Spicing up the process - a video of me sketching the Moon

Hi all,

I've been wanting to make a video of me sketching at the scope, and of the Mellish Technique I use in sketching Deep Sky Objects.  Well, I've finally started the process!

This first video is of me sketching the Moon.  A video that is two hours long where not too much happens makes for very boring viewing.  So I've sped up the video and added a track that I am very fond of.

You will see the entire process of a lunar sketch done at the eyepiece.  The many, many changes between pastels, charcoal and blending stump.  The constant sharpening with a knife and shaping of the pastels and charcoal pencils on sandpaper.  The way I work one area at a time after having planned the layout of the sketch, and finish it of with little touch ups here and there.  And then finally the moment when I am satisfied that things are complete.

The first picture below shows me all rugged up ready for a sketch session with my lovely old C8.  The white box you see in front of me is used to shield my materials from dew.

I hope the video succeeds in giving you an insight to my sketching process.

Our Wonderful Sun

Hello all,

I’ve been able to steal a few moments over the last couple of weeks to sketch Sol.

This is turning into a wonderful journey for me with the Sun.  I am not just marvelling at its ever changing surface.  It has also spurred me onto learning about our parent star.  I never thought nuclear fusion could be such a spectacular topic!!!

August 18 gave me a very active limb and chromosphere quarter section.  The chromosphere (surface of the Sun) was riddled with fine filaments (prominences seen over the surface), plages and sunspots.  The limb had an assortment of prominence types – arch, platform arches, & a pyramid.  Also a lovely long spicule.

Yesterday was a race to beat the approaching clouds and rain.  The race became more intense as the Sun had two wonderful areas of activity on the go, but on opposite sides of the disk.  As things turned out, I was only able to complete only one of the two sketches I hoped to accomplish.  Better something than nothing…

The second sketch presented here shows two different stages of prominence development.  The brighter part on the lower right shows mature platform prominences.  They are called platform as they exhibit a flat, table like roof where high energy plasma is racing through the magnetic fields on the surface of the Sun.  There are two platform prominences here, with a smaller & brighter one underneath the taller but thinner one above it.  The larger top prominence stretched out into an ever diminishing ribbon, to then frazzle out into shredded pieces.  A really lovely spectacle to follow through off fine details.

Plasma, for folks who may not be familiar, is a gas that has been heated to such a high temperature that its outter layer of an electron (in the case of Hydrogen) or electrons (for Helium), have been ripped off.  The result is a gas that is electrically charged, and so is affected by the strong magnetic fields that develop on the Sun’s hot surface.  These magnetic fields channel these plasma gases through what we see as tube like arches – prominences!  These magnetic fields are not stable and permanent features on the Sun, appearing and disappearing all the time, that can last between hours through to weeks.  And as these magnetic fields fluctuate, the prominences change in shape.

Large prominences, when they finally collapse, can create magnificent and enormous plume of plasma that billow out from the sun out into space.  We commonly know these as flares.  I’ll describe how these flares manifest themselves here on Earth another time, and how they can knock out electrical networks.

But be they large or smaller prominences, when they do collapse, the material that is released is known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).  There is an intermediate step in prominence evolution, but we’ll deal with these later when I am able to sketch on of these.

It is the disintegrating stages of one of these coronal mass ejections that we see on the upper left.  We see just the remaining columns of plasma that is being held in place by the weakening magnetic fields.  When I started this sketch I had been able to spot some of the plume of escaping plasma being launched off into space.  I should have sketched this section first, rather than the platform prominences, for when I returned to the CME, that plume was too faint to see through the incoming thin cloud.  Oh, well, lesson learnt…

Both sketches were done using the same equipment:

Scope:  ED80 f7.5 refractor

Gear:  Daystar Quark, 25mm plossl, 101X

Dates:  18^th August & 3^rd September, 2015

Location:  Sydney, Australia.

Unveiling the Veil - part II

The Veil Nebula really starts coming into its own as aperture increases.  With the 17.5” scope, the filamentary structures within the nebulosity begin to resolve.  Mottling, or variations in density of illumination, are easier to pick up.  And wispy, soft extensions of the ends of the nebulous cloud seem to keep extending on and on.

