Spent the new moon just gone under the dark skies of Leyburn at my society's monthly dark sky camp. We had a cloud free night on Saturday night when these sketches were done.
We had to endure reasonable high winds, however I think this had the effect of creating laminar flow and making the seeing spectacular. The transparency was also high with the crepe ring on Saturn clearly visible in my 12.5" dob. Also an experienced observer noted he had never seen M83 in so much detail before - and I would have to agree. Below are attached some sketches made that night at the eyepiece. The spiral arms of M83, NGC2442 (the meat hook in Volans) and structure detail in M65 & 66 was very evident in my dob. I also spent plenty of time with the Eight Burst nebula which was revealing a lot of its shell structure as shown in the sketch. I also had access to a 20" obsession that night, though unfortunately the strong wind was turning it into a sail making any sketching impossible on a ladder It was certainly nice to surf through the Virgo galaxy cluster though
Also viewed the usual favourites and objects like the Pup (Sirius B), Shapely 1, and W1 Boattini.
Very appealing sketches Andrew! ..could you tells us a lil about the materials you've used.. what lighting, if any, on the sketchpad..
The sketches were done on normal sketch paper (A5 size - usually 3 to a page) using a HB lead pencil and a HB pacer pencil (for locating stars and faint stars). I have a little box with 3 LED lights that has two power levels that I hold in the hand that holds the sketch pad - usually this light is lying flat on the pad and illuminating enough of it to draw. The actual sketching starts with plotting out the bright stars and trying to keep everything relative (ie "gap between those stars is two thirds of the distance between those other stars, therefore plonk a dot there"). If it is a galaxy I will usually also plot the core at this stage. Then it is just a matter of filling in the nebula and fainter stars which involves a lot of glancing between the eyepiece and the sketch pad. I use the side of the pencil to get some material on the page in the general area of nebula, and then I use my finger to smudge / smooth out the pencil to replicate the view through the eyepiece.
These sketches show the detail I noticed through the eyepiece, but another person may not be able to see the detail as readily. I also draw the details seen through averted vision and any other 'seeing' tricks such as bumping the scope. As there is no tracking on my scope, I am constantly bumping and moving the scope to re-align the object to the edge of the field and then let it drift across the field of view which helps me to notice the detail. As it drifts across I try and identify two of three bits of detail at the eyepiece to add to the drawing before I go back to the sketch pad.
When I get home I erase the stars in the wrong position (designated by a cross I put through them) and any erroneous pencil marks that make it onto the page from juggling two pencils, the light and the sketch pad. I then scan the image, and take the scan into Irfanview where I crop the individual objects from the original page and then apply a negative change to the image to make the pencil marks white and the background black. I usually have to resize the image as the scanned image is too big (in this case I resized the longest dimension on the cropped image to 800 pixels) then saved the image.
Quote:
Originally Posted by h0ughy
great drawings Andrew - haven't seenyou do them for some time!!
haven't been out for a while mate I think last Sept / Oct was my previous trip out there and since then it has only been short trips out to the Lockyer Valley where I am more focused on observing than sketching due to the shorter time available.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 你B
excellent sketches! Man if that's what a 12" is capable under dark skies, I'm missing out
Thanks SAB. I should re-iterate that the sky conditions were extra good when these sketches were done. The homunculus was super with the three dark patches on the brighter lobe and the spike heading towards the two adjacent stars all very eveident at the eyepiece. I have gazed upon the Eight Burst Nebula many times and not really noticed the shell structure (particularly around its close in neighbour star), but on this occasion it was so evident. My optics were cooled and my collimation was dead on - all factors that effect what you can see. My scope is also f6 - so therefore throws up tighter stars (and possibly finer details) than the avg f5 scope and is a little more forgiving with focus and collimation which all helps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jakob
Nice work Andrew!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcles
Hi Andrew & All,
Congrats mate and well done, excellent sketches -- particularly liked NGC 2442.
Best,
Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T
Thanks Guys. It had been a while, but I am happy with how these turned out.
