Some Sketches

[Sidewinder]

Hello!
Well, to call them real drawings might be exaggerated, it's more or less quick sketches and I am not a real artist, but they help me to improve my viewing skills and they're also fun to do.
The sketches are directly at the telescope made with Faber Castell 9000 pencils (8B to 2H) on white paper, then they're scanned, inverted and digitally reworked with Adobe Photoshop, still I want them to be recognised as hand drawn sketches. Lately, I've started to experiment and add colour, especially to double stars and open clusters. The techniques might change over time.
Those are some examples, there is more to come, as far as time and weather permit

Collinder 399:

http://www.sebastianlehner.de/images/Cr399z400Farbe.jpg

The Coathanger Cluster, basically an object for binoculars, with the 32mm SWA it still fits into the FOV, however.

Albireo:

http://www.sebastianlehner.de/images...eo400Farbe.jpg

The famous double star system in Cygnus, it's not that easy to get the colours right, but this shows more or less, how I see it, the contrast is fantastic, no matter how often I view it.

M81/82:

http://www.sebastianlehner.de/images/m8182400.jpg

Fantastic pair of Galaxies in Ursa major, plus, they represent the different angles you can have, while viewing those distant objects: edge-on or view of the galactic disc. Again a SWA eyepiece was necessary to get them in one FOV - higher magnifications proide more details, but you lose the impression of viewing both galaxies at the same time.

M 103:

http://www.sebastianlehner.de/images/M103.jpg

A wonderful open cluster in Cassiopeia, you have to view it at high magnifications, but then it beautiful triangular shape and the orange colour of one of its central star becomes very prominent. There are more great open clusters just in its vicinitiy (NGC 663, 654 and 457), which are also always worth a look.

All right, enough for now, at the moment there's clouds rolling all over Germany, so I'll either rework some of the old sketches or simply wait, till I can create new ones.
There may be real artists around, even though I'm not one of them, sketching at the telescope is endless fun to me and helps me see more and more everytime I go out.
All important information can be found directly in the sketches!

Enjoy!

Sebastian

P.S. Well, it shows the drawings directly in the thread, when I compose the message, but there are just links after posting, even though I used the image option, I'm sorry for that - but clicking on them send you right to the drawings.

[ving (David)]

gee you have those colours down pretty good
quite the astro artist

thanks for sharing

[Gas Giant (Andrew)]

Love them! Drawing DSOs has been an aim of mine for some time, but I've generally settled for writing a description.
Could be just the inspiration I need!

[jase (Jason)]

I agree Sabastian. Sketching at the eyepeice trains the eye to see greater detail. I have some old sketches of planets I did about five years ago through a friends 6" dob. My initial ones were really poor, but over time they progressively improved.

You capture the scenes very well. I wasn't game enough to go DSO's and just stayed with planets. Great work.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Nice work Sebastian, I would sketch but I simply have no ability with a pencil.

[iceman (Mike)]

Sebastian, to attach them to the thread, use the "manage attachments" button, and browse for them on your computer.

You can attach 8 per post.

btw, fantastic sketches! A skill I do NOT have!

[Octane (Humayun)]

Sebastian,

Wow, these are just too cool!

Very, very impressive!

Regards,
Humayun

[astro_south (Andrew)]

They look great Sebastian - nice to see some more sketching around here. I especially like the coloured stars - really nice effect. Show us more!

[Sidewinder]

Thanks a lot people, I feel really flattered!
To all those who think they can't sketch: I don't have any artistic talent either (that's why I am not becoming a surgeon, but a radiologist ), but the sketches don't have to be perfect at all. I can only encourage you to try it, it's real fun and it improves your observing skills tremendously.

As for the management of attachments: I wanted to place the drawings directly into the text, where the links are now. I used the "Insert Image" button for that, which asks for the internet address of the pictures and then implements them in html code [img]address[/img]. When I preview the post, the pictures are directly shown, as it is supposed to be, but as soon as I make the posting itself, it's only links that are left.
I have no idea, why this happens, in other forums it's no problem, on the other hand, it's not that bad anways, as long as everyone can view the pictures!

Sebastian

P.S. I'd like to see some drawings of objects I can't sketch from the Northern Hemisphere - so give it a go, all you Australian people!

[Ric]

Hi Sebastian, those are great sketches that you have done, the use of colour as well sets them off perfectly. I have done a few myself, mainly of the planets and found it very rewarding.
I now feel quite inspired to break out the pencils again

cheers

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Sebastian, these drawings are fantastic!

more please!

I particularly like the fact that you sketch in colour most people just seem to do it in B /W, your approach is great

[iceman (Mike)]

As for the management of attachments: I wanted to place the drawings directly into the text, where the links are now. I used the "Insert Image" button for that, which asks for the internet address of the pictures and then implements them in html code [img]address[/img]. When I preview the post, the pictures are directly shown, as it is supposed to be, but as soon as I make the posting itself, it's only links that are left.

Sebastian the reason for that, is we've disabled the IMG tag in posts because it can lead to large images being embedded in the page which:
a) Exceed the image posting guidelines
b) Give no choice to dialup people whether to download the image or not

So that's why it appeared as a link instead of the inline image.

[Sidewinder]

Hi Mike,
thanks a lot for that information!
I only kinda wondered, but this cleared it up right away!

Sebastian

[Rodstar (Rod)]

I too love your sketches Sebastian. I have started sketching too. When I havre my new scope, I plan to do some galaxy sketches and post them, just so that people can get a sense of what is possible with visual observing with large aperture.

I especially love the Albireo sketch. That is exactly what I see, too. Such a lovely colour contrast.

[Ric]

I'll be on holidays soon down the coast with the C8 and no DSI for three weeks, could be a good time to fire up the pencils while it's quiet and relaxing and plenty of dark sky.

cheers

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Excellent sketches. Have you seen the sketches of the sun that are sometimes posted on spaceweather.

Check out http://www.spaceweather.com/index.cgi

22 November - there are many more just need to search.

Cheers Petra

[Sidewinder]

Thanks a lot for the many positive reactions people, I really didn't consider the sketches that great, as I said, I am not an artist myself, but I guess they can really give a view of how you see things visually through the telescope.
If I have inspired people around here to bring out the pencils again, I am as happy as I can be, would be great to compare sketches of different objects!

I could post some sketches out of the can, but honestly, I'd like to draw new ones, but with the clouds rolling over the European winter skies with no improvement in sight, it's really frustrating.

I've seen the solar sketches by the way, some were done by people over at the Cloudy Nights Forum, we've discussed them there - excellent and artful sketches!

In hope of clear skies,
Sebastian

P.S. Actually, the plan was to get a 16" Dobson as next telescope, but before that, I might invest into a Richfield Reflector, as there are many good ones for reasonable prices. They're "sketching machines" par excellence and really great for bringin vast objects (North America Nebula, Veil Nebula etc.) down to paper. So expect something coming from that direction.