The Veil looked to be ablaze!  The filament structures give movement to it, as they twist and wind, streak and surge through the cloud.  The true bubble nature of the object begins to achieve a 3D look to it as the fainter and softer less dense material of the ‘inside’ of the ring starts to show itself with its own set of concentrations of material.  It really beings to show itself as the smoky bubble it is as the aftermath of the cataclysmic explosion that created it.

I am sure that it would be even more splendid when it is higher up in the sky.  I can only feel that this first look at the Veil is really just a tease of promise to what it can totally show – just like a veil serves to tease us with its haunting semi transparency…

I hope I have succeeded in giving a good depiction of this majestic structure.  I felt like an adolescent, with their quirky physical awkwardness, and handling a precious and mercurial gift, and not being sure just how to handle it.  The Veil really left me awestruck.

Alex.

Object:  Easter section of the Veil Nebula

Scope:  17.5” Karee push-pull dob

Gear:  23mm Celestron Axiom LX, 87X, & NPB filter

Date:  15^th August, 2015

Location:  Linville, Queensland, Australia

Media:  Soft pastel, charcoal & white ink on A4 size black paper

Duration:  Approx. 2.5 hrs.

Unveiling the Veil Nebula, Part I

Hello all,

This last week I attended the Queensland Astrofest, held outside the village of Linville, some two hours west of Brisbane.  We were blessed with cloudless skies, and with fantastic transparency.  The quality of the transparency meant that objects that objects much easier to see and with better clarity.  And for objects that are close to the northern horizon, this is very significant for us located under our southern skies.

I was armed to the teeth with telescopes this time around.  The heat I packed included a 17.5” f/4, a 12” f/5, and 8” f/4 – all push-pull dobs.  I considered my 4” refractor, but really, how many scopes does a man need…  LOL!

During the first night, I was pointed to the direction of the Veil nebula, which I had never seen, and in all honesty, had never considered as a plausible target from my southern location.  The first set of directions for the Veil Nebula proved to be a stunningly fortunate mistake.  In scanning for the Veil Nebula, I chanced upon the North America Nebula!  I was using my brand new 8” f/4 Kulali dob, which when coupled with an Explore Scientific 30mm 82° eyepiece, yields a sensational 3° True Field of View!  The entire North America nebula just managed to fit inside the field of view!  As tempted as I was to sketch it, and knowing that I would take around 2 hours to complete a sketch of it, I thought better of it as it would be disappearing behind some trees in around an hour’s time.

A better set of instructions was uttered to me to find the Veil, and then there was no mistak.

It was so bright and so detailed for an object very close to the northern horizon!  And it is so BIG!  The entire Veil circle just fit inside the True Field of View of this little scope.  The first sketch below depicts the view of the entire Veil as seen through this eyepiece/scope combination.

Again, the advantage of having a manual push-pull dob came into its own.  The amount of detail just kept getting richer and richer as the constant push-pull action keeps refreshing my vision and so allowing my eye to see fainter and fainter detail.  The remaining ‘gunsmoke-like’ of the cataclysmic supernova explosion is such an exquisite image.  Being so close to my northern horizon, the Veil must reveal so much more detail when it is viewed from a more favourable northern location.

It must also be kept in mind that the Veil Nebula sits smack bang in the middle of the band of the Milky Way galaxy.  The entire nebula is set upon a background carpet of the glow of the Milky Way.  A really exciting and exquisite view.

Object:  Veil Nebula, supernova remnant

Telescope:  8” f/4 Kulali push-pull dob

Gear:  Explore Scientific 30mm 82°, 3° TFOV, and NPB filter

Location:  Linville, Queensland, Australia

Date:  14^th August, 2015

Media:  Soft pastel, charcoal and white ink on A4 size black paper

Duration:  approx. 1.5hrs

5 Day old Moon

Hi all,

I have wanted to sketch the crescent Moon for a few years now.  But the timing of the phase during the day is rarely ever a good one for me.  Today, after such a long wait, the 5 day old Moon beckoned, and all the ducks lined up !

One aspect of the crescent Moon that has appealed to me is that when it is high in the sky, it is set within the blue of the daytime sky.  I’ve had blue coloured paper for some time now in patient anticipation that one day I would get the chance to use it.