I noticed the images here at work (different monitor) look a bit grainy. I think I should have resized them smaller to be in line with their original image scale. Oh well never mind.
Thanks Glen ... you missed a great night. Apart from the wind which made John's 20" a sail the conditions were great. John was certainly excited by the view of the Homunculus he had in his scope.
Hi Andrew
Great to see your excellent sketches gracing these pages again.
Looks like some good seeing, If I could get views that good with our 18" I would be happy !
..thanks for that thorough description of your process Andrew, .. my first attempt at a sketch of Jupiter and moons looks like I'd had an epileptic seizure!! ..whilst attempting to copy Arabic script, Leonardo-style in mirror hand... ...so you can imagine my wonder at your deft renditions!
I sincerely thought you'd a "white on black" medium craftily aiding and abetting your nuance and definition.. at least A4 and textured like a pastel paper.. ..and, I MUST investigate the red light -sketchbook variables!!
..may I ask ..if you are "near sighted" at all? ( I'm the opposite.. more of a 'mural painter' ..and 'impressionistic' at that, ) ...the shift from EP to refocus on page (whilst maintaining visual-memory of subject... and 'nudging'-Dobwise, between-times ) ..is all a bit of a "juggling act" with actually putting pencil -to- paper!! ...nevermind returning a decipherable end-product ..I suspect much experience, and much familiarity , ..as well as those "tricks of the trade" you've cited, inform your "portraiture" of the Celestial host magically revealed by the silicate/ceramic-related "metal" wrought of the geologic 'body' born of the star-processes that , likewise the light , ...there also long ago born, ..now through your optics, nerves, flesh and bone , and 'spirit/intellect', ..you also capture...
....pencil and paper.... human eye and intellect... no Ha/IR gobbledygook..
....(tho' all of everything now mass-production possible too... neither do we grind our 30mm lenses nor make our own paper and pigments... )
...but still, ..p'haps some with their Hooey-tek , supermarket-plug'n'play off-the-TOP-shelf follow-the-checklist tick-the-boxes euphoria,
....might give their complacent self-satisfaction a lil' stimulation by trying the "primitive" ways of those who , "ergo inferior" , preceeded them ...?????
.....................let's have a Dob'n'draw "I'm better'n you" for a change?????
....mebe a "StarParty".. with only Arabic foods and technologies... say, 7th-8th century..
......and music!!!!!!!
....but no... lets not upset the "status quo"...
Sorry Andrew... I've transgressed yet again... take small solace that I, ..nothing that I am, did revere your effort and achievements...
tho' the "busy".... masturbi ad infinatum.......................... .............
Yeah, bein da pretenshus artiste typo, I tried me own "en plein air au nuit" once, replete wif me zinc plates, squirt bottle of acid an me drypoint and scraper: ended up in the local can charged wif carryin offensive weapons wif intent.....
...but oise did do 'trowshush scrabble 'tempt , me Dobs dashed tweena clouds.. Unc..
...considering my 52 years of mis-spent meat-world existence.. 4 weeks "ownership" of telescope... and ferkall "supportive" the whole 52 rotting gravity existence.. mate... I ADAMANTLY CLAIM MY VEHEMANT OPINIONS re ANYFERKINTHING I CHOOSE TO !!!!!!!!!
....more mildly, ..may I return to my thesis....?? (email Darryl.. pin-up a promise )
....I'll show when I'm ready... It'll be a long time 'til I'll feel adequate
3000yrs from now.. when windbark 3.22 conflict sun java 5.1 advert-world domination ad infinitum doesn't play on your wank-sys now-topia globo-watsis.... there'll still be carbon smudges on cellulose matrix... .. .. .. "sketches"
...significant "a human saw this thus".. not "a market distributed product margin-maximizingly thus".....and the sheep did follow..each in his flock..
...how many U-tube gigabytes already beyond oblivion?
but "so what!?" ....a thumb-print "I made this"... or a 'Visa'-stub "I bought this"...
