2024-05-24

Mostly clear forecast. Cotton ball clouds began passing to the east shortly after I started observing. With a few of these observations, I had to wait for "moments of clarity" between the cotton balls.

10:28PM

Very pale yellow. The color is almost indiscernable. This was my 3rd attempt at finding it. The subtle color makes it pretty difficult to locate.

I was debating how to make carbon stars distinct from the star field. Prior to it getting dark, I began testing various yellow, orange, and red colored pencils on black paper. I wasn't satisfied with the results, so I decided to just add small diffraction spikes to the carbon stars.

[1] SAO 157721 (TYC 6118-1194-1) (ID)

[2] ../images/2024-05-24_SAO157721.jpg

10:45PM

Yellow with a touch of orange. Pretty easy find.

[1] SS Virginis (ID)

[2] ../images/2024-05-24_SSVir.jpg

10:54PM

Revisit of an old favorite. I wanted to try a sketch of a double star. The glow was very evident as γ and its sibling are very bright. I wanted to capture the glow in relation to the field of stars to give context. Using a dab of a white gel pen really helps the brighter stars pop.

[1] γ Virginis (ID)

[2] Star (Double) (ID)

[3] ../images/2024-05-24_GammaVirginis.jpg

11:09PM

Pretty easily found north of Chara. AV is not required at all for detection. I had trouble discerning the shape more than I normally do with galaxies. When using AV, sometimes it would appear more round and face-on, and at other times it would appear more distintly elongaged and edge-on. I chose to sketch the elongated "version" that I was seeing.

After coming in for the night and seeing an image of NGC4449 and the odd shape of the galaxy, I realize now that I should of trusted my eyes and sketched both the rounder and elongated shapes stacked on top of one another. This would of produced a more honest interpretation of the object and what I was observing.

[1] NGC 4449, MCG 7-26-9 (ID)

[2] ../images/2024-05-24_NGC4449.jpg

11:24PM

I didn't have M 13 on the list for tonight, but I didn't want to end my session quite yet.

I'll need to practice a bit more with this one. The white charcoal pencils that I'm using tend to be quite soft and the tips break very easily. This made it difficult to create the tiny impressions of stars that populated the cluster.

[1] M 13, Hercules Globular Cluster (ID)

[2] ../images/2024-05-24_M13.jpg