Moon – Page 58 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Fractured floor and a rim shot

Crater Taruntius with Cameron on its Rim

Between southern Mare Tranquillitatius and northwestern Mare Fecundatatius lies the Copernican period crater Taruntius (57 km). This crater was some distance from the terminator but with surrounding smaller craters showing deep shadows, it is clear that Taruntius is a shallow crater. Note the deep shadow in Cameron (12 km) on the northwest rim of Taruntius. In addition to Cameron other rim features include breaches to the north and south along the rim and interesting rough ramparts to the lava floor beyond the crater especially southward. This floor fractured crater presents a small central peak surrounded by dark ash deposits from volcanic activity on the crater floor.

Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased after scanning.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 eyepiece 241x

Date: 6-20-2007 1:15-1:50 UT
Temperature: 21° C (70° F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude: 326.2 °
Lunation: 4.9 days
Illumination: 26.6 %

Frank McCabe

Two great philosophers meet on the Moon

Aristoteles and Eudoxus

Warm moist air from the south and cool dryer air from the north have been battling it out over the Chicago area for the last week. This morning the cold air was winning as the thermometer in my yard was reading 47°F. Fortunately the cold high pressure air mass was accompanied by better than average seeing and transparency.

The 20 day old waning gibbous moon was about 30° above the southern horizon at an hour and a half before sunrise. For sketching targets I chose Aristoteles and Eudoxus along the northern terminator. The view in my 10” f/5.7 Newtonian held up well at both 241X and 362X. I sketched at the eyepiece using both magnifications. Twin peaks on the floor of Aristotles were visible with the southeastern most peak surrounded by shadow. This 90 km Eratosthenian crater was displaying nicely terraced wall on the steep eastern side. Off to the terminator side (east) and overlapped by Aristoteles is the shadowed floor crater Mitchell (31 km.) an older Imbrian formation. Further north along the terminator margin is rim illuminated crater Galle which stretches 22 km in diameter and is about the same age as Aristoteles. The other large and younger crater to the south is Eudoxus (70 km.) which also has steep terraced walls. A small part of the Caucasus mountain range can be seen west and southwest of Eudoxus. Due west of Aristoteles the ancient eroded ghost-like crater Egede at 37 km in diameter can be seen in contrast to the younger craters named above.

Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased after scanning.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 and 4 mm eyepiece 241 and      362X
Date: 6-6-2007 9:05-10:00 UT
Temperature: 8° C (47° F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi II-III
Colongitude: 158.7 °
Lunation: 20.6 days
Illumination: 72.7 %

Frank McCabe

On the shores of a Stormy Ocean

Hevelius & neighbours

Sketched on the 29th May 2007 from my home observatory using a Antares 105mm F15
Achromatic refractor. Working at 163x through a Denk binoviewer.

Sketch made on a black spiral bound Daler-Rowney 6″x6″ sketch pad using a
combination of Conte sticks, watercolour and pastel pencils. Image scanned in
Greyscale but unprocessed.

Dale Holt

Mighty Copernicus

My second (and last) crater so far. Not the most easy to draw, but he was asking for
it. Drawing the moon is a lot more difficult than expected. There are so many
features to pay attention to. I had to stop sketching after an hour, because the
shadows were changing the view.

The image is flipped to match a North down view.

Date : June, 05, 2006
Time : 21.10 UT
Seeing : 2

Scope : ETX 105
EP : Vixen zoom with barlow.
Power : x240
Rony De Laet

http://www.geocities.com/rodelaet, my personal website.

View from a high point

Walled Plain Craters Hipparchus and Albateginius

Close to the visible center of the lunar nearside are the north-south crater pair
Hipparchus and Albateginius. On this evening from my observing site they were on
the sunrise terminator. Hipparchus at 150 km. in diameter is the largest and
oldest of the pair dating from the pre-Nectarian period (4 billion years ago). At
and internal to the northeast rim of Hipparchus lies crater Horrocks (30 km.) with
its bright rim and the deep dark center.

Just beyond the Hipparchus crater rim to the southeast is the young, small (15
km.) crater Pickering also with a well illuminated rim. Near the center of
Hipparchus crater Hipparchus X is visible and between it and Horrocks a small
narrow rille was easily seen which is parallel to Rima Reaumur lying out beyond
the Hipparchus rim to the northwest (not sketched). Between Hipparchus and
Albateginius are the old craters Halley (37 km.) and Hind (31 km.). Most of the
rim of crater Albateginius (139 km.) is brightly illuminated by the sun as are two
high points within the “well of darkness”. The illuminated point closest to the
center is the top of a central peak. The other bright point closer to the rim is
the high point on the margin of crater Klein (44km) sitting in darkness. At the
beginning of the sketch these two points were not visible but appeared about 45
minutes after I started.

