Peter, Oh you lucky, lucky man. I have not had a single chance to see Lovejoy at all this summer. I haven't had a scope out since the start of December either.
You've teased me mercilessly with this sketch, . Such a lovely rendition.
I really think this a worthy candidate for an Astronomy Sketch of the Day. Really Mozzie, a magnificent sketch of a rare event! Naked eye too. Brilliant. . We've seen plenty of lovely pictures of Lovejoy, but this is the first sketch I've seen, and unaided!
Pickings have been slim so far this season. I haven't done a DSO sketch since October last year. So this offering is of the second sketch I did at IISAC last year.
This was my first view of Thor's Helmet (thanks Greg, ). While transperancy wasn't perfect, I was surprised at how easy it was to make out the double bubble feature in the middle of the crown. Yet I couldn't quite make out the fainter extensions that extend in the opposite from the pictured plumes. A consequence of the lacking transperancy.
Object: Thor's Helmet, NGC 2359
Scope: 17.5" push-pull dob
Gear: 16mm Konig, 125X, and OIII filter
Date: 30th October, 2011
Location: Lostock, NSW, Oz during IISAC '11
Media: white pastel and charcoal pencils on A4 black paper.
Last edited by mental4astro; 13-01-2012 at 08:39 PM.
Reason: typo
Northern hemisphere appeared fainter and smaller than its southern counter part, and somewhat uneven in brightness where it appeared to be brighter adjacent the NW boundary of the dark lane. A mag 12 star was seen superimposed at the NW end of the lane with some surrounding haze within the rift itself. A star is located 'within' the south hemisphere and a very faint star was seen at the SW boundary of the rift.
Thanks guys. Centaurus A is a fairly low surface brightness object, and as Alex said, averted vision is your best friend. It seems to be universally heralded by the folks on CN, but if you observe this one under light pollution, it's low surface brightness will render it somewhat unimpressive.
Last edited by pgc hunter; 30-01-2012 at 09:21 PM.
Haven't done a sketch in a while - here's Mars tonight at around 12:45am. Rough line sketch at eyepiece, redrawn. Detail was very low contrast and seeing wasn't all that good. Took a while before I tuned in to the subtle shading differences but the ice cap was quite clear from the start. Mars at 225x is still pretty small!
. Such a lovely rendition.
. We've seen plenty of lovely pictures of Lovejoy, but this is the first sketch I've seen, and unaided!
). While transperancy wasn't perfect, I was surprised at how easy it was to make out the double bubble feature in the middle of the crown. Yet I couldn't quite make out the fainter extensions that extend in the opposite from the pictured plumes. A consequence of the lacking transperancy.
