M11 - The Wild Duck Cluster in Scutum

Sky Watcher 200mm 10mm Kellner eyepiece.
14th September 2006 - 22:30 LT / 21:30 UT
Killinkere Virginia Co Cavan
53° 52' 60N 7° 2' 60W
M11 - Scutum
250 Million Years Old
2,900 stars in this Open Cluster
Mag 7
Distance 6000 ly
Seeing 2
Transparancy - Great
Temp 12C

Sketched on Rite in the Rain paper
Staedtler B pencil
Conte 3B graphite pencil
4B Graphite Stick
Blending stick

Ye know one of those nights where ye think is that the Milky Way ?or is that cloud?or smoke from somebody’s chimney?. It was a little like that in Virginia, Co Cavan Ireland on Friday night. But the atmosphere was wet, so the seeing did not live up to the visual promise. I used my 15X70 Celestron Skymaster binoculars to pick out something from the S-SW as I can see nothing of this area of sky from my home in Bray. Then I had a look with my telescope oh boy!! What a view.

M11 the Wild Duck Cluster on the northern edge of The Scutum Star Cloud.
What a fabulous object and only my second time to see it. 250 million years old and 6000 light years away from me observing in the middle of a field in Ireland, 2,900 stars comin at ye all together. I think I sketched 38ish,of them on my weekend away, of which just the one evening was clear.

I had the 8mm TVP in first but it gave me too much information and overfilled the fov.
I switched to the 10mm Kellner eyepiece and there she was just nicely framed and set to sketch.

In the field opposite me several cattle were coughing in the blackness,sounding like a bunch of old guy’s in conversation.


It took me an hour to get it down on paper, yes the Rite in the Rain paper, as the image went in and out of sharpness and blurriness the whole time. The telescope was dripping wet at that point. I used a blending stick for the first time to get the softness of the nebulosity across. Could not wait to get home and invert it and see what I got. So here it is.

Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical Society
www.irishastrosoc.org

Dee,

Thats beautiful, one of your best yet I think, and it captures the beauty of M11 nicely. That blending stick does a nice job - it's almost photographic quality to the nebulosity.
Can't wait for an invite down to Cavan soon, looks like the skies there are quite promising.

Hi Dee,
great work! The inversion helps immensly, and as John says, the 'blending stick' works wonders - looks more like an old astrophotograph!

10 out of 10!

Nice one Dee. Great to see a sketch rather than a photo.

I love looking at other people's photos, however when outside I like viewing with a reasonably big mirror but without the techno / time consumming stuff you need for photogrophy.

Next night out I'll try sketching at the eyepiece..... Youve inspired me ..... any other practical tips?

Damon

..... any other practical tips?

The IFAS Novice Observers Challenge Handbook ?



Seanie.

Wow, absolutely fantastic! I always though that sketches would never be able to compare with the photos..... I stand corrected!