Category: Media Combinations

Crater Longomontanus in Early Morning

Crater Longomontanus

Crater Longomontanus
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Over the past few weeks clear skies and good seeing have been absent at my usual observing site. Last evening all that changed at sundown with good clearing of the heavy cloud cover. As the moon moved eastward against the background stars and entered Capricornus, it was high enough in my sky for close examination and sketching. Among the craters of the southern highlands just at the terminator margin was walled plain crater Longomontanus (155 km. in diameter) basking in the early morning sunshine. This ancient impact is an old worn Nectarian period formation with a younger floor formed by liquefied eject from the formation of one of the distant large basins such as Orientale or Imbrium (see LPOD, December 30, 2007, C. Wood). Immediately east of Longomontanus I was able to see what remains of smaller older Longomontanus Z (95 km.). It is the darker shadowed depression that is only partly visible. The floor of this crater has small, mostly buried, central peaks which were casting long shadows on to the western inner crater wall. One of the three craters, Longomontanus L (16 km.) on the western floor stood out nicely in the grazing sunlight at the margin of the crater floor shadow to the north.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 8”x11”, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased (-3) and contrast increased (+3) using Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 9 mm and 6mm eyepieces 161x, 241x
Date: 10-9-2008, 0:10 – 2:15 UT
Temperature: 10° C (50° F)
clear, calm, humid
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude: 23.4 °
Lunation: 9.7 days
Illumination: 65.9 %

Frank McCabe

Learning from NOAA 11003

Solar - AR 11003

Solar NOAA 11003
Sketch and Details by Erika Rix

2008 Oct 05
Solar – featuring SE quadrant and NOAA 11003
Erika Rix, PCW Memorial Observatory, 40.01/-81.56
Observation details:

AR 11003 was not visible to me in white light using my ETX70 with a TV8mm plossl. I did see granulation on and off, transparency isn’t too great today. I almost thought I detected this region briefly, but couldn’t confirm it.

In h-alpha using my Maxscope, the area was lit up very nicely by bright slender plage making some of the background around it appear darker in comparison to the rest of the disk. I didn’t see any sunspots within the active region.

There were many prominences scattered around the limb and a very short, almost spot-like filament in the southern hemisphere west of the AR.
Sketch details:

This case is a perfect example of getting carried away with fitting in all the details and then losing touch on size and contrast. The active region was smaller in real life and a little further away from the limb. I continued on with the sketch anyway, marking the error in my report and off to the side of the sketch, since it was still an accurate representation of the AR within itself.

The prominence set on the limb is accurate in size, but I rendered it too bright, again getting carried away with my markings while trying to mark in the details within the prom.

Even though I’ve made the errors, I’ve marked them accordingly and still have a successful sketch from my observation. I say successful because I’ve still achieved my goals of in depth study of the Sun through sketching and managing to record my observations of these features regardless of two areas of errors that I stated. Sometimes sketching can be like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. The results can make you giggle, but you still trying your hand at it.

I grabbed the black paper closest to me today, so that was the Artagain paper. White Conte’ chalk, Conte’ pencil, and white Prang pencil were for the white areas. Contrast added with a stick of charcoal and a black pen. No erasing was done and blending of the solar surface was done with my finger tips. No blending was done after that.

I added a -15 brightness after taking a photo of my sketch with my Rebel outside in diffused lighting. My new scanner is still giving me fits scanning in my sketches, so I find it easier to take photos of them until I can master the new machine. Taking a little more time out of my day than I should have for fun, I managed white light and h-alpha viewing.

Solar Awakening

H-Alpha Sun

Solar Prominences
Sketch and Details by Les Cowley

After weeks of inactivity the sun stirred at the end of September ’08. The 28th saw a huge but faint prominence on the Southeast limb and the next morning revealed two large and bright prominences almost diametrically opposite each other on the SE and Northern limbs. They are pictured here as viewed from England through a Coronado 60mm H-Alpha single-stacked telescope at 50 and 80X. The sketches were made at the eyepiece with Derwent Studio, Watercolour (dry) and Drawing pencils on black Canford paper. A black hood blocked out extraneous light. Each had to be finished within 10 minutes because the prominences, particularly the southern one, were evolving quickly.

