Howard B
February 16th, 2017, 04:43 AM
Last October, Steve G and myself spent several nights observing with Jimi through his 48 inch scope in Texas. They graciously gave me about 30 minutes each night to devote to sketching one object, M77. I built up my sketch over four nights, some better than others, and came up with the following drawing - which is re-drawn from my observing notes and eyepiece sketch.
24722473
My notes from each night:
October 27, 2016
"...There's a lot of motion, spiral motion, in the brightest areas around the brilliant stellar core and tomorrow I'll use more power to dive in and get the details more accurately placed. I used the 13mm Ethos (375x) tonight which also showed M77's outer halo. 21.50 SQM."
October 27, 2016
"Added to my sketch a few pages back, and with the increasingly steady seeing I could make out some internal details with the 8mm (609x) - until clouds murked out the view. No SQM because of the clouds."
October 28, 2016 was cloudy all night
October 29, 2016
"Added lots of detail to my drawing using the 6mm Delos (812x) in the improved seeing. Wonderful! Used the 17mm Ethos (286x) for context but the 6mm view is a wonder. 21.67 SQM."
October 30, 2016
"Poor contrast and terrible seeing really make this a sucky view compared to last night - but I could still detect the connections to the outer ring. 286x, 21.36 SQM."
It's taken me awhile to find time to re-draw my eyepiece sketch and process it well enough to present here. I'm not 100% happy with the final drawing - getting the outer ring at the right contrast has been a challenge - and if I come up with a better version later I'll post it here.
Anyway, the best part of this whole thing is the two hours of observing and sketching time I had with M77 with Jimi's 48 inch. It was a great privilege to be given this much time on one object with such a magnificent instrument, and I give Jimi and Steve my sincere thanks for being so generous with their time for this project.
24722473
My notes from each night:
October 27, 2016
"...There's a lot of motion, spiral motion, in the brightest areas around the brilliant stellar core and tomorrow I'll use more power to dive in and get the details more accurately placed. I used the 13mm Ethos (375x) tonight which also showed M77's outer halo. 21.50 SQM."
October 27, 2016
"Added to my sketch a few pages back, and with the increasingly steady seeing I could make out some internal details with the 8mm (609x) - until clouds murked out the view. No SQM because of the clouds."
October 28, 2016 was cloudy all night
October 29, 2016
"Added lots of detail to my drawing using the 6mm Delos (812x) in the improved seeing. Wonderful! Used the 17mm Ethos (286x) for context but the 6mm view is a wonder. 21.67 SQM."
October 30, 2016
"Poor contrast and terrible seeing really make this a sucky view compared to last night - but I could still detect the connections to the outer ring. 286x, 21.36 SQM."
It's taken me awhile to find time to re-draw my eyepiece sketch and process it well enough to present here. I'm not 100% happy with the final drawing - getting the outer ring at the right contrast has been a challenge - and if I come up with a better version later I'll post it here.
Anyway, the best part of this whole thing is the two hours of observing and sketching time I had with M77 with Jimi's 48 inch. It was a great privilege to be given this much time on one object with such a magnificent instrument, and I give Jimi and Steve my sincere thanks for being so generous with their time for this project.