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THE DARK ART OF DEEP SKY SKETCHING
By Scott Mellish.
With all the new innovations with CCD photography and image processing amateur astronomy has become a little bit more sophisticated over the last 10 years or more. I must admit that I am rather impressed by the many amateur CCD images that one can view on the Internet and in various magazines. However being an observer who likes to enjoy the night sky by getting out there with my telescope, far away from the light pollution of urban areas, and enjoy observing the Cosmos with my very own eyes is something that can make you feel very humble and very noble all at once.
It does not matter to me if the night is freezing cold or quite warm and balmy; the night sky IS the greatest natural wonder of them all. Owning a telescope, be it large or small gives you the chance to not only travel billions of light years, but also the ability to travel through time and space.
If you keep this in mind you may like to think what do you do when you go on holidays? Well for one you visit many unusual places, and also you take photographs or obtain postcards or some such memento to remind you of the places you have visited. I like to do this with my travels through the Cosmos, and the best way to do this is with a modest selection of drawing materials. For about $30,000.00 you can set yourself with a pretty good CCD package. For about $50.00 worth of quality art products you can get yourself into sketching. Now sketching is about a close to the getting real eyepiece visual experience as you can get. And if you put the effort into it the job the end result will be an almost precise duplicate of what you have viewed at the eyepiece of your telescope.
To start off with some basic equipment you will need to go to your local art supply store and purchase some materials. My drawing kit contains quite a bit, but for a start you will need a good sketch book. I get two types, one black A4 size and one white A4 size. My preference is for the black paper as it is more realistic for the purpose. Though sketching on white paper is just as rewarding.
Next is a set of pencils. The preference here is for the soft white variety, but get one in black as well, plus an assortment of other colours- mainly red, blue and orange- I use these for the odd occasion when there is a star in the field that shows a tinge of the aforementioned colours. You will also need a white ink pen and a black ink pen, an eraser (pencil type) and a blending stump. I also have pastel chalks- white and black and some other little odd things that come in handy, like some cotton tips and cotton buds, a piece of cloth, a pencil sharpener and a Stanley knife (better for sharpening soft white/black pencils).
A collection of artists paint brushes also come in handy, you do not need too many but one with a fine point with the tip cut off can make a nice smoothing and blending stump. A fairly large one can make a nice clean up brush for lightly smoothing over the sketch after completion. A bit like using a make up brush.
You can vary your selection of drawing materials to suit your own needs, but remember that we are looking to achieve realism here not a Rembrandt.
A basic set of sketching materials to get you started.
Starting a sketch.
First of all I usually draw an 80mm diameter circle on my preferred drawing paper. I have found this size to be the best representative of a telescope field. For this I purchased a Staedtler-Mars extra large circle template that has a range of circles from 25mm up to 85mm. Then on one side I place some basic information such as Date, Time, Place, Scope, Field, Magnification and Constellation. I do not bother with seeing conditions or transparency and the like because if your sketch is accurate it will be an indication of the conditions anyway.
Almost always the best way to start a sketch is to plot all the field stars first. I like to get them as accurately placed as possible; this is not always an easy thing to do especially if the field is quite rich in stars.
It is important however to get the stars as accurately plotted as possible, as I have found that the more precise you are when you are sketching very faint objects the easier it is to check them with DSS images to see what you have managed to pick up in your telescope.
Numerous times I have sketched Hickson groups and have found that my sketch is almost identical to the DSS image. This can be quite satisfying. For bright field stars I have found that white pen (fine black felt tip if you’re using white paper) is the best to use. Then use soft white pencil for the fainter stars in the field. This tends to give a slight 3D look to the sketch, as the brighter stars stand out better this way-just as they do in the eyepiece. If any of the stars show colour, then make a mental note or do a quick reference sketch in a note pad and add the orange, blue or red tinge the next day. No matter what I do, whether I mark the coloured pencils or not, I can never seem to find the right colour under a red light. For added authenticity I usually give the brighter stars a few little diffraction points in accordance with their luminosity.
Challenging sketches.
Without a doubt the hardest objects to sketch accurately are globular clusters. But there is a way to go about it without getting too frustrated. For a globular such as the beautiful NGC 2808 in Carina I normally start by just dabbing lightly with a soft white pencil until I form the rough shape of the cluster. Then the more prominent stars are added in accurately. Any brighter field stars are added with white pen.
With the white pen I will ever so lightly dot a few points in the bright central region for contrast. The outer stars are all then added as precisely as possible. If a cluster is partially resolved at the eyepiece you can smudge some pastel to give the appropriate look.
In the daylight you can ponder over your creation and decide if it needs touching up. I generally do not do too much apart from rub out any smudges or pencil marks on the drawing that were done accidentally.
After the sketch is finally completed I then make sure that all the information is correct, all marks removed and the drawing is clean.
It is now time to apply the protective finish. For this I apply a coat of Micador Matt Spray Finish. I used to use a gloss finish, but I changed to matt because it is hardly noticeable when you spray it on.
By putting a protective coating over your sketch it helps to protect it from being accidentally damaged. The coating usually dries very quickly, and before long you will have a finished sketch.
As you become more proficient in your sketching you will soon start to build up your very own collection of Deep Sky objects. Sketching not only improves the visual experience by causing you to study objects more closely, but also it is very ascetically pleasing.When you are at your telescope peacefully sitting there sketching your favorite deep sky object you will soon become acutely aware of the vast beauty and wonders of the Cosmos.
CLEAR SKIES
Scott Mellish
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