Cosmos - M51 up a ladder at midnight

20 inch Obsession/ Argos Navis/ Focal Length 2,500mm/ 26mm type 5 Nagler / 96X /White pastel/ Blending stick/ 120gm Black paper

00:05 UT - 00:10 UT/ 06/04/2008 / -3C / Seeing 2 - 3/ Tullamore


I was having a wonderful time observing at COSMOS, one of the best yet.
Through David Lillis's 20inch I was treated to a feast of galaxies. So many edge on and face on spirals, clusters of galaxies, all hopping into view in the freezing cold night sky of Annaharvey Farm in Tullamore.
This superb instrument filled the fov with many startling white globulars.
These looked like upturned bowls of the whitest sugar you have ever seen.

Saturn was a real treat in David's scope, with some very distinct shadows on the rings from the rear of the planet body.Three moons very close to the rings, and one off set a bit, obviously Titan.

It was a kinda special an hour or so earlier to observe the Huygens target in an 8 inch scope with Professor Zarnecki.

When M51 was the target I could not believe the clarity of the spiral arms
I never usually get a chance to sketch at these occasions but I had to have a go at this gem.

So I got five minutes or so up a ladder with a pad, a blending stick, and some pastel. Five minutes did not really do justice to this fantastic Messier
But it was extremely cold and I do not think my fingers would have lasted the 40 mins or so that I figured the sketch needed.Its difficult to sketch on a ladder anyway

Truck loads of thanks to David and Michael, I enjoyed the session but after a hot tea at 2am I headed for bed.
M65,M66,M99,M108,M51,M13,M53,M3,M81,M82,NGC5053. One very large helicopter with lots of lights.
Two NGC's in David Branigans scope perhaps you will remind me what they were, thanks to all for the great but freezing fun.

Deirdre Kelleghan
Public Relations Officer IFAS
www.deirdrekelleghan.com/
Oscail do Shuile D'iontas na Cruinne
Open Your Eyes to the Wonder of the Universe

Deirdre,

Thanks for that nice report and congrats on a great sketch.

I just wish I could have been there.

Nice sketch, Deirdre. One of my all-time favorite targets.

You didn't say what kind of pastel you used, but I keep seeing others mention "Conte Crayons" (or something to that effect) -- are they just a brand name of pastels, or are they something different?

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

Thanks guys, now about Conte and Pastels. Conte are hard but brittle sticks of color. They come in sets of twelve in foam boxes; see them here in the picture.

I use soft pastels most of the time for lunar, solar and messier drawings.
I use Conte for albedo features and for bright edges.

For this sketch I used a Schmincke soft pastel ( round sticks in the picture)as they are particularly soft and good for messiers. Most of the time I use soft rectangular pastels called Mungyo as they have very useful qualities for lunar drawings.

Deirdre Kelleghan
www.deirdrekelleghan.com/
Oscail do Shuile D'iontas na Cruinne
Open Your Eyes to the Wonder of the Universe

Lord Rosse would be proud Deirdre.

Great sketch Dee, especially considering the "threats" I was making while holding the ladder with you on the top step.

Regards,

Michael
Official Ladder Support of the 2009 COSMOS Star Party