Deirdre Kelleghan  skysketcher@gmail.com
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Easter Saturday North  Limb proms and filaments Solar Sketch - Comet PanStarrs from Bray - What's Up for April 2013 

4/3/2013

 
Picture
 I was looking at the Sun Now page on the Solar Dynamics Observatory site. Sometimes that page shows wonderful energetic explosions on the solar limb but it may be too cloudy for observing.
Sometimes the solar action can be enticing enough to set up the PST (Personal Solar Telescope) and sketch when the weather permits.

March 30th Easter Saturday was one such day.  When I looked through my telescope there was a long twisting filament. Interesting north limb prominences challenged my eye as they altered their shapes over time.

When observing the sun you do not see the movement right in front of your eye. The sun is 149,600,000 km away from Earth and it takes eight minutes for its light to get to us. The observation of movement is perceived over 15 to 20 minutes and can lead to very useful sequences of drawings. In one way it’s like real time natural stop motion animation. Because my solar telescope is small the enormous solar disc (Diameter 1.39 million km) appears to be less than the 40mm diameter of the telescope. The filaments, active regions, sunspots and prominences are very tiny to the eye. A sunspot or prominence can be many times the size of the Earth but only millimetres to the eye. When I draw I look really really closely at the shapes, and textures of these features.

I pay great attention to the negative spaces, the black spaces between the multiple strands of plasma gas that are launched into space by the suns continuous activity.

Before I draw I observed the action for a while before deciding on an approach.  It is difficult to draw filaments as they appear to the eye on the solar disc. Filaments can be very dark against the bright sun or very grey almost like stringy cobwebs. Filaments are eruptions of electrified plasma gas; they seem dark as they are cooler than the sun that created them. When a filament continues its action over the edge of the solar disc it is called a prominence.  More structural detail within these features can be seen against the blackness of space. When a filament is seen to swing its action from the solar disc around the limb is it known as a filaprom.

For this drawing I used an etching method for the filaments, the combination of etching and drawing seems to give the desired effect for the moment. 

Sketch details: Bray Co Wicklow
Easter Saturday North Limb proms and filaments on the solar disc.

Duration of sketching time 13:00 UT - 13:55 UT Telescope: PST 40mm - 8 mm eyepiece using Pastels, on black paper.


On the same evening I was lucky to get a glimpse of Comet C 2011 L4 PanSTARRS from Bray
Click here for details


Warning: NEVER look directly at the sun through binoculars, a telescope or with your unaided eye
permanent blindness can result from the shortest look. Only ever look at the Sun in a situation supervised by someone who knows what they're doing.




What's Up for April 2013 from Jane Houston Jones

The Sky by Eye a drawing from Durrus Co Cork - What's Up for August 2011 Windy worlds plus Juno to Jupiter

8/2/2011

 

Naked eye drawing n Persei - a Cyg Durrus Co Cork

Picture
August 17th /18th    2010
Time : 23:45 UT - 00:45 UT


August 2010 I was staying in a cute house  close to the village of Durrus in Co Cork. This little place is the gateway to exploring the outstanding Sheeps Head peninsula.  The night sky down there was seriously beautiful to the eye; one did not need a telescope to enjoy it. Earlier in the evening I had a look into Sagittarius before it got too low, then as the night followed on I was inspired to do a naked eye drawing of the sky above my head. 

To give me the best option for a sketch I retreated to the back garden, away from the car park lights. I turned off the lights in the house; the village light pollution was minimal. Dark adaption came to me in about 25 minutes, and death would come to anybody who turned on a light.

Bliss greeted my eyes as the wonders of the summer sky opened up for me and the seeing was good.


We had brought along comfy canvas beach chairs, one of these was fine to sink into and observe.  My tools for the drawing were a sheet of black paper, a clip board, a white gel pen, finely grated white pastel, blending stick ,cotton wool,  and a red head light.

