SGL 2023 Challenge 2 - Sketches

[Naughty Neal]

Marvelous , great use of the colours to produce the hazy light affect of the Nebula and varying star brightness. 

[mikeDnight]

That's a beautiful sketch of the Pleiades along with some nebulosity Craig. 

[mikeDnight]

A few sketches made on 27/03/2023.

After seemingly weeks of cloud the sky finally cleared and the seeing remained very good throughout the three hours I spent observing. I began with Venus set against a blue sky, although the Sun at this time had set behind the woodland to my south west. Using a Takahashi FC100DZ and Maxbright II binoviewer, Venus was sharply etched against the sky with absolutely no trace of CA.  The sketch below shows the view through the telescope after careful study. The first obvious detail, if you can call it detail, were the bright polar regions which gave the impression of polar caps. Along the terminator two brightish patches were seen with the patch in the southern hemisphere being larger and at times dipping into the terminator. The patch in the northern hemisphere was less obvious and elongated. Once these subtle brighter regions had been detected the equally subtle wisps of light grey cloud became more obvious. No filters were used!

 

The second target for sketching was Mars, which became visible well before the sky had fully darkened. Now well below 7 arc seconds in diameter I didn't expect anything too spectacular, but just seeing the perfect tiny 90% gibbous was thrilling all the same.  Just for fun, I decided to make sketches using a couple of different magnifications using the binoviewer, then finally using a Vixen 3.4mm High Resolution eyepiece in mono just to see how much of a difference, if any, there may be.  The northern hemisphere is tilted a little towards us and the regions on view are Mare Sirenum and Cemmerium in the south, the dusky patch left of centre may be Olympus Mons and its dusky environs, and in the north Nerigos, Scandia and Phlegra with a north polar cap. The bright Elysium region is against the terminator, or at least that's my best guess trying to relate the albedo markings with the meridian. 

 

And finally the night was dominated by a spectacular lunar terminator. Deciding what to sketch given the awesome complexity of even apparently simple targets was difficult. Then knowing how much detail to include and what not to include is also a challenge, as the whole venture can quickly turn into a bit of a car crash if not careful, and I'm not confident when it comes to sketching the Moon. Shadows move at a terrifying pace once you start sketching, so I'm always a bit panicky. Anyhow, I decided on having a go at drawing Cyrillus. There was way more detail in the eyepiece than I could possibly draw, so this is merely a poor representation of a terrifyingly complex and detailed crater. 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by mikeDnight

[josefk]

Fabulous @mikeDnight especially the subtlety of Venus and the detail of Cyrillus - i recognise the rising panic re. sketching the moon. I sometimes (attempt to) sketch birds - I find attempting to sketch the moon is like trying to sketch wading birds in a moving flock - different every time you move your eye from view to page and back! A test of memory and speed. My own attempt on the terminator last night is well described as a "car crash" so won't be getting posted here 🙂.

[markse68]

I like your Cyrillus too Mike- very detailed. I had a go sketching for the first time in a long time last night and focussed on those 3 craters too but didn't get anything like your level of detail or subtlety- that's beautiful. Are you using a driven mount? It was quite a challenge jumping between ep and paper in dim red light and juggling trying to keep a manual scope on target at 200x with a plossl fov. A driven mount would have been much more user friendly. Doesn't help that I could really do with wearing reading glasses to sketch but that would have been one more thing to juggle!

Mark

[Moon-Monkey]

Ok so this is a quick and dirty sketch I did the other evening with the ST80.

it was between cloud breaks proper sucker hole astronomy for the little grab and go rig unfortunately didn’t have enough time to put in the field stars as well as a heavy rain cloud then passed over and ended the session and the night oh how I hope this weather turns soon . Some amazing sketchers and work on this thread is so lovely to see everyone’s drawings clear and steady skies gang 🙂

[mikeDnight]

21 hours ago, markse68 said:

I like your Cyrillus too Mike- very detailed. I had a go sketching for the first time in a long time last night and focussed on those 3 craters too but didn't get anything like your level of detail or subtlety- that's beautiful. Are you using a driven mount? It was quite a challenge jumping between ep and paper in dim red light and juggling trying to keep a manual scope on target at 200x with a plossl fov. A driven mount would have been much more user friendly. Doesn't help that I could really do with wearing reading glasses to sketch but that would have been one more thing to juggle!

