3 replies to this topic

[Vedran]

Recently I’ve acquired very slightly used APM 140/980 Apo for planetary and double star work. This September, at our annual star party, we had excellent seeing and views od double stars and planets was better in 130 Takahashi than in my 20” Dob. View was more detailed in 20”, but aesthetically more pleasing in Tak. After that Apo was on my shopping list.

Two months later I bought APM 140 semi-Apo (ED). Since then, I’m having a blast with APM. Views of double stars are really good (just very weak red CA is visible in most extreme cases) and planets are really sharp and full of colours. I’ve decided to sketch occasionally double stars, especially when they are nice and colourful.

STF 174 was sketched on Nov 23rd in mediocre seeing (around 1.5”) and STF 644 on Dec 1st at good seeing (1.3 to 1.5”). Both drawings were colorized in Photoshop after scanning and inverting originals.

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[lwbehney]

Thanks for this. I really like the STF 644 best, because of the way you were able to include the faint light halo around the pair, which so well mimics the eyepiece view. I cannot detect  color in your sketches, but maybe that is my monitor. Can you tell me if there exists a sketching pencil set with a color assortment of yellows, dusky orange, dusky red, vivid orange and pale blue, which might be closest to the star colors seen in telescopes?

[Vedran]

Since my sketches are black on white in the original and I have to invert them, colors would also have to be inverted. Teal instead of orange, green instead of red etc...

All coloring is done in Photoshop.

 

Here in Europe, we have wooden coloring pencils, which I use for planetary sketches (Mars). They are available in sets which covers "full spectrum", from blue to red.

[Randolph Jay]

I like both sketches and Struve 644 is particularly striking because of the glow, and I see a reddish to orange tint in your sketch. I've got to get a look at these! Thank you for posting this!
Randolph