This website includes visual pencil drawings of diffuse and planetary nebulae that were made during routine photoelectric photometry runs from 1977-1984 at McDonald Observatory in West Texas and Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. The telescopes used were mostly the McDonald 30 and 36-inch reflectors (two with the McDonald 82-inch telescope) and the Siding Spring 24 and 40-inch reflectors. The website also includes a single sketch of 30 Doradus made with the 36-inch telescope of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, as well as a few drawings made with the 12.5-inch telescope of the Austin Astronomical Society. All of the drawings are originals made at the telescope. The large telescope sketches were made during nonphotometric (partly cloudy) periods. Most of the observing nights had little or no moon. All drawings were scanned with an HP ScanJet or HP OfficeJet and prepared for the website using Adobe PhotoDeluxe or Macromedia Fireworks.
The observations were made with large focal length eyepieces that gave magnifications of a few hundred times. There is no indication given on any drawing of the directions of north and east. They would have to be compared with photographs to get this information.