For a while now, I've been wanting to step up my game with the sketches I produce from the eye-piece. I've been putting it off because I've been wanting to focus on my ability to "see" my targets well. With the last viewing session I realized that I've come pretty far with utilizing averted vision to see my targets (especially with NGC 3184 and NGC 3432).
In fact, when viewing NGC 3384 I was able to easily see M 105, something that I was hardly able to do 2 years ago (see journal entry 2022-04-03). I believe it's time to shift focus and start sketching my targets well.
My largest hold out with sketching so far was the trouble I had sketching lightly enough for dim targets. No matter how lightly I pressed the pencil, when I came in for the night the sketch produced seemed to be more pronounced than I had hoped. While researching common sketching techniques for stargazing, I came across something called the "Mellish technique".
The Mellish technique involves grinding a white pastel down on 600 grit sandpaper, then lightly brushing the pastel powder onto black paper. A white charcoal pen can then be used for touch up and star patterns. This intrigued me because some of the examples I found showed a very soft representation of dim targets (exactly what I've been looking for). This can be accomplished because a very small amount of the pastel powder adheres to the paper with each stroke, and layering is required in order to make an object bright.
I set about buying some cheap art supplies and started testing the method with the kids this weekend. So far, I'm quite happy with the results. This method really gives me control over the brightness of the object on the page. The only downside I'm finding is that photographs of the pages of artwork appear brighter than they are in real life. Below are some examples of tests that I produced from images in Stellarium:
NGC 7293
NGC 6992
M 82
The challenge will come with a recommendation to use averted vision with the technique. The argument states that if it takes averted vision to "see" a detail, then you'll have better results using averted vision while "brushing" the detail onto the paper. This bit might take a while to get used to.
Faint, took a while for it to pop into view. No noticable core.
AV not required for detection, but expands the size. Bright speck of a core. Edge on.
Small smudge, can't see a core. NGC 4085 should be nearby but I cannot detect it.
A few things noticed my first night out attempting this sketching technique. Sketches made in the dark are much more messy than realized. Some of these had to be cleaned up a bit. I also need to start sketching a bit larger, as the quality of these images is low. It's also quite hard to take a good photo of black paper.