Mark

Hi Mark.  I'm happy you like my attempt at Cyrillus, and I'm also happy you drew the three craters. It was an awesome terminator wasn't it, and a shame not to at least attempt some sketching. The last time I drew all three craters they were in deep shadow, so we're much easier to sketch. I thought about attempting all three but decided to try and concentrate on just the one, as the detail was just overpowering.  (Below is my previous attempt  of all three craters). I often shy away from anything too complex, so I tend to try and ignore the crater walls and concentrate solely on the crater floors. There's always lots to see even on seemingly bland floors in ringed planes. 

 

 My mount currently doesn't have a working motor drive. I had bought one of the new red Skywatcher hand controllers but it stopped working after only a couple of months. Looking inside it I found there to be a faulty switch very cheaply made and not really repairable.  I do need a better controller as it really makes sketching a pleasure rather than a chore.  I know how frustrated you must feel juggling manual drives, holding sketch pad and pencil, and a dim red light. Every time I do the same I think "I must get this drive working."  I need to do it for double stars more than the Moon and planets, as swapping eyepieces and using high powers can be really challenging and it spoils the fun. We're also in the same boat needing to use glasses. I don't need them to observe with, but ideally I need them to see the sketch, but often struggle on straining my vision as they just get in the way. I find using a binoviewer helps, as it allows me to use longer focal length eyepieces with a barlow attached to the nose of the binoviewer.  My sketch of Cyrillus was made using a pair of 25mm Parks Gold 5 element super plossl's and a 2X barlow on the binoviewer,  which amplifies around 4X. So the magnification was 128X yet with great eye relief and comfort.

[markse68]

Another beautiful sketch Mike  

Mark

[mikeDnight]

11 hours ago, Moon-Monkey said:

Ok so this is a quick and dirty sketch I did the other evening with the ST80.

it was between cloud breaks proper sucker hole astronomy for the little grab and go rig unfortunately didn’t have enough time to put in the field stars as well as a heavy rain cloud then passed over and ended the session and the night oh how I hope this weather turns soon . Some amazing sketchers and work on this thread is so lovely to see everyone’s drawings clear and steady skies gang 🙂

That's a fabulous sketch of M51 Moon-monkey. Excellent in fact! 🏆

[Moon-Monkey]

On 29/03/2023 at 13:04, mikeDnight said:

That's a fabulous sketch of M51 Moon-monkey. Excellent in fact! 🏆

Thanks buddy I hope this weather turns and I can get some more time and a more detailed sketch done I’m also going to do a sketch with the 8” when it clears up and compare the detail I can see in each 😀 I’m going through the he messier list again with the little ST80 for fun 😀😀

[josefk]

A low contrast twilight full portrait from yesterday. A 95mm APO and right way up right way round erect image at 70x.

[mikeDnight]

Here are some observations for 2 & 3 April 2023.  It seems to have been cloudy forever and so to get two clear nights was quite a thrill.

The view of Venus on 2/4/23 was made under less than ideal conditions, as the jetstream played havoc with the image, causing the planet to dance violently at times. However, in moments of reasonable steadiness detail did come into view, though fleetingly. The use of the Wrattan 80A blue filter helped settle the agitation and also helped highlight the bright areas.

 

The following night (3/4/23) was much more settled, and so I made several sketches of Venus using both integrated light an with various colour filters. It was interesting in the final two sketches that the dark red #25 filter and the higher power unfiltered view revealed a bright spot set against the already bright northern limb. Perhaps as both filter and higher magnification effectively dimmed,  and in the latter case enlarged the image, it made seeing this high cloud feature stand out more easily?

[mikeDnight]

 Also made on the 2 & 4th April are these two quick sketches of the lunar crater Bettinus south of Tycho. This first quick sketch was made with an increasingly aggressive jetstream hindering finer detail and making higher magnification all but impossible.

 

Again a sketch of Bettinus from the following night with a more stable atmosphere, but still not truly steady. The same magnification of 128X was used and again the sketch was made in a relatively short time. The crater floor on this occasion appeared to be relatively featureless except for a couple of brighter areas and a fine rille or fracture extending from the northern rim to the central mountain peak. This was a very subtle feature on this occasion. Perhaps a steadier atmosphere and higher magnification will show it better on future occasions?

