Category: Paper

Lunar Volcanism

Pyroclastic deposits in Alphonsus
Pyroclastic deposits in Alphonsus

Hi all,

I’ve been itching to have a go again at Alphonsus for some time. Along with its two buddies, Arzachel (to left) and Ptolemaeus (at right), this trio are a time line of Lunar history.

Ptolemaeus is the oldest. The crater floor is totally flooded, even the central peak is covered. It was fromed when the Moon was still very hot and lava readily flowed with a large impact.

Arzachel is the youngest. The crater floor is intact with no flooding, the crater walls are terraced with land slides both inside and outside of the crater.

Alphonsus sits bewteen the two in age. The crater floor is only partially flooded with the central peak still visible. The Moon has cooled since Ptolemaeus and lava flow has slowed. BUT, volcanic activity was still occuring after the flooding process had stopped. This is seen from the pyroclastic deposits that sit within Alphonsus. Four deposits lie within this crater and are marked in the labelled pic, and are seen as the darker shaded areas that are easy to see through the eyepiece.

Quite remarkable to consider that from here on Earth we can see the effects of ancient volcanism on a body that isn’t Earth.

Another treasure of the night was the Celestron Ultima LX 8mm eyepiece I used. These eyepiece are much underrated, but are surprisingly good. The 8mm in particular is easy to use for extended viewing. It made the 2.5 hours much more bearable, and my eyes were not as fatigued as they have been after with other sketches that have taken less time to do. It’s one of my favourite eyepieces.

Object: Pyroclastic deposits in Alphonsus
Scope: C8, 8″ SCT
Gear: 8mm Celestron Ultima LX, 250X
Location: Sydney, Australia
Date: 19th March 2013
Media: Soft Pastel, charcoal and white ink on A4 size black paper
Duration: approx 2.5 hrs

Pyroclastic deposits in Alphonsus - Labeled
Pyroclastic deposits in Alphonsus – Labeled

PanSTARRS at 50X

C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)
C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)

Hey ASOD- Friends!

I send once more one sketch of PANSTARRS.
This time in lower magn. (50x). the comet is now easier seen with naked eyes
and fine in binos as it was higher on the sky on darker sky.
The faint dust to east was interesting and the sharp edge to west.
Info on my sketch..
I used pencil on white paper and inverted in colour.
The observation was done near Trondheim, Norway.
Thank you very much on the nice comments on my sketches!!

Clear sky from Per-Jonny Bremseth.

The Twilight Colors of PanSTARRS

C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)
C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)

Object Name: Comet PanSTARRS C/2011 L4
Object Type: Comet
Location: Near Grant, AL, USA
Date: Feb. 13, 2013, Approx. 7:35PM CDT
Equipment: 4-inch (100×25) Binoculars, Red Backlit Panel, Soft Pencils, and Tracing Paper. Used multiple layers for different colors to assemble drawing using the computer.

Description:
Comet PanStarrs was only visible for a short time on the 13th (about 1/2 hour), but we were able to sketch several individual layers to assemble a color drawing of the Comet in the Sunset/Twilight. We were going to take an astrophoto, but realized that a drawing might work better, given the twilight. Glad we switched! The white coma and red dust tail contrasted strongly in the view.

–James M.

C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS) from Pesaro

C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)
C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)

Comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS
Location: Pesaro
Date: 16/03/2013, sketched from 18:50 to 19:10, local time.
Black pencil on white paper

It has been really difficult to find the comet it in the evening sky:
no stars around to use for reference and apparently invisible to naked
eye. Once found it was indeed barely visible with naked eye, not to
everyone though. I made this sketch trough the telescope, fortunately
a star was visible next to the comet trough the scope, it should be
HIP2671, according to stars visible in photographs took by friends at
the same time (this is consistent with coordinates of the comets given
by JPL Horizon’s ephemeris for that time)

Aldo

PanSTARRS from Norway

C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)
C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)

Hey Artists!

I send you my observation of comet PANSTARRS from Norway.
The comet was nice (in twilight sky) in binocular and scope, but
difficult with naked eyes. Info on my sketch.
I used pencil on white paper and inverted in color.
This time I used a 8″ Dob f/ 6 .
Observation made outside Trondheim, Norway.

Clear sky to all observers.

Per-Jonny Bremseth.

Comet C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS) from Germany

C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)
C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)

Hello comet-hunters,

yesterday I sketched the comet C2011 / L4 Panstarrs. It was very hard, to find the comet near the brightened horizon. Jupiter and the moon were wachting over us from above 😉 My friends and I “scanned” the sky with our binoculars (10×50, 7×50 and a zoom). Shortly after seven o´clock p.m. we found this 2 mag bright object. We was somewhat disappointet, because we thought he was brighter and larger.

At my TMB 115/805 I used 25 – 70x with a zoom eyepiece and the 31mm Nagler. So I wondered about the little consendation head and the two shorter different long tails of the comet in the eyepiece. Most fotos shows us a slim comet with star-shaped head.

Hope you like the famous comet. There are only a few sketches in the www, but many photos 🙂

CS Uwe

Object: comet – C2011 L4 Panstarrs
Brightness: about 2 mag
Date: 15.03.2013 – 7.00 p.m.
Location: near Würzburg Germany
Conditions: – 4°C, no wind, quite air
Telescope: TMB 115/805 No. 083 with Baader Zoom eyepiece

Saturn – March 3, 2013

Saturn - March 3, 2013
Saturn – March 3, 2013

Hello friends of the planets,

yesterday the weather was the first time very good. And the night was great. After many deep-sky-impressions I waited for Saturn and the air was as good as possible.

It is my first Saturn sketch in 2013 and I sketched the ring-planet without any helps. So I need about 20 minutes for the ring system only. It is very hard to sketch it quite well and it needs little work in the warm living room after the session. 😉

Location: Germany, near Tauberbischofsheim
Altitude: 360m over sea level
Temperature: – 4°C
Air: very good
Telescope: TMB 115/805 on Vixen SXD Mount 160x- 200x

CS Uwe

H-Alpha Sun – March 3, 2013

H-Alpha Sun - March 3, 2013
H-Alpha Sun – March 3, 2013

Dear Asod,

Please find attached one of my latest sketches made of the Sun with my Luns LS35 H-Alpha telescope.
We had a lot of cloudy days so far this year, with only a few opportunities to go out and do any kind of observations, but finally the sun was shining and obviously I was sketching! J

Place: Budapest, Hungary

Date: 3rd March 2013

Equipment: 35/400 Lunt LS35T (H-alpha)

Object: Sun

Media: Graphite pencil used on white paper

Clear skies,
Judit

dr. Hannák Judit

Email: hannak.judit@gmail.com

Web: http://egmesek.blogspot.com