Telescope Reviews: Jan09 Sketching Run-Off!

We have ourselves a run-off for the Sketching Semi-Finalist in the January 2009 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest! Please choose your favorite from the two choices below.

markseibold:

Moonrise with Saturn - Pastel Sketch on 19" X 25" format-

Tuesday night January 13th in very still air at 33 degrees F, yet poor seeing conditions, I decided to observe the moons spectacular terminator line with my 10.1" f/4.5 Newtonian and render this impressionistic and somewhat accurate pastel of the moons terminator line and as it was low and ‘warmed in color’ by the atmosphere. A 32mm Plossl was used for the general whole moon and a 12mm and 9.7mm for medium close-up details although the bad seeing (5/10 ?)did not allow much magnification.

A spectacular phase it was! I spent about an hour from Jan 13th 11:45 PM PDT till 1 AM Jan 14th roughing in the terminator and other key details, then retreated to indoors with use of a several digital photos I took through the eyepiece with a 9.7mm Plossl for close-up and 32mm for wide field for reference to recheck positions of and fill in the mare and other general surface features.

As Saturn was a few degrees above left of the moon I decided to add it in here, albeit a little out of distance scale from the moon yet showing the poor seeing conditions, I could barely make out Titan to the planets left, it is to accurate scale in apparent size to the live observation of the moon with a 32mm plossl at low power.

The paper was not what I would have preferred, a 19" X 25" Strathmore in rich blue with embossed ridge, my last available sheet. An undesired ridge-line shows through the surface. The moon was sketched at 15 inches diameter with various pastel chalks and mostly kept in the warm golden range of colors due to the appearance of it rising low in the atmosphere. I photographed the pastel image today in daylight for accurate pastel color representation.

Mark

cildarith:

Object Name: NGC 1039 (Messier 34)
Object Type: Open Cluster
Constellation: Perseus
Right Ascension (2000.0): 02h 42m 07.4s
Declination (2000.0): +42° 44' 46"
Magnitude: 5.2
Diameter: 25.0'
Trumpler Type: II 3 r
Distance: 1,400 light years
Discovery: Giovanni Hodierna, 1654; rediscovered by Charles Messier on 25 August 1764
NGC Description: Cl, B, vL, lC, sc st 9

Date/Time: 17 January 2009 • 02:30-03:15 UT
Location: Oakzanita Springs, San Diego Co., California
Telescope: Parks Astrolight EQ6 • 6" f/6 Newtonian Reflector
Eyepiece/Magnification: 15mm Parks Gold Series Plössl • 60x • 52' FoV
Filter(s): None
Conditions: Clear, breezy, 42°F
Seeing: Pickering 6
Transparency: NELM 6.4, TLM 14.3

Often overlooked in favor of other splendors of the winter sky, Messier's 34th entry is a fine, bright open cluster on the western flank of Perseus. Look for it in your finder 7° west and slightly north of golden Gamma Andromedae (while your at it you might as well take a look at this spectacular double star through your telescope and search for elusive edge-on galaxy NGC 891 halfway between the two).

Messier 34 is a fairly scattered cluster of about 60 stars of magnitudes 8 and fainter splashed across an area nearly the size of the full Moon. Most of the stars are blue-white to white with a handful of yellowish to orange stars mixed in. The Index Catalogue of Visual Double Stars (IDS) indicates six binaries within the confines of M34. The most notable of these is h1123 (8.0, 8.0; 20.0"; 248°) an equal pair of blue and blue-white stars anchoring the northwest edge of the cluster's core. A second fine pair may also be seen in the sketch west-northwest of center; this is h2155 (8.0, 10.4; 17.1"; 321°).

Sketch rendered with #2 mechanical pencil on 24# white cartridge paper; scanned, inverted and colorized in Microsoft Picture It!

Please note that voting will conclude on February 10th at Midnight EST.

Many thanks to all who took part in the contest!

*

Please pick your Finalist!
Users may choose only one (70 total votes)

markseibold:

37 52%

cildarith:

33 47%