Astronomy Geeks in NE Florida
After tackling The Pleiades for my first sketch, last night I tackled my first nebula. No explanation is needed for why I targeted it from my suburban backyard, as even with the light pollution it shows clearly defined features, particularly with the arm of faint nebulosity that extends up from the Trapezium. With it being my first time using blending stumps, I'm sure I could have done better to help the stars of the Trapezium show a bit more defined in the sketch, but overall I'm fairly pleased with my first attempt. This was also my first time using a new UHC filter and it definitely helped with contrast to more easily see some of the features of the nebula.
Wasn’t crazy about the Trapezium not showing properly in my last post, so I decided to rescan it with my phone instead of my printer. It did a much better job of picking up the detail and I think this is a much more accurate depiction of my original sketch and what I saw in the eyepiece.
Nice sketch!