My working area was the star n Persei and from that visualy  along the galaxy  to a Cyg. I carefully added the stars in each visible  constellation .  Larger brighter dots according to magnitude and so on and so forth till I had a star map on my paper which mirrored the sky above my head and toward the North East. The Double Cluster and Andromeda were crystal clear naked eye objects, not usual from my home garden at all. The placement of these objects was very helpful in lining up significant stars like alpha Cyg ie Deneb in the constellation Cygnus and all the stars that made  paths in the sky to each other.

A small wad of cotton wool loaded carefully with finely grated white pastel was how I added the magnificent Milky Way and all its visible star laden tendrils. When my drawing was almost finished a long trailing Perseid shot from n Persei, went flying past Cassiopeia and ended its journey just short of   delta Cep . At its leading end for a nano second I noticed a sickle shaped flick of white. This meteor and its unusual flick was added into my drawing . It was a few weeks before I could look this up and discover that some Perseids produce visible bow shocks in front of themselves as they enter our atmosphere.  However so far I have only come across records of Perseids bow shocks that were caught on film, so would love to know if anyone has seen one by eye while observing.
   skysketcher@gmail.com


What's Up for August 2011  Jane Houston Jones - Windy Worlds and Juno to Jupiter
Wonderful Mission!!!  Go Go Juno

Total Lunar Eclipse revisited - Mam and Moon drawing - What's Up for June 2011 - Impact Crater Kepler sketch

6/16/2011

 

Total Lunar Eclipse March 3rd  2007 Revisited

Picture
My mam says “yer mad “    when she sees me going outside at odd hours in miserable temperatures to sketch a rock in the sky 250,000 miles from Earth. As she say’s that to me she smiles as she knows how much I enjoy it and she knows how my moon interest started.

Everyone I know had to ask their ma to ask their da to be allowed to stay up late for whatever reason.  I was no exception when I asked mammy to ask daddy to let me stay up to see the July 20th 1969 Moon landing. An unusual request for a twelve year old but the wish was granted and that is essentially what got me interested in all things Moon.


Later this year I will be the co author of a book on lunar sketching with four other wonderful Moon "mad " people .The book is  in the Springer Patrick Moore practical astronomy series.
There is a dedication to mam in the book, she is very proud of my Moon drawing and now has more reasons to smile, even though she will still say “yer Mad “

Details on the Book available soon, estimated publication late October.

The total lunar eclipse was clouded out to many people last night but back in March 2007 I was lucky enough to see and sketch a lunar eclipse from my garden in Bray.

3/3/07                                                                                      
200mm dob/25mm eyepiece /Focal Length 1,200mm, 2XBarlow/96X

Lunation 14.23 Days
Illumination 100%
Soft Pastels, 300gm paper, pencils.
Seeing 1
Images rotated 180 degrees
Digital Photographs of both images
Danjon Scale L = 4

March 3rd 2007

I was delayed setting up for XYand Z reasons, in an ideal world I would have had the entire lunar disc sketched in with detail before the earthly shadow entered this drama.
The delay, actioned my sketching in defence of the advancing darkness

When I began to sketch at 21:40UT the ominous dark shadow was descending on the Tycho area. I decided quickly to sketch from the North ( bottom of the page)  up (south is up for me)

I realised that my usual etching method with a wooden toothpick was going to be too slow for this sketch and decided on pencil over pastel for speed.

Firstly I detailed the Mares as much as I could give prominent bright craters like Proclus, Plinius and Kepler some white attention as I suspected they might be still visible under the shadowy blanket, despite whatever colour developed.
I put a lot of detail into Plato as it was outstanding in shape and contrast.

21:50UT the shadow was heading to gobble up my Copernicus before I could sketch it.

22:24UT Proclus was in grave danger of being swallowed whole.

By 22:34UT a fabulous blue leading wave developed and swept up the curve of the moon to merge with the increasing raspberry tones developing toward the south.


At 22:34UT when the colour began to appear, I had to run inside for red pastels.

