Andru
February 15th, 2012, 10:27 PM
This is my first post on this forum. In order to introduce myself I want to show some sketches I made in the last months :)
Very important: For a good view, look at the drawings in a darkened room. The monitor should be adjusted so that all steps of the greyscale wedge at the bottom of the sketchs are just distinguishable.
This, however, doesn't apply to laptops. In my experience, modifying the monitor adjustment (at least at „affordable“) laptops makes it worse.
North is up, East is to the left.
NGC 253 (Sculptor galaxy) und NGC 288
20x80 binoculars
NELM 6mag3 (SQM-L maximal value in zenith: 21,15)
80
The western part of NGC 253 seemed to be a little bit brighter. The SW-edge was slightly better defined than the northern edge. This is matching with some photos, but not with all sketches I saw on the internet.
Because of that I would like to hear your observations, maybe with similar aperture.
The center of the NGC 288 is as bright as the outer zones of NGC 253. The globular has no clearly defined edges (at least under these less than average skies).
Barnard 142 und 143 (Barnard's E)
20x80 binoculars
NELM 6mag5
78
The well known shape of this big and very beautiful dark nebula is visible with direct vision. The brilliant orange gamma Aquilae (to the left on the drawing) looks great together with the dark nebulae, but disturbs when it comes to detail observations.
I needed a few hours until I was sure about the position of the edges of the "E" and their slightly different „softness“ as well as some very slight differences in brightness within the nebula(e).
Some examples: At the – otherwise very soft – eastern edge of the northern part of the „E“ there is a small, better defined area. Edit: Here is a great sketch by Jeremy Perez (under much better sky conditions), in which this detail is visible, too. http://www.perezmedia.net/beltofvenus/archives/images/2009/img2009050201_B142_B143lg.jpg
The northernmost horizontal „bar“ of the „E“ is very slightly brighter than the other ones.
The darkest area of the whole dark nebula is located at the SE edge of the northern part (where the vertical bar meets the middle horizontal bar).
Messier 27
20x80 binoculars
NELM 6mag5
75
Besides the narrow darker area (which broadens to the edges) in the center, a small very bright spot at the SW edge of the bright bar (in the middle) is visible.
(If the last sentence was to „German“, I hope the sketch will help understanding it :))
UGC 1281 and PGC 6700
14“ f/5 dobson
200x (a bit too much)
NELM 6mag7 (dense fog in the valley blocking most of the light pollution, but average transparency above)
73
Thanks to Reiner for letting me use his 14" dobson.
The Superthin galaxy UGC 1281 was visible with indirect vision only. After some minutes both flat final points of the flat central area, which was visible first, seemed to grow longer (to the south more than to the north).
I could see the whole galaxy at a time only every now and again. Partly that was due to the too high magnification (but a more suitable one wasn't available).
A faint „star“ in my rough sketch (which I made while observing) turned out to be the small galaxy PGC 6700.
Because I didn't make a finder chart I overlooked a second companion/background galaxy, PGC 212843.
Uwe Glahn sketched this galaxy trio years ago: http://www.deepsky-visuell.de/Zeichnungen/UGC1281.htm
Last, but not least (I hope so :)):
Messier 42 and 43, NGC 1973, 1975 and 1977 (sword of Orion)
20x80 binoculars
NELM 6mag2 and extremely poor transparency
74
Greetings from Germany,
Andru
Very important: For a good view, look at the drawings in a darkened room. The monitor should be adjusted so that all steps of the greyscale wedge at the bottom of the sketchs are just distinguishable.
This, however, doesn't apply to laptops. In my experience, modifying the monitor adjustment (at least at „affordable“) laptops makes it worse.
North is up, East is to the left.
NGC 253 (Sculptor galaxy) und NGC 288
20x80 binoculars
NELM 6mag3 (SQM-L maximal value in zenith: 21,15)
80
The western part of NGC 253 seemed to be a little bit brighter. The SW-edge was slightly better defined than the northern edge. This is matching with some photos, but not with all sketches I saw on the internet.
Because of that I would like to hear your observations, maybe with similar aperture.
The center of the NGC 288 is as bright as the outer zones of NGC 253. The globular has no clearly defined edges (at least under these less than average skies).
Barnard 142 und 143 (Barnard's E)
20x80 binoculars
NELM 6mag5
78
The well known shape of this big and very beautiful dark nebula is visible with direct vision. The brilliant orange gamma Aquilae (to the left on the drawing) looks great together with the dark nebulae, but disturbs when it comes to detail observations.
I needed a few hours until I was sure about the position of the edges of the "E" and their slightly different „softness“ as well as some very slight differences in brightness within the nebula(e).
Some examples: At the – otherwise very soft – eastern edge of the northern part of the „E“ there is a small, better defined area. Edit: Here is a great sketch by Jeremy Perez (under much better sky conditions), in which this detail is visible, too. http://www.perezmedia.net/beltofvenus/archives/images/2009/img2009050201_B142_B143lg.jpg
The northernmost horizontal „bar“ of the „E“ is very slightly brighter than the other ones.
The darkest area of the whole dark nebula is located at the SE edge of the northern part (where the vertical bar meets the middle horizontal bar).
Messier 27
20x80 binoculars
NELM 6mag5
75
Besides the narrow darker area (which broadens to the edges) in the center, a small very bright spot at the SW edge of the bright bar (in the middle) is visible.
(If the last sentence was to „German“, I hope the sketch will help understanding it :))
UGC 1281 and PGC 6700
14“ f/5 dobson
200x (a bit too much)
NELM 6mag7 (dense fog in the valley blocking most of the light pollution, but average transparency above)
73
Thanks to Reiner for letting me use his 14" dobson.
The Superthin galaxy UGC 1281 was visible with indirect vision only. After some minutes both flat final points of the flat central area, which was visible first, seemed to grow longer (to the south more than to the north).
I could see the whole galaxy at a time only every now and again. Partly that was due to the too high magnification (but a more suitable one wasn't available).
A faint „star“ in my rough sketch (which I made while observing) turned out to be the small galaxy PGC 6700.
Because I didn't make a finder chart I overlooked a second companion/background galaxy, PGC 212843.
Uwe Glahn sketched this galaxy trio years ago: http://www.deepsky-visuell.de/Zeichnungen/UGC1281.htm
Last, but not least (I hope so :)):
Messier 42 and 43, NGC 1973, 1975 and 1977 (sword of Orion)
20x80 binoculars
NELM 6mag2 and extremely poor transparency
74
Greetings from Germany,
Andru