M42, November 23rd, 2006, 22:58UT – 23:42UT Conte Crayons, Mitsubishi White Pencil, 300gm Black Paper,200mm/ F6/12mm eyepiece/100X, Bray Co Wicklow Ireland ,Seeing 2,Transparency Good. I was waiting a whole month for an M42 sketching moment, November 23rd the evening was looking good, the atmosphere steady, the humidity low. That night M42 looked doable, the pain of a street light behind my garden had given up the ghost. This left me with less light pollution than I usually have to deal with.
M42 resides in the centre of the giant’s sword, a nest of stars and glowing nebulous material. This gem in the night sky produces new stars and creates energy we would have difficulty imagining. Our eyes see only the visible display from this celestial wonder, another huge vast spectacular show is going on in light our eyes cannot discern. It is a powerful visual experience to look closely at this monumental nebula in the sword of the hunter. The richness of its structure, its shear size, beauty and grandeur demands a sketch of clarity and precision.
So this was the best M42 I could squeeze out of November 2006. I was tempted to use a high magnification and get into the centre of the object but in the 12mm the shape of its expansive diffuse cloud was so dramatic there was no contest. M42 will get many more visits from me, in higher powered telescopes next winter. More Messier object sketches are here.
In 1989, shortly after building my first telescope, a f/7 10-inch Dobsonian reflector in John Dobson's telescope making class, I began sketching the Messier Objects. This is a cropped section of the second page of my 1989 series of sketches. I used a National Brand narrow ruled spiral-bound 8.5"x 11' notebook, and a standard issue Dixon #2 pencil.
On the front of the notebook, in pencil, is written "Astronomy Notebook #1, October 11, 1988", which is the exact day I began constructing the telescope. Telescope class notes share the beloved lined (and worn) pages with lecture notes, questions, observations, autographs and, of course, hundreds of sketches.
You'll see my two first M42 sketches, dated November 4 and 5, 1989 in the third and fourth row of the cropped page. These sketches were made using a 25mm Kellner eyepiece, which at the time, was the only eyepiece I had. I purchased it in the telescope making class for $10.00. This provided a magnification of 74X. Note the first sketch (third row) was in poorer seeing conditions, as only the central part of M42 is visible. You can see the "bat wings" in the second sketch. These are tiny sketches, some pages have 1-inch squares and some have 1x2 inch grids with 20 - 40 sketches to a page. The other pages in the notebook have first planet sketches, dozens of comets, interesting stars, and even a section of stellar specta sketches using a Rainbow Optics Star Spectroscope.Click here for the first and second pages of my 1989 Messier memories.