Earlier that day I was thinking how would I do this colour overlay? I laid down some grey and tried out brushing it over with some red tones but this was not so good.

Fingers were the only thing for it and I worked quickly in red tones until I saw to both my delight and excitement a blue wave appearing across the entire width of the lunar disc.

Fingers red, big wipe, fingers blue.

In my haste and excitement of blueing the moon I wiped out Plato as my blue fingers joined the shadow and began moving up with it, oh god !! Stop or there will be no moon left. I observed that the blue edges wrapped the moon in a curve to both sides, like a gas flame burning up my surface detail.


Meanwhile a yellow orange glow developed at the South East limb, big wipe, yellow fingers. Ended up with just Goldschmidt, Barrow, and I think Philolaus left at the Northern end of the moon, just about untouched at that moment. A criss cross ray ejecta feature was visible also.

The star 59 Leonis was also sketched in off the SE limb



Picture
4/3/07
200mm dob/25mm eyepiece /Focal Length 1,200mm, 2XBarlow/96X
Lunation 14.32 Days
Illumination 100%
Soft Pastels, 300gm paper, pencils.
Seeing 2 / Hazy
Images rotated 180 degrees
Digital Photographs of both images

therfore a slight distortion


I waited to see what the emerging moon would look like and I started a second sketch at 00:10UT ending at 00:35UT due to a hazy atmosphere. Not much detail was available but I did observe that the retreating shadow had a distinctive green grey edge and reckoned that was worth noting.


What's Up for June 2011 from Jane Houston Jones

Picture
Impact Crater Kepler 
Sketched in 2006
19:10UT - 20:00 UT
02/11/06

Conte Crayons
Conte Pastel Pencils
Prismelo Water Colour Pencil Black
300gm Daler Rowney Paper
Sky Watcher 200mm
8mm TVP eyepiece
Bray Co Wicklow Ireland
Seeing 2


Kepler- The dark background of Oceanus Procellarum is a focus of bright rays radiating from two main centres - crater Kepler, which dominates this area and crater Copernicus in the east.
Named after Johannes Kepler a German astronomer and ingenious theoretician.

Marius - The western part of Oceanus Procellarum, poor in large craters, but very rich in lunar domes, especially near crater Marius- Named after Simon Mayer a German astronomer who independently discovered Jupiter's satellites. - from Concise Moon Mars and Venus by Rukl

I was so taken by trying to sketch the moon in lunar greys.
Kepler to Marius looked just great to me so mind made up I got started. Its was freezing that evening, but now and then the slight wobble between me and the moon settled and the clarity was wonderful. 
Deirdre being mad. :-)

SUN EARTH DAYS 2011 - We looked at the sun, had lots of fun, learned a lot and created amazing drawings

3/23/2011

 
 
Sun Earth Day 2011 for St Cronans Star Gazers - Slideshow  and Drawing Winners below

“The earth has received the embrace of the sun and we shall see the results of that love.”
Sitting Bull


March 14th 2011 – A lovely blue sky day greeted my eyes. At St Cronan’s Boys National School That morning I delivered a short talk on the features we see when we observe the sun in a h- alpha telescope.  This was followed up by showing the boys a DVD supplied by NASA Goddard “Journey to the Stars” narrated by Whoopi Goldberg.


The boys who answered my sun questions after the presentation received “Looking through the Solar Atmosphere” images.  We then went outside to have a look at the sun for real in my special solar telescope. We were very lucky to have a clear view of an Active Regions 1166, 1169, and 1172, on the solar disk and several prominences around the limb. 

March 15th I ran my solar drawing workshop “The Suns Massive” for forty nine of the boys in Mr McGovern’s classroom. So many boys turned up to take part that some of them ended up working happily on the floor.  We took a close look at some of the magical images taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (a NASA telescope out in space). We learned a little bit about the suns explosive outbursts, prominences, solar flares, and CME’s. We looked at the sun in different wavelengths of light and we looked at the magnetic atmosphere of our nearest star.