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by mikeDnight

[josefk]

I'm loving the Venus sketches @mikeDnight and extremely inspired by them to get a good observation of Venus in these weeks. I made a schoolboy error last night. Observing Venus was on the list (it was the main thing on the list) but i couldn't get out with my 5" refractor till late (21:30 ish). I didn't want to swing onto Venus till the scope had cooled and got carried away with other things in the meanwhile. By the time i did remember Venus was a blue/yellow/red kaleidoscope about to go into the tree line. Doh!

I will probably order a Wratten 80A Blue filter today - have you had experience of good and bad ones? i will only buy once.

Cheers

[mikeDnight]

51 minutes ago, josefk said:

I'm loving the Venus sketches @mikeDnight and extremely inspired by them to get a good observation of Venus in these weeks. I made a schoolboy error last night. Observing Venus was on the list (it was the main thing on the list) but i couldn't get out with my 5" refractor till late (21:30 ish). I didn't want to swing onto Venus till the scope had cooled and got carried away with other things in the meanwhile. By the time i did remember Venus was a blue/yellow/red kaleidoscope about to go into the tree line. Doh!

I will probably order a Wratten 80A Blue filter today - have you had experience of good and bad ones? i will only buy once.

Cheers

 It's great you're inspired by my sketches, thanks for that feed back!  I most often observe the planet while it's still against a blue sky  just before or just after Sun set. However, if you have some way of shielding your scope from accidentally crossing the Sun, you can observe it quite easily in full daylight. It's best to use a low power eyepiece for the search. I use a 35mm Eudiascopic, which after getting infinity focus during night time observing, I marked my drawtube, so I know I'm in focus for when doing a daytime sweep. Genius!

 I've only had one bad filter which I bought from Venturescope many years ago. It was a great filter, an #82A which is almost a turquoise colour, but was great for Mars and Venus. For some reason it just turned cloudy and rough. I'm presuming it was a fault with the coatings as all my other filters remained pristine. I could really do with getting another 82A, but I've had a lot of success with the 80A so never bothered to replace it. I think currently FLO have an offer on, so you can buy one get one free, or something similar. Could be buy two get none free! FLO are a good place to buy from as they look after there customers very well. They're a bit like carers for the mildly insane!

 

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by mikeDnight

[mikeDnight]

Attached are observations of Venus & Mars  from the night of April 6th 2023.

 The seeing conditions were really quite good in general, with intermittent but short bouts of turbulence.

 Venus revealed subtle differences in cloud detail dependant on whether it was viewed with or without a colour filter, and different coloured filters enhanced different detail.  Of late there has been repeated observation of a bright spot on the north preceeding limb of the planet, which may be due to high cloud reflecting the Suns light. Again, some filters aided in highlighting this feature.

 

Mars was a pleasant surprise last night too, as immediately very obvious albedo detail was seen. Despite its diminutive size at present of around 6 seconds of arc, the planet's rotation was noted during the observations, and even the cloud/mist around Olympus Mons was really quite obvious. The Solis Lacus region is visible in the south and its complexity was just hinted at in the eyepiece over time.  In the north there appeared a polar cap along with the darker Mare Acidalium, Tempe, & Nilokeras regions. 

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by mikeDnight

[Roy Challen]

I never really been much good at drawing, but over the years I have enjoyed sketching the sun, both in white light and now Ha. There aren't many sun sketches on this thread, so here is my effort. The view this morning was fantastic, although there were long moments of poor seeing, during the still moments the clarity was exceptional. My Daystar doesn't pick out filaments all that well, but today they were very easy to see. Lots of nice proms too.

Edited April 7, 2023 by Roy Challen

[JeremyS]

8 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

I never really been much good at drawing, but over the years I have enjoyed sketching the sun, both in white light and now Ha. There aren't many sun sketches on this thread, so here is my effort. The view this morning was fantastic, although there were long moments of poor seeing, during the still moments the clarity was exceptional. My Daystar doesn't pick out filaments all that well, but today they were very easy to see. Lots of nice proms too.