The Falls of Camelopardalis

Kemble’s Cascade

Kemble’s Cascade
Sketch and Details by Kiminori Ikebe

Kemble’s Cascade Cam
a line of stars

NGC 1502 Cam
open cluster

1999.12.31 01:02
10X42 Binoculars

A fine line of stars. Five to 10th magnitude stars are lined up in a straight line over a distance of about 2.5°. As it is large, 10×42 binoculars are most suitable. It is visible in a 3cm finderscope but looks partly nebulous. It stretches from the southeast to the northwest. The southeastern end of this stretch splits into two. Maybe this is where the base of the water falls is. Near the eastern end there is a bright star. With a careful look the star looks smudged at the edge. It is the open cluster NGC 1502. Near the middle of the line of the stars is the brightest star (5th magnitude); other stars are mainly of 8th magnitude. More than 20 stars are seen as a whole.

More of the Southern Highlands

Southern Highlands

Lunar Southern Highlands
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

I have always found the southern highlands an interesting region of the moon to examine along the terminator. At the times of low sun the craters here take on more unique and individual identities than at higher illumination. On this observing and sketching night, I managed to examine and sketch five notable craters. From south to north along the terminator are Boguslawsky (98km.), crater Boussingault E ( 98km.) and Boussingault B (54km.). All over the southern highlands are numerous, ancient, worn, soft looking craters between 10 and 90 kilometers in diameter. Some of the craters in this region pre-date the formation of the major lunar basins. These craters look soft and dusty with smooth terraces and regolith slumping to the crater floors. Lunar geologist Donald Wilhelms speculated that the appearance of the craters here is caused mostly by fluidized ejecta and debris tumbling down the crater walls to the floor. He also believes that the craters in the region of the sketch are sitting on an ancient 650 kilometer basin that is all but destroyed save for pieces of rim here and there. The two craters further west from the terminator from south to north are Manzinus (98 km.) and Mutus (78 km.). Craters B and A, both about 16 km. in size, can be seen on the floor of Mutus.
As a target the moon proved to be a very enjoyable subject on this evening of observation and sketching.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 10”x 8.5”, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased (-2) and contrast increased (+2) using Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 9 mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 9-18-2008, 4:05 – 5:30 UT
Temperature: 15° C (60° F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 129.5 °
Lunation 18.4 days
Illumination 90 %

Frank McCabe

Crater Plato and Environs

Plato

Plato and Environs
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

One of the more famous features of the lunar surface is the walled plain crater Plato. This 100 kilometer crater was formed on the blocks of ejecta or the debris field (lunar Alps) of the Mare Imbrian basin forming event and it preceded the lava upwelling that flooded the floor of the crater and then the maria. Beyond the highland rise of the crater to the north is Mare Frigoris. To the west of the crater is Plato A a 22 km. crater beyond the ramparts of Plato. Just on to the smooth Imbrian lava to the south are the Teneriffe Mountains including Mount Pico at the east end of the chain. A portion of Rimae Plato was visible intermittently in among the rugged mountain bases of the Alps as seeing briefly reached average value now and again. The central peaks present at the time of the Plato impact are buried under 2 kilometer of lava and only small craterlets can be seen on the floor. Two of these were in and out of visibility as I drew this sketch. The rim on the shadowed side of the crater has irregular peaks that reach to 2.6 km. above the crater floor. At times of lower sun angles the irregular peaks cast long shadows that allow you to locate these summits.
In the years of the 17th century after the invention of the telescope, crater Plato changed names three times. In 1645 it was named Lacus Panciroli by Michael van Langren and in 1647 Johannes Hevelius named it Lacus Niger Major and finally Fr. John Baptist Riccioli in 1651 gave it the name we call it to this day.
If you have a telescope take a look at the crater floor and watch it change in brightness as we approach and then go past full moon. The moon is not light pollution it is a rewarding astronomical target.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 10”x12”, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased (-2) and contrast increased (+2) using Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 9 mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 9-10-2008, 1:15 – 2:30 UT
Temperature: 15° C (60° F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 29.6 °
Lunation 10.2 days
Illumination 72.7 %