Over the course of the workshop we made a lovely colourful mess in Mr McGovern’s class, but the children created some astonishing drawings in the process.  The best drawing will be honoured by being featured on the Solar Dynamics Observatory site, and a package of solar outreach materials from NASA Goddard will be presented to the winning child.  Many thanks to Mr Dodd for helping with the solar viewing on the 14th and facilitating the SDO drawing workshop on the 15th.  Thanks also to Karl O’Broin for technical assistance on the day.

March 19th was actually Sun Earth Day 2011 – I took my solar telescope to the green at Sans Souci Wood to share the view of Active Region 1175 on the solar disk. Members of the astronomy group turned up and I also shared the view with some neighbours and parents who came along. Sun Earth Day posters and NASA STEREO fridge magnets were give to each attendee.

Earlier that morning I had observed the largest prominence I have ever seen on the western limb of the sun. I shared that sketch with the children and adults that arrived to give them some idea of the awesome power of the sun that can be seen if you have the correct equipment.




You must never ever look at the sun if you do not have totally safe equipment. The sun is dangerous; never take a chance looking at it by eye or with an ordinary telescope. You will be bringing the all the suns light and heat into your eye and will be blinded for life.

The winners of my Solar Drawing Workshop are these fantastic works , check them out !
Play the slide show

The Big Moon Ball Project - What's Up for March 2010 from Jane Houston Jones - My Solar Painting on NASA Solar System Exploration What's Up Page

3/3/2011

 
The Big Moon Ball Project – A work in progress

The Moon? The Moon? How on Earth do you explain the Moon to small children?  In many other talks I had done so in graphic from and with images but wanted to try something different. I figured I would have a go at  an interactive workshop in a field, as one would of course .


Made me a Moon ball and put it on a stand , borrowed a super two million candle torch , put it on a stand.  Then I invited my new astronomy group St Cronans Stargazers to join me at our usual place.  As it was midterm a small but smiling group turned up, perfect for a first run!  We pretended the torch was the sun and the children were the Earth and I became the Moon.  For the first orbit of the Earth I spoke about the phase they see from the Earth as they looked at me ( the Moon Ball)  moving from New to First Quarter, then Full, then Last Quarter , then back to New.

The children got the idea very quickly as the sun ( torch) illuminated the phases while they ( the Earth ) turned in unison in the field at the end of my road. The Big Moon Ball beamed the moons phases into their eyes.  Clip boards and paper were provided for the second orbit of the Earth .The children sketched the four main Moon phases as they happened and wrote down the names . The parents were very helpful  ,standing at the points of the phases and also helping the children see their clipboards and their drawings  in the dark.

Of course this workshop would be so much more powerful if the Moon was in the sky at the same time . I am continuing to develop the activity , it suits the Irish cloudy sky syndrome and is also an indoor workshop.  Every child wanted to hold the Moon Ball and help put it in the car afterwards . A whole bunch of fun was over in a blink , the children had lovely practical drawings for their folders , and were on their way to understanding the Moons movments.

The Big Moon Ball Project  was welcomed by Engineers Ireland as part of Engineers Week 2011

Huge thanks to my husband Bernard for help with the sun and for taking the photographs.
The Moon Ball is getting an upgrade , the far side is being painted in now and the near sids is developing more details , craters, rays and mountains.

Picture
I am so pleased and totally knocked out  that my dear friend Jane has included one of my Solar inspired paintings on her What's Up page this month. 

My painting is 8 inches by 8 inches
acrylic and pastel on canvas.
It was inspired by the images of  the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

You can see the image more clearly on the link below here and find many interesting solar system connections  too.


