A few deep sky objects, sketched over the last couple of years, using white pastel pencil on black paper. Hunting "faint fuzzies" is really my favourite sport.
| M8: The Lagoon Nebula. 1996 June 13; 00:25 UT; x48; light pollution filter; seeing good; transparency good/fair. The Lagoon Nebula never gets very high above the trees for me, but even so there is more detail than I find easy to draw. | |
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M33 1996 December 6: 22:50 UT; x30; light pollution filter; transparency very good. Numerous bright HII regions visible, including NGC 604; I am not sure how objective the spiral structure is. Difficult to be objective with such a familiar object! |
| M64: The Black-Eye Galaxy 1997 March 31st: 21:20 UT: x150; seeing fair; transparency excellent. The dark dust-lane in this well-known galaxy was obvious. |
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| NGC 4656 1997 April 9: 22:35 UT. Transparency fair/poor; seeing fair. x150. |
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NGC 4559 1997 April 9: 22:45. x100; seeing fair; transparency fair/poor. This lesser-known object had a fascinating appearance; a grey oval with a very mottled surface and no nucleus. Described in various reference books as an Sc spiral with knotty arms; the sketch matches pretty well with a photo I found. Also note the two dents near the stars; undoubtedly a contrast effect caused by the "bright" stars. |
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All images hereafter are viewed through the 10" Meade Starfinder unless the text says otherwise. | |
| M101 1998: May 18: 23:10 UT. x114; seeing excellent; transparency excellent. A large and impressive galaxy as seen in the Starfinder; bright knots filling the field of view, and three stars superimposed. The sketch shows good agreement with various photos I compared it to. |
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NGC 5350, 5354 and 5353 1998: May 30th; 0045 UT; x143; seeing good; transparency good. A compact group of three galaxies in Canes Venatici, all a little below 11th magnitude. An attractive grouping. |
| NGC 281 1998: October 19th; 2105 UT; x46; EHC (light pollution) filter ; seeing poor; transparency moderate. A nebula with embedded cluster in Cassiopeia. Only faintly visible without the filter. |
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