I had the opportunity to visit the great star party that is
the Queensland Astrofest for the first weekend in August. I had a great time up there, meeting
fantastic folks, and sponsored the event through Gondwana Telescopes, an
enterprise of mine.
The trip up started not so well. My family had all been sick with nasty colds
the week before, and I was trying just about everything possible to avoid also
coming down with a cold – I’m crook for a fortnight if I get sick. Everything was going well until the morning
of leaving home when I woke up with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and feeling
rather miserable instead of excited. Oh,
well… Do what we can, eh.
I managed to get two gorgeous clear nights. The second night I hosted a Sky Tour for
those folks who were new to astronomy. I
love doing these outreach events, sharing my passion for the night sky, and
show to people that astronomy is not all about high level science, but allows
people to take their involvement in things astro to as far or complex as they
want.
A good friend, Ken Wishaw, also took a photo of me one night
while I sketched. Below is the lovely
picture he took. Immediately above my
sketch pad you can see Antares and Saturn, and the body of Scorpio twisting up
towards the upper left. And just above
Saturn you can see the Horse of Sagittarius dark nebulosity. I can count at least half a dozen deep sky
objects that this photo of around 30 second exposure picked up. Thanks for the photo Ken – I now have it as
the background image on my computer! J
Ken’s pic was taken while I was doing the third sketch at
Astrofest, that of the Lagoon Nebula, so I’ll expand upon that sketch later on.
Normally I don’t make plans for a sketching program for an
evening. Usually I’ll have some idea in
my head about what’s up for a given night, and sketch following how the night
pans out. However for Astrofest I went
with a program of objects that I really wanted to sketch. I went as far as noting in which order to
visit them depending on the timing of the evening. Given that the first night started overcast
with the sky clearing around 9pm, and the second night I conducted the sky
tour, the first part of my program wasn’t able to be fulfilled. And then with the miserable cold I was now
also sporting, completing three of the remaining six programed targets, I was
pleased with the outcome. Particularly
considering the time a couple of these pieces took.
The first night I managed two sketches. The first of these was the Helix nebula. In my 17.5” scope, it is a surprisingly large
and bright planetary nebula. At first is
looks a bit like a ring with a hollow that is a little less brilliant than its
circumference. But as time goes on with
examining the Helix, subtle details begin to emerge, such as the almost
rhomboid overall shape it has, the textured ring with its jagged spiral ends,
some of its soft extensions, and its little central star. It is almost bizarre to think that it is no
longer a star at the core of this nebulosity, but the core of a one-time star,
with the bulk of its material having been blow out into outer space like a
giant smoky balloon. What once lay
hidden from view for billions of years, is now exposed and due to slowly fade
away, and set to exist for all eternity eventually as black, cold and
super-dense lump of a dead star’s heart.
Object: Helix nebula,
NGC 7293
Scope: 17.5” f/4.5
Karee dob
Gear: 24mm 82°
eyepiece, 83X, OIII filter
Date: 5th
August, 2016
Location: Camp
Duckadang, Linville, Queensland, Australia
The second sketch for the night was the mighty Andromeda
Galaxy. Alas for us here in Australia,
Andromeda is never very high in the sky for us.
And a good view of it really demands good transparency to have any
chance of pulling out details.
Fortunately, this evening provided really good transparency, and an
amazing amount of detail was possible to observe, and the longer my sketch went
on, the more detail and the further and further out the monster extended beyond
its core.
I recently asked on an astronomy forum about the HII regions
within Andromeda, and how come they were not anywhere as easy to view as those
within M33 & M83. The reply I got
from (JT) was not what I expected, and astonishing. Despite the significant tidal influence
exhorted on M31 by its two companion galaxies, M31 is relatively poor in star
forming regions. Much of the free gas
and dust capable of star formation is close to exhausted, so it is not as rich
with massive HII regions. And those HII
regions that do exist are small in size, and greatly obscured by the dust
within the spiral arms.
Also mentioned was the single largest and brightest star
cloud within Andromeda, NGC 206. Often
wrongly labelled as an HII region, it is essentially just a massive star cloud
now, with no HII areas visible to visual examination of the cloud. Attempt to spot NGC 206, and using a blinking
paddle to try to spot HII regions within it and the rest of M31 would be on the
cards.
The image of M31 was just staggering. Just about as good as it gets for us here in
Oz. It is curious how Andromeda slowly
reveals here treasures, demanding your time and attention in order to be given
the honour to view them. Be brief with
her, and she is fickle. Take your time,
caress her and pay her the attention that she deserves, and she richly rewards
you. This way she shows first her
mottled centre, with her large, almost stellar core. Then comes the first layer of extensions past
her centre, with good transparency revealing the dusty lanes in the
foreground. She then begins to show the
two outer lobes, which are uneven in brilliance, one being more diffuse than
the other. Next comes a glimpse of NGC
206 if you are really paying attention.
And finally, when she is convinced of your sincerity, she shows off her
faintest extensions, soft like the breath of an angle, and stunningly long –
Andromeda is one very big spectacle.
NGC 206 appears in the sketch as a brighter patch in the
left lobe. I was absolutely thrilled to
be able to spot this feature. I felt
like I was at a Burlesque show, catching fleeting glimpses of seductive
details. I used both OIII and UHC type
filters to try to tease out any HII details, but none stood out, as was
mentioned to me.
This sketch shows approximately a 3° true field of view,
which is more than twice the field visible in the eyepiece I used, 30mm 82°
Explore Scientific.
Object: Andromeda
Galaxy, M31
Scope: 17.5” f4.5
Karee dob
Gear: 30mm 82°
eyepiece, 1.23° TFOV, 66.7X
Date: 5th
August, 2016
Location: Camp
Duckadang, Linville, Queensland, Australia
Duration: approx. 2.5hrs
The final sketch was done the following night. Here I revisited the Lagoon Nebula that I
sketched last month. There were some
elements with which I was not too happy about last month, and following the
introduction to titanium dioxide pigment powder, I was most keen to revisit The
Lagoon.
Transparency was very good this night too. One major difference between this visit to
the Lagoon to the last was I was not as fatigued as the last time. This had a major effect on the detail I was
able to see and lay down reliably.
As the sketch progressed, I became aware of how long it was
taking to lay down the nebulosity. The
difficulty was not the brighter areas, but the soft outer extensions that kept
on extending further and further out the longer I examined the Lagoon. At one point I caught myself exclaiming “Oh,
when the blazes are you going to stop!”
But I was in for a surprise that made the three hours spent
with the Lagoon very much worthwhile.
While working on the details of the dark lane, I started to pick up
hints of another dark feature. When I
looked a little closer, lo and behold, it was a Bok globule! Sensational!
By the time I finished, I was well and truly spent. All that was left to do was to put the big
scope to bed for the night and turn in myself.
A long and satisfying second night. And room for improvement.
Object: The Lagoon
Nebula, M8
Scope: 17.5” f/4.5
Karee dob
Gear: 24mm 82°
Explore Scientific eyepiece, UHC type filter
Date: 6th
August, 2016
Location: Camp
Duckadang, Linville, Queensland, Australia
Duration: approx.
3hrs
