Mars/62 Tauri plus M78/BU559

[josefk]

More "aides-memoire" than sketches per se but here are two "sketches" from the 15th January.

A view of Mars (upper right) with 62 Tauri/Struve 534 (centre and close up). The yellow and blue of Struve 534 was possibly not quite as strong as this sketch infers.

And M78 - Orion nebulosity illuminated by HD 290862 / HD 38563 (Burnham 559) with NGC 2071. I've seen the two brighter stars of BU559 and M78 together described as "Casper's Ghost". I think that is probably a bit strong. It is noticeably more prominent than NGC 2071 as per the breakout view of them.

[F15Rules]

9 minutes ago, josefk said:

More "aides-memoire" than sketches per se but here are two "sketches" from the 15th January.

A view of Mars (upper right) with 62 Tauri/Struve 534 (centre and close up). The yellow and blue of Struve 534 was possibly not quite as strong as this sketch infers.

And M78 - Orion nebulosity illuminated by HD 290862 / HD 38563 (Burnham 559) with NGC 2071. I've seen the two brighter stars of BU559 and M78 together described as "Casper's Ghost". I think that is probably a bit strong. It is noticeably more prominent than NGC 2071 as per the breakout view of them.

Excellent, thanks for sharing!

I especially like the way you've captured Mars and it's colour..

Is that a mini blackboard or slate that you use, with chalk? (Forgive me if not, but it struck me that that could be a great way to record an observation, then take a photo of it as a permanent record, then clear the slate for the next one?).

Of course, the above wouldn't help your night vision!🤦😁

Dave

[josefk]

7 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Excellent, thanks for sharing!

I especially like the way you've captured Mars and it's colour..

Is that a mini blackboard or slate that you use, with chalk? (Forgive me if not, but it struck me that that could be a great way to record an observation, then take a photo of it as a permanent record, then clear the slate for the next one?).

Of course, the above wouldn't help your night vision!🤦😁

Dave

No i use black and white index cards. White index cards for double star "plots", black index cards for everything else. On the black index cards I use white pens under stars and for planets to give a bit of luminosity and add coloured pencil over the top for star colour or planetary detail - all very scientific :-).

One drawback with black card and putting white pen under for example Mars is that the paper "loads up" with pen/pencil so there is a limited window of opportunity to get down on paper an accurate representation/capture of how you saw something (doesn't apply to something simple like above). If I lose it (over work it) i find i can't get it back (not even with an eraser) and have to start again. Obviously for subtle things like planetary features that is a bit tricky. The advantage of index cards is that I need only keep the ones I'm happy with (i.e. are somehow a fair capture of the observation).

At the EP i use graph paper on a small clip board and just black pen "plots" of everything (including contour lines for want of a better description for nebulosity and its extent) and text notes. Very scruffy.

 

[SuburbanMak]

These are fantastic - thank you for sharing!