Solar System Exploration

Waning Gibbous Moon - Drawing Exhibition in Bray - St Cronans Star Gazers Adventures in Astronomy - What's Up for February 2011

2/4/2011

 
Picture
Waning Gibbous Moon
Bray, Co Wicklow Ireland
January 28th 2008
200mm dob/FL 1,200mm/25mm eyepiece/48X
Lunation 19.60 days 01:35 – 03:42
Pastels and conte on black paper


On Feburary 20th 2011 the waning gibbous moon will make a lovely triangle with the Planet Saturn and the star Spica.

Here in Ireland look east at 22:30 and you should be able to see this visual delight for your self.




If you have a telescope , have a look along the terminator find Mare Crisium
( the sea of crisis) It should look awesome as the terminator will be right through the middle of it. The moon will be 17.84 or almost 18 days past new. In my sketch the waning moon was 19.60 days past new .  Crisium was already engulfed by nightime on the lunar surface and not visible.


Our Moon has no light of its own, what we see is the sun light reflecting back to our eyes.
The Moon is said to be waning when it is moving toward new. Each waning night it has less light shining on its lovely near side as we look at it.

Our Moon is said to be waxing when it is moving from new to full. Each waxing night is has more light shining on its lovely near side as we look at it. The Moon is filling its near side with sunlight until it is full of light as we view.

Our  Moon is said to be waning when it is moving from full to new. Once again it has less light shining on its lovely face as we look at it. This cycle continues each lunar month, the more we observe it, the more we understand it.




My waning Moon sketch will be on exhibition with other drawings at The Signal Arts Centre in Bray Co Wickow from February 15th to February 27th . The exhibition is called Myriad Visions

do drop in and see all the work.

I look forward to sharing Saturn at public viewings during March and April when Saturn will be higher in the night sky earlier in the evening.  A date for your diary is March 12th when we will be looking at Saturn from Glendalough , the upper lake car park .  7pm - A talk on the Cassini Mission to Saturn at the Education Centre  followed by a viewing of the planet WEATHER PERMITTING OF COURSE.

Also during March I intend to  hold several public Moon and Saturn  viewing sessions here in Bray , details to follow. All are  weather permitting.






Picture
I am very proud of my new astronomy group here in Bray , St Cronans Star Gazers are a great bunch of enthused children , parents and teachers who delight in learning a little bit of astronomy . You can read about our latest adventures by clicking on the link .

Whats Up for February 2011 from Jane Houston Jones - enjoy !

Rockets & Robots Workshop Outreach in Wexford Libraries - What' s Up for July 2010 -

7/7/2010

 
When I was 12 years old, before my eyes live on television I saw Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on and walk on the moon.  It was the most awesome thing I had ever seen and I have been afflicted by the awe of space exploration ever since.
Here in  this link is a blog on my memories of Apollo 11 written in 2007

 That event happened on July 20th 1969 during my summer holidays. In September ’69 I returned to school, fully expecting my teacher to fill my days with details of this fantastic human achievement and tell me more about the future plans for space exploration.  I was so excited, a week went by and nothing was said at all, not one mention of the moon landing. My disappointment was immense .  However I said nothing about it  as back in ’69 children were still living under the post Victorian cloud ‘children may be seen but never heard’. The moon landing or space exploration were never ever brought into my classroom at any point. This is most likely why I do outreach, definitely  it is most  rooted in this twinned experience of elation in the moon landing and total desolation at the lack of information from my primary educators at the time.

 I am at my happiest when I am doing my workshops and talks for children there is no experience that can compare.  This week I am running four free workshops Rapid Rockets and Wicked Robots in Wexford Libraries. Here below are a few sample drawings from the workshops in Enniscorthy and Bunclody libraries.  Tomorrow I am in New Ross and Wexford Town Libraries a few places left if you live in the area, contact the libraries directly. 053 9121637

This month you can see dark interstellar clouds blocking patches of Milky Way stars.
 Jane Houston Jones talks about these wonders in her latest podcast .

    Picture

    Author


    Deirdre Kelleghan is amateur astronomer,
    an artist and also  likes to write.

    "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted"
    Plutarch

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