Splendid drawing 👍🏻

[mikeDnight]

43 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

I never really been much good at drawing, but over the years I have enjoyed sketching the sun, both in white light and now Ha. There aren't many sun sketches on this thread, so here is my effort. The view this morning was fantastic, although there were long moments of poor seeing, during the still moments the clarity was exceptional. My Daystar doesn't pick out filaments all that well, but today they were very easy to see. Lots of nice proms too.

I dont know about you not being good at drawing Roy, but I'm looking at your sketch of the Sun and I think its awesome. The Sun is something I don't often look at; I even have a lovely Coronado PST but I loaned that out to another observer ages ago. He loves it!   Considering your sketch has inspired me to take more notice of our beautiful star. It's a great sketch and observation Roy, so thanks for posting it. 

 I'm off to brows FLO's website now to see how much your post is potentially going to cost me. 

Edited April 7, 2023 by mikeDnight

[Roy Challen]

2 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

I dont know about you not being good at drawing Roy, but I'm looking at your sketch of the Sun and I think its awesome. The Sun is something I don't often look at; I even have a lovely Coronado PST but I loaned that out to another observer ages ago. He loves it!   Considering your sketch has inspired me to take more notice of our beautiful star. It's a great sketch and observation Roy, so thanks for posting it. 

 I'm off to brows FLO's website now to see how much your post is potentially going to cost me. 

Thanks Mike😊. I bought the Daystar just over two years ago, it is easily my most used scope now. When I bought it, they were £695... I've just seen the price they are now🥺, still one of the cheapest Ha scopes though, and mine's a good one...I think (haven't looked through any others for comparison).

[Moon-Monkey]

Ok so my first Solar sketch done a few hours ago with my new acquisition.. the Lacerta wedge , oh my goodness game changer for contrast !!! 

[Moon-Monkey]

On 07/04/2023 at 10:58, Roy Challen said:

I never really been much good at drawing, but over the years I have enjoyed sketching the sun, both in white light and now Ha. There aren't many sun sketches on this thread, so here is my effort. The view this morning was fantastic, although there were long moments of poor seeing, during the still moments the clarity was exceptional. My Daystar doesn't pick out filaments all that well, but today they were very easy to see. Lots of nice proms too.

I somehow missed this !!!  great sketch buddy I doubt I will ever get to own an H-alpha but the next best thing is to see that lovely sketch 🙂

great stuff buddy 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Moon-Monkey

[Moon-Monkey]

On 07/04/2023 at 10:38, mikeDnight said:

Attached are observations of Venus & Mars  from the night of April 6th 2023.

 The seeing conditions were really quite good in general, with intermittent but short bouts of turbulence.

 Venus revealed subtle differences in cloud detail dependant on whether it was viewed with or without a colour filter, and different coloured filters enhanced different detail.  Of late there has been repeated observation of a bright spot on the north preceeding limb of the planet, which may be due to high cloud reflecting the Suns light. Again, some filters aided in highlighting this feature.

 

Mars was a pleasant surprise last night too, as immediately very obvious albedo detail was seen. Despite its diminutive size at present of around 6 seconds of arc, the planet's rotation was noted during the observations, and even the cloud/mist around Olympus Mons was really quite obvious. The Solis Lacus region is visible in the south and its complexity was just hinted at in the eyepiece over time.  In the north there appeared a polar cap along with the darker Mare Acidalium, Tempe, & Nilokeras regions. 

 

Great observations and sketches bud I have to admit to not really observing Venus much this year deffo not seriously for a few years now it’s very inspirational to see those great sketches I may just have a little go soon when the clouds eventually clear since the sketches I done of the comet this year I’ve only had two or three sessions in the evening which have been clear enough to a fully make any even marginal observations hence me getting my solar game on these last few months I’ll never be able to afford an H alpha but I’m really pleased I got the Lacerta wedge it’s a game changer for me and keeps me happy I’ll just have to learn how to sketch solar now instead of deep sky lol 

[mikeDnight]

High power Venus from April 18th. This was just an experiment to see how magnification can help or hinder detection of subtle detail. Unfortunately the seeing started to suffer from varying amounts of turbulence, so not very conclusive. I think i prefer the lower power view of the two, but reserve the right to change my mind.

[mikeDnight]

Here is a tiny Mars still showing discernable detail in the form of albedo feature, cloud/mist and Ice. Syrtis Major is obvious on its tiny 5.8 arc second gibbous disc.