What a magnificent scene greeted my eyes.  The amount of detail took me by surprise.  I used low magnification, and this served to concentrate the quality of the image.  And it took me a little while to figure out that there was no way I was going to replicate the level of detail I would normally put into lunar sketch – it is just impossible.

It was a joy to produce this sketch.  As a whole, the finished piece impressed me too!  It was such a delicious treat to see not a smooth lunar limb, but a textured and rippled limb with mountains, ridges and valley breaking up the hard edge.  The terminator was beaded with isolated peaks catching the first rays of the sun.  And details that are normally washed out when I typically get to sketch the Moon, tonight were on show.

But the magic of the night held another precious moment for me after I completed the sketch.  My young son joined me in the backyard.  He was keen to see the Moon through the telescope I had just sketched.  He was mesmerized by the detail, and when I explained the flat plains he could see were fields of lava flows, his curiosity really picked up.  As a final treat I showed him Saturn.  He was amazed to learn that gap that is Casini’s Division is larger than Australia!  And we finished with a view of the streaky clouds on the disk which he ran inside to tell his mum about!  “Mum, mum, I just saw clouds on another planet!”

I came in a very happy dad.

Object:  5 day old Moon

Scope:  C8, 8” SCT

Gear:  30mm Superview, 67X

Date:  21^st July, 2015

Location:  Sydney, Australia

Media:  white and blue soft pastel & white ink on blue paper.

Article: Cooling of Newtonian optics - an insight

I've just posted an article in the Telescope Bits and Bobs page about the cooling of Newtonian optics.  

While we have professional observatories to give us all the clues on how to best deal with cooling and dew prevention, it is all too often an area that is misunderstood and poorly implemented in amateur instruments.  In this article I look at several way of dealing with cooling with there being distinct requirements depending on telescope structure and with visual vs photo applications, and dew prevention and how this can be applied to our scopes, and where we often go wrong.  And often, poorly implemented cooling systems are also found on commercially made instruments, and while done with the best of intentions, can create more problems than solve.

This is not a 'how to' article, but one geared to helping understand the thermodynamics at play and things to avoid.  How these strategies are applied to individual instruments then very much depends on each scope, the application of the instrument and how the scope's owner can implement these.

I hope you find this article I've written helpful.

Clear skies and sharp pencils,

Alex.

"Here comes the Sun"... and it is so detailed!

Hi all,

I had not seen through a dedicated Hydrogen alpha solar scope until May last year.  That was an extraordinary experience for me too.  I had that scope all to myself for half an hour, and to see prominences on the Sun change so quickly in that time was staggering to behold.  To think that the Sun's diameter is roughly 300,000km and to see those prominences move so quickly, those jets of plasma must be moving soooo fast!!!!

I have been considering getting a dedicated solar scope since then.  But they are so expensive, and it means getting ANOTHER scope.  The solution presented itself when I came across an article on the Daystar Quark solar filter - I will post a review of this device in the Bits and Bobs page in the next couple of days as this is not the page for this right now.

I've also been experimenting with different techniques of sketching the Sun.  I'v wanted to keep using black paper as the substrate, so soft pastels were a must for the vibrancy of their colours.  And as it turns out, the method I've come up with for solar sketching is a happy mix of the Mellish Technique and the technique I use for sketching the Moon!  Brilliant!

Below is the sketch I did today using the Daystar Quark.  A spectacular spicule on the solar limb made for a perfect subject.  The base of the spicule was very detailed with a small bright jet of plasma shooting up beside the long spicule, and smaller jets around it too.  The spicule itself was very details, with two distinct branches that slowly feathered out and arced back down  - maybe this was a faint prominence instead.  Either way, it made for a lovely vista.  Another spicule was visible a little further up along the limb too.  A little artistic license here too as I added a sunspot and its associated plages - these features were present on the Sun, but a little beyond the scope of the sketch, but I added them to the sketch to make a record of the view and to gain more experience with sketching these.

I am sure that this piece will be the first of many more solar sketches I will do.  Such a fabulous subject, the Sun.

Alex.

Object:  Solar spicule

Telescope:  100mm f/5 refractor stopped down to 50mm f/10

Gear:  Daystar Quark prominence filter, 25mm plossl, 84X

Date:  3rd March, 2015

Location:  Sydney, Australia

Media:  Soft pastels