Frank McCabe

The mysteries of Mons Rumker

Mons Rumker

Mons Rumker
Sketch and Details by Richard Handy

Mons Rumker sits in isolation on the dark basalts of northwest Oceanus Procellarum like a lonely sentinel on the edge of some vast undiscovered wilderness. The Rumker Hills dome complex, situated on the western flank of the Aristarchus Plateau, lies on the top of a local swelling that is about 140 km in diameter. It is composed of a remarkable set of about a dozen volcanic domes and low mounds, which are scattered in a rough semi-circular plateau approximately 70 km in diameter. The surficial domes apparently overlay preexisting low domes so that the elevated northwest sections have a pancake like appearance. Despite the long shadows when viewed close to the terminator, nowhere do these domes rise much above 500 meters in elevation from the mean surface of the mare. A central depression to the southeast of the domed crescent displays a strange dichotomy between its darker and lighter floor that is very reminiscent of areas on the Moon that have pyroclastic deposits. The mysteries of Rumker are manifold: why is this the only such layered dome field on the surface of the Moon? Why is located here? Does it predate the mare lavas or is it the representative of the last vestiges of differentiated magmas that ended the mare sequences in this area? Is the central depression part of a preexisting separate domain or were both aspects, both domes and depression deposits, created over the same period of time?

Sketch details

Subject: Mons Rumker and environs Rukl: 8
Date: 3-31-07
Session Start 8:03 UT End 9.48 UT
Seeing: Antoniadi II-III Weather clear
Lunation 1042, 12.3 days Phase: 25.2 deg Illumination 95.2%
Colongitude: 60.7 deg
Lib in Lat: +00 deg 05 min Lib. in Long: +04 deg 04 min
Telescope: Meade 12” SCT f/10
Binoviewer: W.O. Bino –P with 1.6X nosepiece
Eyepieces: 12.4 mm Meade Super Plossls
Magnification: 393X
Sketch medium: White Conte’ Crayon on black textured Strathmore paper
Sketch size: 18” x 24”

Mare Crisium

Mare Crisium

Mare Crisium
Sketch and details by Dale Holt

Mare Crisium (the “sea of crises”) is a lunar crater located in the Moon’s Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. This basin is of the Pre-Imbrian period, 4.55 to 3.85 billion years ago. This mare is 376 miles (605 km) in diameter, and 176,000 km2 in area. It has a very flat floor, with a ring of wrinkled ridge toward its outer boundaries. Ghost craters, craters that have largely been buried under deposits of other material, are located to the south.

The crater has many notable features in and around it. The cape-like feature protruding into the southeast of the mare is Promontorium Agarum. On the western rim of the mare is the palimpsest Yerkes. The crater Picard is located just to the east of Yerkes, and northwest of Picard is the crater Peirce. Mare Anguis can be seen northeast of Mare Crisium. Mare Crisium is the site of the Luna 15 crash in 1969.

I used my 150mm F9 Triplet refractor and Denkmeier binoviewer fitted with 32mm Plossl eyepieces to view this Mare.

I captured the image on black art paper approx 125mm x 125mm using a white Conte pastel, white ‘Derwent’ watercolour pencil, white ‘Derwent’ pastel pencil, black ink pen & blending stump.

The image was scanned and reorientated hopefully to match the description above description lifted from Wikipedia.

Date of Sketch 15-Sept-2008 20.15 UT

Seeing Ant III

Mag 98x

Moon phase 99.6%

Location: Chippingdale observatory, Chipping, Hertfordshire, England

A Serpent Among the Stars

B68 and B72

Barnard 68 and 72 (The Snake Nebula)
Sketch and Details by Kiminori Ikebe

B68 Oph dark nebula Difficulty level: 3/5
B72 Oph dark nebula Difficulty level: 4/5
The Snake Nebula
Date of Observation: 2002/08/02 22:51
Observing Site: Gokase
Transparency/Seeing/sky darkness: 5/2/5
Instruments: 50cm Dobsonian and XL40
Magnification: 60x
Width of field: 1.1 degrees

These are good photographic objects but difficult visually.
There are numerous faint stars in the field, although they are not as dense as in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Against this background a dark nebula shaped ‘S’ is visible faintly. The southern part of the winding dark nebula is wide and clear. It is conspicuous because the background is bright. It is not curved smoothly but bent sharply at two places. The northern part is bent at one place. The end of the northern part is not clear. There is a small separate dark nebula visible southwest of the Snake Nebula. This is B68. This is more clearly seen than the Snake Nebula because the background is bright. It is triangular with its corners being roundish.