The sketches were done a lot darker than the objects actually appeared in the eyepiece. This is so they’d scan properly and also so they can be seen onscreen. Even so, some may still be quite faint, especially the older ones, as my cheap scanner is not good at picking up pencil marks so, for these, you need quite a dark room and to look directly square on to your monitor display in order to see them properly.
The sketches also cover a long time period, from the early/mid 1990s up to now so the quality of the sketches varies. NONE of the sketches have been made with the aid of Mallincams, Watecs, or any other video device, they are 100% true visual observing.
Abbreviations:
S = Sandown, Isle of Wight (current home site): Actually a village outside the town, with reasonably dark skies and an average Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude of 6.1
F = Ft Davis, Texas (Texas Star Party and Lowrey Observatory): Excellent skies, NELM often > 7.0
L = Lobethal, SA, Australia (made some observations from there in 1997): rural site, NELM 6.1
M = Manly, Qld, Australia (as Lobethal, above): suburban, light-polluted, good seeing NELM 4.5
E = Ellesmere, Qld, Aus (as Lobethal and Manly): Rural Outback site, very dark, NELM > 7.0
D = Lions Camp Duckadang, Qld (as Lobethal, Manly, Ellesmere): Queensland Astrofest site, NELM >7.0
V = Vectis Astronomical Society’s observatory, Newchurch, Isle of Wight; rural site near home, NELM 5.8-6.0
B = Brighstone, Isle of Wight (Isle of Wight Star Party); rural, sea to south, NELM can be as good as 6.5
W = Wootton, Isle of Wight, UK (old site); semi-rural, NELM 5.5 to 5.8
Click on each category to be taken to the relevant album.
Planetary Nebulae and Supernova Remnants
