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Old 06-06-2011, 11:51 AM
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mental4astro (Alexander)
kids+wife+scopes=happyman

mental4astro is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: sydney, australia
Posts: 4,979
Smile Two sketches in one night, :)

Thank you Michael! I'm sorry I didn't acknowledge your mentioning when you posted it way back when.

It's been a very miserable year so far obs. wise, just stating the bleed'n obvious. But didn't we get a ripper last night here in Ol' Sydney Town! Even with work the next day, I just had to pull out the scope.

Conditions started pretty ordinary, but by the time came to pack up, WOW, so steady and clear. In the current thread of Gem's on noting your favourite object I mentioned mine as being M7, with its now half dozen other objects that also lie within its boundary. The three that I had mentioned were so easy to see tonight. No eye strain, no scanning, no hide-and-seek. They were just there! I'll be needing to get finer charts to seek out the three planetary nebulae that Les has mentioned.

M7 was too late to consider as a sketching option as the time by then had come to pack up.

What I did do was two, one of the magnificent GC in Ara, NGC 6397, and one of M8. As by now you may know I am not a big fan of jotting down that "Circle of Confine" that marks the edge of the field of view. Even so, there is some merit in it, . So just to be difficult, I've scribed an arc, rather than a full circle, and made it really, really faint, as I want the DSO to be the main fair.

6397 is really something special. Like its more famous brother, M4, it too has an odd bar formation that crosses its middle, though the component stars in this "belt" are fainter. Its tendrils reach out very far, with what may be unassociated patches of clusters splashed out far from the main ball.

M8 in an OIII filter, even from home, is really something! I had only really noticed the main 'hour glass' shape of the nebula. Tonight I got my first look at just how extensive the nebulousity really is. It is bloody enourmous! The nebulosity is so textured too, with swirls, dark lanes, and density variations extending way beyond the field of view. I've got some more work to do to fine tune my touch. Some details came out a little too strong, others not quite the shape I was after. A start all the same for a future dark sky effort.

Both sketches where done using the same scope and eyepiece, M8, however, I also used an OIII filter. A bit rusty, but I'm pleased with the two and a half hours spent.

NGC 6397 & M8
Scope: 17.5" dob
Gear: 15mm Superview, 133X, & OIII filter with M8
Date: June 5, 2011
Location: Sydney
Media: White pastel, white & black charcoal and white ink on A4 size black paper
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (NGC 6397, 5-6-'11.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (M8, 5-6-'11.jpg)
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