First Sketch: Albireo

A little bit of context: 

As some of you know I'm a newbie to astronomy. I bought my first scope in June 2018, and I had been 'going it alone' until 2nd August 2019. Meaning, I had not observed the night sky with a group prior to August 2019. That changed last month when I reached-out to the IFAS to see if I could attend one of their observational meet-ups. While it can be somewhat daunting to take the first step on any journey, I'm glad I did.

Not only were Mike and Aubrey very welcoming to a complete novice, but they were also more than happy to share their incredible knowledge of all things astronomical with me. Since then, I had the opportunity to attend another meet-up, and was introduced to several other passionate and friendly astronomers such as Paul, Sean, Alan, and Ben, who were equally willing to impart their knowledge. From interacting with these individuals over the past month, it has been wonderful to see; read; and hear about the various areas of interest that are available for one to explore in this hobby.

At this point in time, I find the sketching side of the hobby most appealing as it seems to be a relatively easy and cost effective way of enhancing the experience at the eyepiece.

With this in mind, I'm attaching my first sketch of the double-star, Albireo. It was the first colourful, double-star that I observed, and credit goes to Mike and Aubrey who showed it to me during that first observational session last month.

While the sketch is far from perfect, I'm hoping it offers any newbie a little bit of encouragement to step outside of their comfort zone, and engage with the members of the IFAS. If you do, you'll find a great group of guys who are supportive, encouraging, and more than happy to help you develop your interest in this wondrous activity we call 'Amateur Astronomy'.

Clear Skies,

Darren.





 

What a very excellent sketch of Albireo, Darren!
You must have put an awful lot of work into it.
Your colours are superbly good.
The peach and blue colours are precisely what we see at the eyepiece.

It is interesting to note that astronomers are now saying that the 2 stars of this hugely famous double star do not form a true binary.
That's sad, because for many decades, all the way way to Robert Burnham's Celestial Handbook and further back from that, Albireo was always considered as a true binary.
www.stelledoppie.it now states that it is not a physical double.

Clear skies from Aubrey.

Hi Aubrey,

Very many thanks for your positive comments on my sketch of Albireo - it's greatly appreciated!

Sketching the sky field took almost an hour - much of which was spent looking through the eyepiece to pick-out and plot (as accurately as possible) a framework of stars that best represents what I could see that night.

In their book 'Astronomical Sketching: A Step-by-step Introduction, Handy, Moody, Perez, Rix, and Robbins, provide several useful tips and techniques to help one become a better observer. For example, their tip on trying to concentrate on stars that are in close proximity to each other, and search for linear arrangements, geometric shapes, and close pairings, I found particularly helpful during the sketching process.

To finalise the sketch, I scanned and inverted the image using GIMP 2.0. This allowed me to produce a negative image from my original work. GIMP 2.0 also allowed me add colour to Albireo and its companion.

Over the coming months, one of the things I'm going to try to improve on is my technique on capturing the shape, and magnitude of each star: I feel this area of the sketch needs most attention.

Also, very many thanks for informing me of Albireo's current status. You're always so generous with your deep knowledge of astronomy Aubrey.

Kindest regards,

Darren.

I should also state that we need to remember how to spell Albireo correctly.
There are so many Americans spelling the star name wrong.
It has been spelt Albireo well before I was wearing nappies!!!

Kindest regards,

Aubrey.

And one Irish one too! ; )