I tried to picture in my mind what the view would be like if you could stand on
either of these high points and look out and down. Wouldn’t that be a sight?

Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a blending stump. Contrast was slightly increased after scanning.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 241X
Date: 5-24-2007 2:05-3:20 UT
Temperature: 23° C (74° F)
Partly cloudy with haze, light winds
Seeing: Antoniadi II
Colongitude 356.7 °
Lunation 7.28 days
Illumination 52 %

Frank McCabe

Sundown at Gauss

At one day past full moon old luna was arching it’s way to the high point for the
night when I selected for my sketching target craters along the terminator on the
eastern side of the moon. Six craters larger than 45 kilometers in diameter are
included in this sketch. With only the highest points along the western rim being
touched by sun rays, it is sundown at crater Gauss. With Gauss measuring 177 km.
in diameter it is categorized as a walled plain crater and dates back to the
Nectarian age (3.9-3.8 billion years ago). Southwest of Gauss with the floor in
darkness except for the illuminated central peak we have crater Hahn, a formation
slightly younger than Gauss and smaller at 84 km. To the north of Hahn is a crater
of the same age as Gauss known as Berosus. It measures 77 km in diameter and its
western wall is not as high as that of its partner Hahn. The largest crater on the
western side of the sketch is Geminus at 86 km. It has a low central peak and no
crater rays, although it is the youngest of the craters in the sketch at about 2 billion
years of age. The smaller crater close to Geminus to the east is 47 km. crater
Bernoulli. And finally to the south of Geminus is crater Burckhardt at 57 km. in
diameter with small craters straddling it to the southeast and southwest.

Sketching: Graphite 2H pencils and India ink on
White 8.5”x11” copy paper
Telescope: 10” f/5.7 Dobsonian 6mm eyepiece
Time: 10-8-2006, 5:30-6:30 UT
Colongitude: 101.6°
Weather: clear, calm
Seeing : Antoniadi III

Frank McCabe

The Ever Popular Rupes Recta

In the morning hours before sun-up the early waning crescent moon was superimposed
on the firmament just west of the Pleiades. I was somewhat transfixed by this
scene but I was set up to sketch “straight wall” on the floor of the lunar Sea of
Clouds. From the eastern edge of Mare Nubium you can see the Triplet craters
Thebit (57 km), A and L. Next moving westward is the Imbrian escarpment Rupes
Recta , not a true wall in the usual sense but on one side standing more than 300
meters high at some points and 114 km in length. The scarp face would be visible
from crater Birt (17 km) to the west, the youngest of the larger craters sketched
here. Touching the rim of Birt to the east is Birt A. Continuing westward we see
Rima Birt a 51 km rille from the Imbriam epoch. At the end of the rille to the
south, is tiny 3 km crater Birt F seen in this sketch. Finally sitting on a
wrinkle in the floor of the mare is crater Nicollet (15 km) a Eratosthenian epoch
impact scar.


Sketching:
For this sketch I used: white copy paper, graphite pencil and pen and ink
Contrast adjusted with Imageenhance software
Telesccope: 18 inch f/ 5 Dobsonian working at 222X (9mm ocular)
Date: 8-16-2006 9:30-10:35 UT
Temperature: 17°C ( 62°F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 178 °
Lunation 22.3 days
Illumination 45.9%

Frank McCabe

Three craters from the top of Alto Rey

Hi Friends,

I would like to share my sketches with all of you, I have lots of them in
my notebook and when I discovered the ASOD site recently I was surprised and happy
to find it. Its wonderful, a really good idea.

I made this sketch of three moon craters of the southern region with graphite
pencil on white paper, three craters are hand made without processing after,
just painted looking directly through the ocular and with red light. They
took me almost an hour aproximately.

The equipment used: Meade 8″ SC. Date:
3 Jun 2006; Moon age: 8 days.

The night were very good conditions, I was on top of a mountain called Alto
Rey in Guadalajara, Spain.

All my drawings are almost first drafts in the place of observation, the
best I try to do them again and then more good and after change to negative
to get them more real. I havent still practice with photoshop, but I will
try it.

All my drafts are kept tenderly because they are the result of the night,
all filled with annotations and details by hand,

I hope you enjoy!
Thanks a lot.

