Two sketches showing how I progressively sketch a difficult object. Each sketch is about 1.5 hours of effort at the eyepiece.

As I observe, features brighten into view, more extensions and graduations are noticed. The subsequent night, aided by my initial sketch, I remember visually what I saw and gradually see more of the supernova remnant. To focus on the nebulosity, I printed the stars using Sky Safari Pro, with the star magnitude set to emulate what I could see through the telescope.

Surprisingly, I cannot see the short arcs visible in Howard Banich's 28 inch [71cm]. Instead I see broad featureless strokes of varying brightness and thickness. I am able to see the SN's features with scopes from 6 inches [15cm] to 13.2 inches [34cm].

For notes and finder charts, see Reiner's superb research. Also this thread on the Cloudy Nights Sketching forum.



Mel Bartels, July 2015