These drawings were sketched from direct observation of the night sky, whether with the unaided eye or through the eyepiece of a telescope. This isn't photography; by comparison, the views here are gray and subdued. Most of the time, that majestic nebula or galaxy appears in the eyepiece as a soft fuzzy blur, visible only with averted vision. In the light polluted skies of my backyard, many distant objects disappear entirely. And yet, when you do see it, you know it isn't a photograph. It's really there.
Drawings like these capture something different than what we see in photographs. For me, personally, I think the quiet calm of these sketches convey the closest sense of what it's like to be out there under the night sky, observing these objects with your own eyes.
Drawing Tools:
Graphite pencils (B, HB)
225gsm smooth Bristol paper
Adobe Photoshop CC (inverting and processing)
Telescope:
Apertura AD8 (Dobsonian reflector, 8", 1200mm, f/5.9)
Eyepieces:
40mm William Optics 72°
11mm Explore Scientific 82°
4.7mm Explore Scientific 82°
30mm Apertura SuperView
9mm Apertura Plossl
8mm Tele Vue Plossl
Filters:
Orion Ultrablock Narrowband Filter
Lumicon Oxygen III Filter Gen 3
Explore Scientific UHC Nebula Filter
Orion 13% Neutral-Density Filter
Atlases:
Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas
Cambridge Double Star Atlas Second Edition
Deep Sky Hunter
Cartes du Ciel
