In the early hours of June 16, 2020 I aimed my telescope to the south towards the constellation Sagittarius. I put in my 32mm Plossl eyepiece to place the stars in the field of view, and then when it came time to sketch the nebula itself I used my Orion Ultrablock filter to help bring out the nebula since it was quite washed out in the light pollution of my southern skies. This interstellar cloud of gas and dust has a 15 light year diameter, and while we don't have a precise distance to this nebula it is estimated to be around 5,000 light years away. M17 is part an even larger cloud of dust and gas that spans an even larger area of around 40 light years in diameter.
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| M17 the Omega Nebula in Sagittarius |
This was my second sketch using black canson paper, and honestly I will probably never do sketches on white paper again. Being able to see how it looks through the eyepiece without having to do any inverting is a major bonus when doing the sketch itself. I used a white charcoal pencil for star placement, a kneaded eraser to dim the stars, and a white pastel pencil and blending stump to place the nebula.
If you would like to see where to find this object in the night sky and see the time lapse of me sketching this object at the eyepiece be sure to watch the video below:
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