Leonor Ana

Cup of nectar

Crater Bohnenberger in Eastern Mare Nectaris

From my location, this evening presented the best observing conditions since June
of last year. As the sun set in the west-northwest the crescent moon was riding
about 55° above the horizon, so I spent about hour looking for potential targets
to sketch. Crater Taruntius presented an interesting sketching target with its
central peak and unusual wall but I wanted to sketch closer to the terminator. I
finally settled on crater Bohnenberger just west of the Lunar Pyrenees Mountains
that define the eastern edge of the Sea of Nectar.

Bohnenberger is an old Pre-Imbrium crater 33 km diameter. Bohnenberger has a pair
of broad central peaks, a break in its northern wall and a crater on its western
floor. Crater Bohnenberger A about the same size (30 km) with a bright, shallow,
flat floor can be seen to the south with 12 km crater G between them. Some 100 km
to the west of Bohnenberger A, crater Rosse could be seen among the lunar ridges
in the Sea of Nectar. The high walls of Rosse were brightly lit against the dark
frozen lava of the mare. The dark shallow crater about the same size as Rosse at
the bottom of the sketch is crater Gaudibert H. Within the region of the sketch a
great deal more could be seen but was beyond my ability to record in a reasonable
time as the shadows and light continued to change.

Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9”x12”, white and
black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump.
Before submitting I changed slightly the contrast using Imageenhance software
Telesccope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 241X
Date: 4-22-2007 1:35-2:40 UT
Temperature: 20° C (69° F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi I-II
Colongitude 325.7 °
Lunation 4.5 days
Illumination 27.5 %

Frank McCabe

Heavy light

Cardanus, Krafft, Eddington,Seleucus,Briggs, Briggs B, W Oceanus Procellarum
South Telescope build by Grubb Dublin 1868

Fl ? 18Ft 10.7inches/Objective 11.75 inches

Eyepiece? Objective by Cauchoix 1829
Dunsink Observatory Dublin
53° 22′ 60N 6° 19′ 60W
April 30th 2007
20:50UT – 21:57UT
Lunation 13.43 days
Illumination 98%
Seeing 1-2
T poor/hazy
300gm Daler Paper/Daler Soft Pastels/Conte Crayons/ Quilling
needle/Blending stick

I was fourteen years when old I first looked through the South Telescope in Dunsink Observatory. I had pestered my dad to bring me out there, a bit of a long drive in those days, before motorways.

Jupiter was on view that evening, it was crystal clear. The planet must have been quite high as I could look through the Grubb standing up.

I had my own little Tasco scope on a plastic tripod at the time not much to see in it, but the moon always got a look. Ever since I wanted to revisit that moment and look once again through the eyepiece of this well constructed classic telescope. Over the years I paid several visits to the observatory public nights, but always cloud or rain or both.

I got an idea in my head a few months ago, I asked for time to sketch something through the eyepiece this request yielded a positive answer, but it took time to set up.

April 30th 2007 I got a phone call from, let’s say my host in Dunsink “would you like to try tonight”? I was out the door and on the M50 with my gear in less then 10 minutes, an hour’s drive to the Observatory.

I was greeted warmly and the dome was opened, the scope set up, the steps in place.

My position for the next hour and ten minutes was probably the most uncomfortable sketching position in which I had ever worked. I was neither seated or standing, no tracking, and a big telescope to move.

The Grubb was so well balanced, easy to use, a joy to hold, and a privilege to use.

Left alone for the most part I quickly got into my zoned in or zoned out

(depends on your point view) sketching mode.

The eyepiece was low powered generating most likely 125X, used for public viewing, other eyepieces maybe available if I get to repeat this astronomical adventure.

Apart from the difficult sketching position, I felt so at home in Dunsink Observatory, it felt so moreish. Up and down moving the steps, to follow the Moon as she charged along heading for her bed. My concentration waned after an hour, more work to do than in my garden. I was stiff the next morning but I was high as a kite, I got to do something with this instrument made so carefully many years ago in Dublin. A full circle moment in my life, moments that seem to happen with more frequency these days.

In brief periods, when the image was still I could see much more detail and fine tones of grey than in my Dob. Eddington gave me great shapes and that ridge was so so slender, only 2% of the Moon was in darkness and even a little of that was seeping through the blackness into the day.

I admire Arthur Stanley Eddington for his communication prowess during his life.

A poem he wrote came to mind on the way home,

“Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate
One thing at least is certain, light has weight
One thing is certain and the rest debate
Light rays, when near the Sun, do not go straight. “ A.S.Eddington

Apart from this poem being about gravitational lensing, the phrase “light has weight” sticks out to me as an artist. Drawing in the sunlit wall on the western side of Eddington, 138km or so of sunlit weight, which was up till that lunation invisible, non existing until our sun made it so.