviously just invert the image on my phone once I have photographed the page.

To be honest what ai do is a sketch at the eyepiece on lower quality paper, then I can tody this up in daylight the next day, making sure my star spots are round and my nebulosity is smudged well and not scratchy. I use a biro to make brighter stars brighter for a bit of contrast and that's it.

I only started a couple of months ago but it is suprising how fast you can improve.

[Swithin StCleeve]

I didn't realise you used white paper and inverted the image. I was thinking you used black paper and special white-ink pens! That explains it. Thanks for the info. I'm hoping to get some observing done myself tonight and I'll do some sketches. I'll be using a Skywatcher 200P as well!

[Tomatobro]

That's the method suggested  in the BAA "beginners guide to astro drawing" that I had a read of this morning. I also like the idea of using some simple forms which are designed to help with the orientation and scale and the comment about allowing the star to drift out of view to determine which way is west.

[miguel87]

13 hours ago, Swithin StCleeve said:

I didn't realise you used white paper and inverted the image. I was thinking you used black paper and special white-ink pens! That explains it. Thanks for the info. I'm hoping to get some observing done myself tonight and I'll do some sketches. I'll be using a Skywatcher 200P as well!

Good luck, make sure you share the results 👍

[Tomatobro]

On 19/05/2020 at 18:00, miguel87 said:

Thanks, I use a really cheap pencil from my corner shop that isnt even marked HB or anything. And the paper is a sketch pad from amazon, decent thick paper tho, I can send you a link if you are interested.

Then obviously just invert the image on my phone once I have photographed the page.

To be honest what ai do is a sketch at the eyepiece on lower quality paper, then I can tody this up in daylight the next day, making sure my star spots are round and my nebulosity is smudged well and not scratchy. I use a biro to make brighter stars brighter for a bit of contrast and that's it.

I only started a couple of months ago but it is suprising how fast you can improve.

Having read the BAA advice on sketching I thought I would give it a go. These sketches were made using my fork mounted 20/40 x 100 binoculars.