Hi Andrew
Great to see your excellent sketches gracing these pages again.
Looks like some good seeing, If I could get views that good with our 18" I would be happy !
Quote:
Originally Posted by dhumpie
Nice work Andrew!!!!! Wish I could have stayed another night...oh well we had a good night on Fri too. Did the winds stay up on Sat?
Thanks Guys. Where are your sketches from Friday night Darren?
Quote:
Originally Posted by omnivorr
..may I ask ..if you are "near sighted" at all? ( I'm the opposite.. more of a 'mural painter' ..and 'impressionistic' at that, ) ...the shift from EP to refocus on page (whilst maintaining visual-memory of subject... and 'nudging'-Dobwise, between-times ) ..is all a bit of a "juggling act" with actually putting pencil -to- paper!! ...nevermind returning a decipherable end-product ..I suspect much experience, and much familiarity , ..as well as those "tricks of the trade" you've cited, inform your "portraiture" of the Celestial host magically revealed by the silicate/ceramic-related "metal" wrought of the geologic 'body' born of the star-processes that , likewise the light , ...there also long ago born, ..now through your optics, nerves, flesh and bone , and 'spirit/intellect', ..you also capture...
....pencil and paper.... human eye and intellect... no Ha/IR gobbledygook..
....(tho' all of everything now mass-production possible too... neither do we grind our 30mm lenses nor make our own paper and pigments... )
...but still, ..p'haps some with their Hooey-tek , supermarket-plug'n'play off-the-TOP-shelf follow-the-checklist tick-the-boxes euphoria,
....might give their complacent self-satisfaction a lil' stimulation by trying the "primitive" ways of those who , "ergo inferior" , preceeded them ...?????
.....................let's have a Dob'n'draw "I'm better'n you" for a change?????
....mebe a "StarParty".. with only Arabic foods and technologies... say, 7th-8th century..
......and music!!!!!!!
Sorry Andrew... I've transgressed yet again... take small solace that I, ..nothing that I am, did revere your effort and achievements...
Omni
Thanks for the thoughts. If I have deciphered correctly, you have described a principle dear to my heart - Keep It Simple!!
I like the fact that I don't have to worry about batteries, don't have to worry about cables, don't have to worry about pointing accuracy, don't have to worry about PEC, don't have to worry about guiding ...you get the idea. Once the scope is put together (truss dob) it really gets out of the way. Being f6 it is a bit high at the zenith, but this is also the dob hole so not as critical. Most of my observing is with the dob at a comfortable eye height (for me) standing upright looking straight ahead. The 'tracking' through the nudge just happens automatically now without any particular thought process, so essentially the scope really does get out of the way. This leaves me to gaze at the view and contemplate the reality, the beauty, appreciate the time and distances involved.
Of course I do appreciate that it is each to his (or her) own, and that some are only truly happy when they are involved in the constant tinker and desire to improve their equipments performance and results, but this is just not me.
In terms of my eyes I don't need glasses for anything close so there is no issue going from the eyepiece to the sketch pad, sometimes I struggle with distant road signs and will probably eventually require glasses for driving.
I started sketching to document the view, but I have found it has helped me greatly over time to improve my ability to see and notice the details at the eyepiece.
Since you are local (well same city) we should tee up an observing session sometime and relive some simpler times without the buzz-whurl-click permeating the air.
It was certainly nice to surf through the Virgo galaxy cluster though 
) ...the shift from EP to refocus on page (whilst maintaining visual-memory of subject... and 'nudging'-Dobwise, between-times ) ..is all a bit of a "juggling act" with actually putting pencil -to- paper!! ...nevermind returning a decipherable end-product 
..I suspect much experience, and much familiarity , ..as well as those "tricks of the trade" you've cited, inform your "portraiture" of the Celestial host magically revealed by the silicate/ceramic-related "metal" wrought of the geologic 'body' born of the star-processes that , likewise the light , ...there also long ago born, ..now through your optics, nerves, flesh and bone , and 'spirit/intellect', ..you also capture...
