Another sketch, this time of Copernicus. I thought it would only take 1/2 hour but I was sorely mistaken. Details I didn't notice on other visits to the area presented themselves and I took a little over an hour. As an off-topic bonus, when I looked at Jupiter Io and its shadow where about to begin a transit so I watched as it gradually got closer, the shadow appeared on Jupiter and eventually Io itself entered the disk. Earlier in the night all four moons plus the disk where visible in binoculars but still no binocular cloud band.
108X magnification was used to decrease the effects of below average seeing.
Ralph
As the title says, this is a sketch of Copernicus and Eratosthenes along with the ghost crater Stadius and the western end of Montes Apenninis. I originally planned to do just Stadius itself but it got out of control fast and what was originally anticipated as a one hour sketch became nearly two! Again, I used 108X even though the seeing was very good to get it done before the moon went behind the trees. There was a bit of haze around and a vast amount of dew so thanks to mental4astro for his dew control tips. In hindsight it was a bit silly to do Copernicus again but the different lighting conditions made up for it.
Ralph
A sketch of the Apollo 15 landing area. This required every drop of telescope resolution and sharpness in only a 130mm, but I could see almost all of the valley. This sketch was inspired by http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=135357, a panorama including Rima Hadley by Star Catcher (Ted Dobosz) and the Mythbusters episode on the moon conspiracy. The Apollo 15 landing site is circled.
time: 1 1/4 hours
eyepiece: 6mm Edge-On and 2X Barlow
seeing: above average
transparency: very good
wind speed: no wind
Dew: no dew
I have wanted to sketch the crescent Moon for a few years now. But the timing of the phase during the day is rarely ever a good one for me. Today, after such a long wait, the 5 day old Moon beckoned, and all the ducks lined up !
One aspect of the crescent Moon that has appealed to me is that when it is high in the sky, it is set within the blue of the daytime sky. I’ve had blue coloured paper for some time now in patient anticipation that one day I would get the chance to use it.
What a magnificent scene greeted my eyes. The amount of detail took me by surprise. I used low magnification, and this served to concentrate the quality of the image. And it took me a little while to figure out that there was no way I was going to replicate the level of detail I would normally put into lunar sketch – it is just impossible.
It was a joy to produce this sketch. As a whole, the finished piece impressed me too! It was such a delicious treat to see not a smooth lunar limb, but a textured and rippled limb with mountains, ridges and valley breaking up the hard edge. The terminator was beaded with isolated peaks catching the first rays of the sun. And details that are normally washed out when I typically get to sketch the Moon, tonight were on show.
But the magic of the night held another precious moment for me after I completed the sketch. My young son joined me in the backyard. He was keen to see the Moon through the telescope I had just sketched. He was mesmerized by the detail, and when I explained the flat plains he could see were fields of lava flows, his curiosity really picked up. As a final treat I showed him Saturn. He was amazed to learn that gap that is Casini’s Division is larger than Australia! And we finished with a view of the streaky clouds on the disk which he ran inside to tell his mum about! “Mum, mum, I just saw clouds on another planet!”
I came in a very happy dad.
Object: 5 day old Moon
Scope: C8, 8” SCT
Gear: 30mm Superview, 67X
Date: 21st July, 2015
Location: Sydney, Australia
Media: white and blue soft pastel & white ink on blue paper.
This is a sketch of the Theophilus and Cyrillus craters on the moon. Cyrillus was mostly in shadow but Theophilus was showing a beautiful central mountain cluster and shadow.
20.08.15
Seeing - very good
Transparency - poor (very foggy)
Time - 7:15 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
Telescope - 130mm F/5
Eyepiece - 6mm edge-on (108X magnification)
Nice work Ralph. Nice and tight area there, jam packed with detail.
If I could be so bold to make a suggestion, you might like to look into using some softer graphite pencils, or even black pencils like the Stedler 'EE'. These will give a much stronger dark/black shading. There's no pussy-footing with the Moon's shadows. It's either black or black... You might find using such pencils a challenge at first. These 6B, 7B and even 8B graphites smudge very easily. The 'EE' is wicked black in comparison - no sheen at all compared to graphite.
I've uploaded a timelapse video of my sketching the Moon at the eyepiece. The video show the process from planning the piece, developing the details, the constant swapping between media, the constant sharpening and shaping of the pastels and charcoal, and to finish the final inspection and confirmation of being satisfied with what's been laid down.
As this is not a Youtube video, I can only provide the link to the blog page where the video is. The picture below shows me all set up for a sketching session. The white box in front of me, is tipped on its side and is to shield my materials from dew.
If I remember correctly, that sketch was done with a 2B pencil on plain white paper. I recently got some black paper and two white pencils but haven't had the chance to try them under the sky since the last sketch. On a brief inside trial (putting a small mark in the corner of the page), I can confirm that these pencils are indeed softer and smudge quite easily.
Is the sketch in the video a new one, or a previous video that you've only just posted?
It's about time for me to get a solar scope too. Seeing all those features must be incredible, considering it normally just glares down showing no detail. (not that I ever look directly at it.) If only they weren't so expensive.
I was also able to do a sketch on the 23rd, but of the moon, specifically the sunrise over Sinus Iridum. I finally got a chance to test out my new black paper with white pencils, and I am very happy with the results. Unfortunately, the image is a little overexposed, but it doesn't hide too much detail, as anything that appears white in the picture was white on the drawing, because I failed to make the distinction between 'bright' and 'very bright'.
It was incredible to see the changes in the shadows so close to the terminator, even over the course of 2 hours.
Ralph
Date: 23.09.15
Object: Sinus Iridum
Time: 8:00 p.m. - 10:15 p.m.
Seeing: below average
Transparency: poor to good (patchy clouds)
Wind: moderate, enough to vibrate the image during gusts
Eyepiece: 6mm TV Plossl
Telescope: Celestron 130mm F/5
Ralph
Last edited by RB; 28-09-2015 at 01:44 PM.
Reason: Moved as requested
Hello all,
My name is Marios and I live in Cyprus (Nicosia - Mammari). My first post to the ' Ice in Space ' forum as a new member and I hope you like it.
SCOPE: Dob Synta 200mm F.L.1200/f6
EYEPIECES: Ultra Wide 6mm F.O.V :66
LOCATION OF SITE: Mammari
Black pencils on white paper
Welcome to IceInSpace.
I certainly like it, and I like how the FOV extends out to include the surrounding area, not just the crater. Out of curiosity, when was this done?
Here's one of the two lunar sketches that appeared in the US June 2016 edition of Sky & Telescope, Magnius.
This piece was one of four done on four consecutive nights - a stretch of nights and sketching that I haven't done before. And three of these nights threw up good seeing, particularly for Magnius, and the fourth required a bit of magnification compromise, which proved a great experience too.
You'll find a more extensive write up on Magnius in my astro sketching blog - a link to it is in my signature.
There is a quality to Astro illustrations that the extraordinary detail of Astrophotography can't surpass. The unique qualities of Astro illustration are displayed at their best in a Lunar drawing.
So on behalf of those who can only drop pencils and at best light a barbeque with charcoal, thanks! The noble art of Astro illustration continues to move forward whilst you choose to remain sitting at the eyepiece & looking up.
