Category: Moon

Burning Candles at Both Ends

Clear skies and a prominent day-11 moon on the evening of 16th December had me out really enjoying sketching; it wasn’t too cold (to begin with), the skies were clear, the target was high and I had plenty of time…..all a rare occurrence.

I sketched one of the most architecturally pleasing parts of the moon; the Sinus Iridum, which is a large crater/small basin with a partially flooded rim.

Of the two promontories, the one on the right (Promontorium Heraclides) is also known as the moon maiden, because at certain times it resembles the profile of a lady, with her long hair falling away off her shoulders. Also visible are the wrinkle ridges which might be traces of the buried rim, and craters Bianchini, Maupertuis, La Condamine and Bouguer.

Awaking on 17th at 4am with busy thoughts, I decided that viewing Saturn would be better than attempting to get back to sleep. And so it was.

I was surprised by quite a lot. The rings had opened up quite a bit since I saw them last spring. Not being close to opposition, the planet was quite small and I couldn’t see much detail on the planet itself. Only one moon was obvious; Titan predictably. With effort, another moon could be viewed roughly forming a right-angled triangle between Titan and the planet; it’s the faint spot at middle-left of the picture. This turned out to be Iapetus, which was pleasing because I haven’t seen that very often. It was new for me to see a moon so out of plane with the planet and the rings as last year they were mostly in line. It was good to see such old friends again.

* Object Name – Sinus Iridium, Mare Imbrium; Saturn, Titan, Iapetus.
* Object Type – Lunar Crater, Mare; Planet, Moons.
* Location – York, UK
* Date 16th December 2010, 17th December 2010
* Media – Graphite pencil on white paper. Observing instrument: Skywatcher Skyliner 152mm f8 Dobsonian, 10mm e.p., x2 Barlow.

Langrenus and Others

Object Name : Langrenus and others
Location : Bures-sur-Yvette, France
Date : 22/10/2010
Media : white pencil, white pastel, black paper

A very nice night, seeing very good but very cold temperature (-5° > C). 3 hours of sketching, the spots shadow was sketche first > because that’s change, in 3 hours… with a maksutov-cassegrain > 127mm x300, at the end meniscus was frost

“All Hail, Caesar!”

Hello again,

I did this sketch last weekend. My intention had been to do two sketches of the terminator creeping across the Alpine Valley over two consecutive nights. This was supposed to have been the first of those sketches. I only had a vague memory of the location of the Alpine, so when I came across this incredible “gash” in the Lunar landscape, I thought ‘great, that was easy’! Didn’t I get a surprise the next evening!

What I was looking at was the mountain range next to the crater Julius Caesar. This range was being illuminated only on its eastern face, and the main body of it was still completely in the dark. I guess it wasn’t so hard to see how I confused the features. This silhouetted mountain range would otherwise have been overlooked by me as a feature to sketch. I’ll be chasing down a few more now, along the terminator.

Scope: Celestron C5, 5” SCT
Eyepiece: TMB Planetary Type II 6mm, 200X
Location: my backyard in Sydney
Media: Pencil, paint & ink on white paper

Many thanks for looking,

Alex M.

A Quiet Corner of Serenity

Object Name Apollo 17 landing site, Taurus Littrow valley
Object Type Lunar crater, Mare, Mountains, Dorsum.
Location York, UK
Date 11th December 2010
Media Graphite pencil on white paper
Instrument Skywatcher Skyliner 152mm f8 Dobsonian, 10mm e.p. plus x2 Barlow. Seeing quite wobbly.
A lovely crescent day-5 moon and clear skies yesterday evening meant that cooking had to wait for lunar sketching to finish.

Because it was rather nicely illuminated near the terminator, I chose to sketch the corner of Mare Serenitatis on the edge of the Taurus mountains which was the site of the Apollo 17 landing. This is also a seasonal ploy as the landing took place on December 19th 1972.

Here, I’ve labeled the sketch, with x marking the landing site of the lunar module “Challenger”.

The rim of the Serenitatis basin is marked by blocky Massifs of uplifted crust, fractured radially, and the landing site is a valley between three of these massifs; North, South and East. A major objective of the mission was to sample the dark mantle which coats this part of the edge of the basin, and which is very obvious in a small telescope.

Below are some links to images taken by the Apollo 17 crew, which illustrate some of the features in the sketch.

Overhead view of landing site in the Taurus Littrow valley

View of the Taurus Littrow valley from orbit.

View from the landing site

North Massif

View to south with South Massif

Peter Mayhew

The Multi-Ringed Crisium Basin

Staring down the telescope eyepiece last night, I saw the terminator crossing Mare Crisium in such a way that all the main basin rings were visible. That only left the challenge of illustrating them in a sketch; not an easy thing when you consider the breadth of lunar landscape they cover and the amount of detail they include. So: from inner to outer here they are – can you spot them all?

