Miscellaneous sketches

[Talitha]

(I really should get into the habit of posting sketches right away... they stack up too quickly. )

From 12 September

The Saturn Nebula is fairly bright and didn't need help from a filter. It's more oval in shape than round, and the ansae were seen quite easily. I detected a glow 'bleeding' outwards from the basic shape of the nebula a few times, but chose to omit it from the sketch because it wasn't consistently there.. it might have been caused by a small thin patch of high cirrus clouds passing by.

Stephan's Quintet was a lot of fun. Galaxy 7320 is the largest and was the easiest to see. Next to it was the combined glow of 7381A and 7381B, both showing tiny star-like cores. 7319 was a thin sliver and looked like an edge-on galaxy, but it's classified as a barred spiral. So, i'm guessing the thin sliver i saw was actually the bright glowing bar of the galaxy... pretty cool. 7317 was a round glow next to a mag 12.8 star and reminded me of M32, only dimmer.

From 30 September

The sunspots were frustratingly sketched on a gusty day using the 90mm ETX. Increased magnification of the Active Region showed a brighter area in the center of the spot. Steadier moments revealed what appeared to be three (or four?) actual spots which had merged into one, leaving an opening in the center. Very odd looking, i'd never seen anything like it before.

From 3 October

The first and only time i'd seen Comet 103P/Hartley, it was very weak and diffuse. Although it's still not too spectacular as far as comets go, it's definitely brightened up and was easily seen through the 11x70s. It's fairly large and is still diffuse, but the coma is quite easy to pick out and seems to be off-center, favoring the southwest.

The unfiltered view of the PacMan Nebula showed a mere brightening of the sky, but the nebula was much easier to see with the help of the O-III. I can see why it was given the name 'pacman' but it more resembled a traditional heart-shape to me. The rounded areas arcing away from the central open cluster were slightly but definitely brighter than the rest of the nebulosity.

Hopefully i'll be able to get lots more this week...

it's New Moon, and my forecast looks fantastic!!

[AztecastroMcJ]

nice report and sketches Talitha,

still not viewed or imaged any of these objects,

1st Saturn Nebula looks great, any chance i would see anything using 127mm Mak ?

i have baader neodymium filter which seems to help bit with feinter objects,

thx for posting

James

[DarkerSky]

Lovely collection Carol. I especially like your Comet Hartley sketch - you've got a really extensive coma going on there. I was observing it from a town centre location last night. Nowhere near dark enough to get the extent of that coma though.

[matt c]

Wonderful sketches Talitha, especially like Stephans Quintet and the Saturn nebula.

Could I ask what pencils/chalk you use to achieve these results?

[Phil Fargaze]

Excellent sketches! Seeing them has solved my indecision of what scope to get next, a 16" dob! I remember searching for Stephan`s Quintet with my 10" in dark skies but it just wasn`t up to it. I would be chuffed to bits to be able to see the Quintet like that!

[dweller25]

Brilliant drawings Carol. I wish I had your skills and your 16" Dob

[Talitha]

Thanks everyone.

James, i honestly don't know whether or not you'd see the Saturn Nebula with the Mak but give it a try and let us know, ok? The surface brightness is pretty good.

Seb, from what i've read so far, dark skies are a must in order to see the comet's full size.

Matt, i use regular computer paper, a blending stump and graphite pencils. The sketch is black-on-white, but is reversed to a negative image while being scanned.

Go for it, Phil !! With the 8"SCT, i really had to work hard with averted vision to 'barely' detect three of the Quintet's galaxies (and that was on a night with better than average transparency).

D25, all it takes is practice and a few simple techniques. Trust me... if i can do this stuff, anyone can.