Telescope Reviews: how do you 'create' your astro art?

Nothing beats pencil and paper!

Cheap, quick, and you don't need an expensive scope. I posted a couple drawings in the Deep Sky forum on the M53 and NGC5053 thread. Also a Venus/Pleiades drawing on the planetary forum.

The best thing to start with is small galaxies or small globular clusters (not M13!). I recommend making a circle to represent the field of view. Then you fill in the brighter stars, adding as many stars as you like until you run out of patience.

It's a good idea to start by positioning a few of the brightest stars in different areas of the FOV. Then you can use them to triangulate the position of other stars in the field.

After all that, you depict the galaxy by making a smudge of the right shape. (You can do this with an all-graphite pencil and a blending stump -- sort of a hard felt stick.) These are available at most art supply or hobby stores like Hobby Lobby, etc.

It's amazing how good this ends up looking. You don't need artistic ability. Just the patience to mark down the star positions. (Hint: don't be afraid to make larger dots for the brighter stars. It makes your drawing look cooler.)

For paper, I recommend an unlined Caslon sketch book. My favorite size is 6x9 inches. Regular copy paper is okay, but doesn't hold graphite as well as sketching paper, which has a little more "tooth." Also, I recommend a bound sketch book because it helps keep your drawings organized and together over the years. I treat my sketchbooks more like journals.

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Fiske Miles
Nikon 8x42 LX / 12x50 SE Binos
Mini Borg 60ED, TV-101, AT80Ach, XT-8, C11/CI-700, 22-Inch Dob
Way too many Nagler eyepieces
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