Category: Moon

Goldschmidt Rays and the Moon’s North Limb

Goldschmidt
Plato, Goldschmidt and Northern Limb
Sketch and Details by Deirdre Kelleghan

February 28th / March 1st 2010 23:20 UT – 00 :35 UT
200 mm Dobsonian Telescope FL 1,200
8mm TVP eyepiece = 150X
Goldschmidt rays and the Moons North limb

South is up in this sketch because that is the way I viewed it and sketched it. Pastels & Conte on black paper.

Our beautiful Snow moon was 99 .9 % drenched in the suns light when I went observing on the last day in February 2010. Along the NW limb several craters were on view in the libration zone, it was my intention to make a sketch of these elusive features. They presented on the limb as dark deep long shadows edged with sharp bright lines against the blackness of space.

However while these were interesting, my eye was magnetized toward the brightness of Goldschmidt and its ejecta rays, giving great form to the area. Several of these long dark lines were also on view on the edge of the limb close to Goldschmidt and Herschel . It was so visually interesting to observe the contrasts on the limb when the moon was so full, a black and white merry dance of slow movement and rich structure.

Plato never looked so dark and flat ,its black floor absorbing the suns light when most of the surrounding area was throwing it toward my eye. I adored the tiny pure white rim sections singing in the light. My sketch wandered across part of Mare Frigoris , the area around Plato and includes part of Mons Teneriffe .

—
Deirdre Kelleghan
Vice Char IFAS
Outreach IFAS
National Coordinator Astronomers Without Borders Ireland .
http://www.irishastronomy.org/
http://www.deirdrekelleghan.com/

Rim of Nectar

Rim of Mare Nectaris

Rim of Mare Nectaris,
with craters Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina, and Rupes Altai
Sketch and Details by Peter Mayhew
Hover mouse over image to view labels.

The sketch was made with graphite pencil on white paper at the eyepiece. My instrument is a Skywatcher Skyliner 152mm f8 Dobsonian, and I used a 10mm eyepiece and x2 Barlow. The moon was day 19-20. The sketch took about one hour, during which time I had to reposition the scope about 100 times as the earth’s rotation took the target out of view. The famous trio of craters, Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina lie on the edge of the Nectaris impact basin. Theophilus is the youngest crater of the three, an estimated billion years old with a large central peak with multiple summits, 1500m high. It has an impressive terraced rim. Cyrillus is much older (3.5-3.8 billion), and retains a central peak too, unlike Catharina to its north. To give a sense of scale the latter is 104km across. The landscape all around is dominated by the Rupes Altai, a scarp 1000m high and 500km long. This marks the ripples in the crust formed by the Nectaris impact. Mons Penck (4000m high) forms part of its northern extent. Low ridges and hills throughout the region are aligned with the impact, nearly 4 billion years ago. Three fruity craters and a fascinating reminder of the moon’s dramatic past.

An Early Morning with Sinus Iridum

Sinus Iridum
Sinus Iridum
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

In the waning moonlight the shadows of the Jura mountain peaks could be seen on the floor of Sinus Iridum. On this mid-August night I was experiencing and enjoying a full night observing and sketching. The moon occupied my time during the second half of this session all the way to sunrise. It was one of the rare nights with cool dry air and great seeing conditions.
Sinus Iridum (260km.) is what remains of the Upper Imbrium impact on the floor of the Sea of Showers. The dark basaltic lava floor with its wrinkled ridges could be clearly seen as the sunset shadow was approaching. Several notable and recognizable features could be seen and included Promontorium Heraclides at the southwestern end of the crater rim arc over to Promontorium Laplace on the northeastern side. Old craters Mairan (40 km.), Sharp (40 km.), Bianchini (38 km.), were all clearly seen and sketched as well as the younger impact scars of Harpalus (39 km.) and Bauguer (22 km.), with ancient Mare Frigoris (Lower Imbrium) beyond the remains of the ejecta of Sinus Iridum. Much of dorsum Zirkel (216 km.) and dorsum Heim (134 km.) could be seen paralleling the terminator at the lower end of the sketch.
I was pleased I did not miss this fine evening for observing and sketching at the telescope.

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 and gum erasers. Brightness was decreased -2 using the scanner for this sketch
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian with 9mm (161x) eyepiece
Date: 8-15-2009 10:00-11:20 UT
Temperature: 16°C (60°F)
Clear , calm
Seeing: Antoniadi II
Co longitude 206.3°
Lunation days 24.3
Illumination 32.1%

A First Sketch of Copernicus Crater

Copernicus Crater
Copernicus Crater and Surroundings
Sketch and Details by Ferenc Lovró

This is my first ever Moon-sketch, displaying craters Copernicus, Fauth and Gay-Lussac with some other sub-craters and domes not noted on the sketch. This is my actual sketch done at the eyepiece, no alterations were made after manually or digitally, other than resizing. It took about 45 minutes to finish, and I’m quite satisfied with it, although I’ve found that sketching the Moon is indeed very hard and very different from sketching deep space objects. Perhaps I should not finish Lunar sketches at the eyepiece but create only drafts with different markings for different shades and create the actual sketch in the warmth of the room. As an additional difficulty, the sky was 100% covered with a thin layer of cloud which kept the image in constant change, only 1 or 2 stars were visible here and there. Moon phase was about 69%.

