Category: Moon

Dedicated to Scott

Dedicated to our beloved friend Scott Mellish…
Aristarchus is one the of the brightest Moon’s crater.
Some people believe that it can be seen with naked eye!!!

Object name: Aristarchus crater
Location: Tehran,Iran
Date: 15 may 2001.
Time: 23:11 local time.
Media: graphite pencil, charcoal and edited with photoshop.
Equipment: Dabsom.8″ Skywatcher.

Clearsky…
Pasha Majidi

A Rushed First Quarter

Hi all,

Time at the eyepiece has been scarce so far this year. And as yet, still no productive time at a dark sky site either. Thankfully we still have the Moon!

This one hour sketch of the first quarter phase of the Moon was a bit of a race. That was all the time I had before the Moon went behind the neighbour’s palm tree, plus conditions were cold and windy. I guess as close to “Extreme Astro Sketching” as I’d like to get to, LOL!

This was also the first sketch undertaken with a real old girl scope, a beautiful early 1980’s orange tube C8. No GPS, no periodic error control, no Go-to, no special lens coatings, doesn’t even make me coffee. Just a little clock drive. Cool.

Object: first quarter phase Moon
Scope: 30 year old C8
Gear: GSO Superview 30mm, 66X
Date: 11th May, 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Conditions: Poor, windy and cold
Media: White and black charcoal pencils, white and black Chinagraph, & graphite pencil on A4 size black paper.

Cheers,

Alex M.

Total Eclipse in Malindi

Hey artists!

This is my first and only total eclipse of the sun. It is only > one thing to say, beautiful, and this is still
my finest minutes as an amateurastronomer!
The eclipse started with a long lasting diamondring, and ended > with a shorter one.
Info on my sketch!

Best wishes and clear sky from Per-Jonny Bremseth

Cusp of Moon and Sinus Iridum

Hello artists,all o.k.? Compliments for last Moon sketches ,great work ( at Frank in paricular)at all.
I made three sketches of Moon ,two in one week,but at moment i sent you my two sketches,one of a cups of crescent Moon,one of Sinus Iridum and environs.
I used my refractor Kenko 80mm 1000 f.l.,little but perfect for this work.
About my sketch of Moon cups,i go at hill near my town.At first i go for one observing session but when i see in eyepiece this incredible zone i decide to draw quyckly.
I see the mountains coming out from shadow ,one light thread of light on the surface.
The Moon phase was crescent(one day),this is the first time that i made one sketch of this zone,i want to made other,nextly.
The second ( and last) sketch i made last friday.
I mounted my refractor on the roof of my room’s terrace,i list music….perfect Moon sketch session.
One incredible neat vision ,the Sinus Iridum, Bianchini crater, Mount Jura and many splits and shadows…..very difficult work !
I go to bad satisfied but with head-ache.
I hope like you.
Ciao a tutti,Giorgio.

About first sketch( cups of Moon):

Site:Pergola (Serraspinosa Hill,400 meters over see level )
Date:7 of May 2011 10,50 p.m.
Moon phase : Crescent
Instrument:Refractor Kenko 80/1000
Eyepiece:15mm + Barlow (133x)
Seeing :Very good
Air: Calm.light cold.
Technnics:Graphite pencill on withe paper fabriano.

About last sketch (Sinus Iridum and environs):

Site :Pergola,Marche Region,center Italy
Date:13-14 of May 2011 from 10,40 p.m. to 01,13 a.m.
Moon phase: Crescent (11,3 days )
Instrument: Refractor Kenko 80mm/!000
Eyepiece:15mm+ barlow
Seeing:Good,turbulance and light clouds at the end.
Air: Light cold,no wind.

Modeling the Moon

Inspired by the beautiful model of Archimedes by Richard Handy, I organized a clay workshop during the weekly gathering of our local astronomy club a few weeks ago.
Modeling the Moon is not new at all. The Scottish engineer and inventor James Nasmyth (1808-1890) already made some impressive plaster models of the Moon based on his visual observations. More information on this can be found on the internet, check it out!

Chosen subject for my sculpture was Tycho, since the Japanese Selene mission (Jaxa) yielded some extremely detailed pictures of this crater – available for everyone on the web. Alternative option would be crater Clavius.

Armed with only primitive tools (bare hands and a wooden clothes-peg) to work with, and no experience in clay-modeling (occasional childhood experience set aside) a group of 15 enthusiasts bravely accepted the challenge. After about 90 minutes of hard work combined with healthy doses of humor and self-relativism everyone was quite impressed with the result. You really should try this yourself!

The attached photos are unfortunately not the best quality, however they provide a good impression of what to be expected. Hope you like it!

Thanks at Paul Aka for correcting my English.

Clear skies
Jef De Wit

Object Type and Name: crater Tycho and Clavius
Date: 5 May 2011
Medium: clay, hands and a clothes-peg

Looking Glass Pythagoras

Object Name: Pythagoras
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Bristol, UK
Date: 16th April 2011

Media (graphite pencil sketch at the scope and then digitized using graphics tablet and Photoshop)
I usually sketch in some detail at the scope (mainly HB and 2B). I then scanned the result into Photoshop and used a Bamboo Pen graphics tablet to remaster the sketch. The final sketch was then “blurred” a touch to simulate the actual view which is never as sharp as I would like to see!)

Observational date: I use a Nexstar 8SE teamed with a Hyperion 8-24 mm zoom. Most of the sketch was at the 8 mm stop and was drawn in good seeing conditions. The moon was 13 days old.
I could see the two central peaks but not sharply. However the terracing along the rim walls was obvious as was Babbage to the south. Because of the foreshortening I could see shadowed craters to the north.

Craters Posidonius at Sunrise

Craters Posidonius at Sunrise

A rare clear evening this spring got me to the eyepiece of my scope to view and sketch the moon. The Apollo 11 landing site was just receiving first light as was crater Posidonius some distance to the south. I have sketched Posidonius at sunset but never at sunrise and this was my opportunity.

The narrow sharp edge wall of 95 km. diameter Posidonius was reflecting much light at the time of this observation. The floor fractures were not well illuminated at the time of this viewing but the central crater A (11 km.) was prominent. Posidonius is an Upper Imbrian period crater that formed by impact at the time lava flooding was occurring in Mare Serenitatis.

Other craters visible at the time of this sketch include from south to north Chacornac (51 km.), on the north rim of Posidonius you see partly illuminated Posidonius B (14 km.), then J (22km.), M (10 km.), Daniell (26km.), and P (15 km.) out beyond the terminator shadow.

Sketching Information

Posidonius crater on ebony black Canson paper using white and black Conte’ pastel pencils
Sketch Date: May 8, 2011, using a 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian telescope riding on an equatorial platform with a 6mm eyepiece for 241x at 01:15-02:30 UT
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Weather clear, breezy, 55 degrees F (12 degrees C)
Lunation 4.8 days
Moon 21.5% illuminated
Colongitude 331.6°
Rükl Atlas Pl 14

Frank McCabe