1. The inner wrinkle ridge just inside and parallel to the Mare border (Dorsum Oppel).

2. The mountainous terrain of the mare border itself.

3. The Cleomedes ring. Cleomedes is the large terraced crater to the north of the Mare and partially in shadow. You can identify the high ground surrounding it by virtue of the low ground either side. To the south of the Mare this low ground is also visible in amongst the more jagged mountains.

4. The Geminus ring. Geminus is the large crater at the top of the drawing totally in shadow. A ring of slightly higher ground arcs right round the north of the mare, with a gap to the west, then rejoins as the mountains to the Mare’s south.

The multiple rings of Crisium are quite obvious once you know they are there, so it’s amazing how it took the Lunar Orbiter images of Mare Orientale to really focus the hunt for similar features on the lunar near-side. I drew this in about 40 minutes, finishing it quickly mainly because I was cold and tired. But I also find that forcing myself to sketch fast helps me to focus on observing the main features first and getting them down on paper.

Object name: Mare Crisium

Object type: lunar mare basin

Location: York, UK

Date: 23rd November 2010

Medium: graphite pencil on white paper.

Instrument: Skywatcher skyliner 152mm f8 Dobsonian, 10mm e.p.

Peter Mayhew

A Near Full Moon Study

Hi all,

Tonight we had one of the clearest nights for a long time here in Sydney, and I wasn’t about to let a near full Moon spoil the occasion! So I pulled out my easy to set up 8” dob, and made this quick sketch over the next hour. Since this scope is an f/4, I used my 30 year old RKE eyepiece to give me the best low power image available to me. OH, how I love this eyepiece!

I even had a nice surprise too. For one very brief moment, a satellite crossed through my field of view. It’s happened many times to me, BUT this one happened across the disk of the Moon!! At first I thought it was a balloon, but then it occurred to me “since when does a balloon have spiky bits hanging off it?!!!”

Scope: 8” f/4 newtonian, dob mounted
Eyepiece: Edmund Scientific RKE 28mm, 29X
Filters: 2 polarizing filters
Media: China graph & graphite pencils on black paper.

Clear skies,

Alex M

Almost a Basin

Object Name: CLAVIUS
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Bristol, UK
Date: 15th November 2010
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 for the first time 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 8mm stop and was drawn in good seeing conditions. The moon was 9.6 days old.
The damaged crater can be clearly seen with Porter embedded in the NE high wall and Rutherfurd in the South. Blancanus (to the SW) is almost completely in shadow. A number of small craterlets can be seen across the floor of Clavius.
Hope you enjoy,

Clear Skies

Chris Lee

On the Northeast Shores of Serenity

Object: Lunar crater- Posidonius
Location: Sydney, Australia
Date: 13th Nov. 2010
Media: Pencil, ink & paint on paper
Scope: 5” SCT
Eyepiece: 6mm TMB Planetary Type II, 200X

Hello again,
This is the first Lunar crater I’ve attempted in a long time, having being inspired by some sensational work here on ASOD. The sky has been very unco-operative for some time here in Sydney, so I also took advantage of a cloudless opportunity. This sketch was done under trying conditions- windy and with a very turbulent atmosphere really testing my patience as clarity of the image came and went so quickly.
It has also been a long time since I’ve really taken my time with a single Lunar feature. So detailed! So many soft features. So many fine features. So nice to rediscover a forgotten jewel of my sky.

Alex M.

Mare Crisium: One Day Past Full Moon

Mare Crisium: One Day Past Full Moon

I made a decision on Saturday evening I was going to try and complete a lunar sketch of Mare Crisium even though the chances of success were poor. I was forced to stop 3 times by dense clouds and a little rain but three and half hours after beginning, something of the view ended up on the paper.
Mare Crisium is that interesting isolated sea on the northeastern side of the visible lunar surface.
The robotic Luna 24 took soil and rock samples from this sea floor and returned them to the U.S.S.R. back in 1976.
The Nectarian Period event that formed this feature occurred more than 3.8 billion years ago as an asteroid –type body slammed into the moon from the west. The mare portion of the basin is about 500 kilometers across and segments of the low ridges of the inner basin ring (375 km.) were visible in the grazing sunlight on the eastern floor. These features are Dorsum Tetyaev and to the south Dorsum Harker just beyond the massifs of Cape Agarum. On the western floor crater Picard (24 km.) and Peirce (19 km.) were also noted.
Beyond the sea to the West crater Proclus (28 km.) with its remarkable bright rays was reflecting much sunlight and large crater Cleomedes (126 km.) to the north was showing off its central peak.
I hope to have another go at this region of the moon in the near future under better conditions.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Canson paper 9″x 12″, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils , and Conte’crayons, a blending stump, plastic eraser. Brightness was decreased -2 and contrast increased +2 using the scanner for this sketch
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian with 6mm (241x) and 8mm (181x ) eyepieces
Date: 10-24-2010 2:05-5:30 UT
Temperature: 16°C (60°F)
Weather: mostly cloudy, some rain, windy
Seeing: Antoniadi IV
Co longitude: 107°
Lunation: 16.4 days
Illumination: 98.7%

Oak Forest, Illinois

Frank McCabe