Equipment: 12″ f/5 Newtonian
Magnification and filter(s): 250x + 30% neutral filter
Seeing: 4/10 Transparency: 1/5
Date/Time: 2009.12.26 17:15 UT
Location: Nádasdladány, Hungary

Object: Copernicus crater – Artist: Ferenc Lovró – Sketch Date: 12-26-09 – Sketch Location: Nádasladány, Hungary

Kepler to Marius

Sketch of Craters Kepler and Marius

Kepler, Marius and Surroundings
Move mouse over image to view labels.
Sketch and Details by Peter Mayhew

Object Name: Craters Kepler and Marius
Object Type: Lunar craters
Location: York, UK
Date: 28th December 2009

The terminator of the day-12 moon struck through crater Marius. With Kepler to its left, it was a fine sight. I was surprised to observe that Marius is larger than Kepler, although of course the latter is more striking to the eye due to its rays. Wrinkle ridges north and south of Marius appeared hummocky by virtue of their crossing the dome-ridden Marius Hills, to the west of Marius on and beyond the terminator. I include a labelled version.

Part of Basin Schiller – Zucchius

Basin Schiller - Zucchius
Part of Basin Schiller – Zucchius
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

After 12 cloudy days and nights I was anxious to get out under a clear sky to make an attempt at sketching a lunar target of opportunity. Before selecting a target I noticed the moon was moving through the Pleiades and created a very interesting binocular target. With the moon at 12.5 days into the lunation, the waxing gibbous phase was showing me the Schiller – Zucchius basin very nicely. I centered on two craters to one side of this 3 ringed basin. First the young Copernican period crater Zucchius (65 km.) with its terraced inner walls and shadowed floor looked deeper than its 3.3 km. measured depth because of the light and shadow. Sharing a common wall with this crater is the ancient and similar sized Segner (68 km.). This pre-Nectarian crater looked old and worn. Its rim was low and had nothing in the way of central peaks just a small nearly centered crater Segner H. Extending from the north side of crater Segner’s outer rim is a ridge which is a short wall segment of the second basin ring. What looks much like a shallow depression and measures about the same size as these two craters is the central ring of the basin and can be seen at the lower left (Northeast) in the sketch.
A photo of this entire basin credited to Gary Seronik can be seen on LPOD for October 17, 2004
http://www.lpod.org/archive/LPOD-2004-10-17.htm
I found myself sketching quickly in the cold air which was rapidly dropping in temperature as I sketched. After about an hour I considered the sketch finished and returned to the indoor warmth to thaw out.

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 and gum erasers. Brightness was not altered but contrast was increased +2 using the scanner for this sketch
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian with 6mm (241x) eyepiece
Date: 12-29-2009 4:45-5:45 UT
Temperature: -8°C (18°F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi IV
Co longitude 60.6°
Lunation 12.7 days
Illumination 90.7%

Frank McCabe

Lunar Trio

Wolf Crater
Wolf Crater

Montes Harbinger
Montes Harbinger

Schiller Crater
Schiller Crater

Sketches and Details by Dale Holt

I have assembled three sketches made at my hand over the Christmas holiday. The first caught my eye because of its shape under the illumination on the evening of observation. It struck me how it looks like a ‘love heart’ I later researched and found that this worn and likely flooded feature? Was Wolf no longer a Wolf’s den! But in my sketch perhaps a Wolf’s heart?

The second of my sketches, and personal favourite of the three is of the magnificent mountain range, Montes Harbinger, I was drawn by the brightly illuminated peaks and anthracite black, jagged and far reaching shadows reminiscent of the angry wood hungry teeth of an old rip saw!

Finally for the of my trio, completed last night it depicts the giant foot print of Schiller, seeing was good and detail plentiful, a wonderful way to spend an hour.

I hope these trio find favour with you? Drawn using my 6″ refractor in all cases & rendered with pastel & watercolour pencils upon black artist paper.

Happy New Year, Dale

Crater Moretus

Moretus CraterMoretus Crater
Sketch and Details by Frédéric Burgeot

Hi,

Here is the crater Moretus, observed from France on december 26th, 2 days after the first quarter.
The seeing was good, very pleasant image in my 16″ Newtonian equiped with a binoviewer at 350X.
The sketch is made with graphite pencils, and required 2 hours of observation.

Fred.