White Conté on Black Paper – Page 11 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Highland Crater Sacrobosco

Lunar Highlands Crater Sacrobosco
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Crater Sacrobosco is a large (100km.) 4 billion year old Pre-Nectarian crater with a height of 3.5 kilometers from floor to highest rim. The crater shows its age with that badly worn rim over most of its circumference. What makes this southern highland crater so eye catching at the eyepiece are the 3 younger craters on the floor of this ancient giant. Clockwise at 11, 2 and 6 o’clock they are Sacrobosco B, A, and C. A is the largest at 17 km. in diameter and C is the smallest at 13 km. Much of the illuminated floor of Sacrobosco is smooth in appearance except where interrupted by a long meandering line of what look like low irregular hills from the center to the north rim (bottom in the sketch).
Many of the surrounding craters during this phase of the lunation would make great sketching targets as well.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9”x 12”, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased (-2) using my scanner.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm and 4mm eyepieces 241x and 362x
Date: 1-3-2009, 0:05 – 1:20 UT
Temperature: – 6°C (22° F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III, occasionally II
Colongitude 349.9 °
Lunation 6.5 days
Illumination: 34.9 %
Libration: in Lat. -4° 23’, in Long. -7° 59’

Frank McCabe

The Goddess over Wroclaw

Venus over Wroclaw, Poland
Sketch and Details by Aleksander Cieśla

Venus shining over Wroclaw city south horizon. Always beautiful.

Sketch information:
Object: Venus
Scope: Schmidt-Cassegrain 5” with Antares Speers-Waler 7,4mm
Filter: Baader Moon & SkyGlow, Meade #58 Green
Place: Poland, Wroclaw – near city center
Weather: Good. Seeing 7/10. Light Pollution.
Date: 29 December 2008.
Technique: Pencil and finger blur
Tooling: GIMP 2

Venus at higher power over Wroclaw, Poland
Sketch and Details by Aleksander Cieśla

and second sketch of Venus in the same time

Magnificent Posidonius

Lunar Crater Posidonius
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

Lifted straight from my observing notes of 19th Oct 2008

Tonight my eye was caught by Posidonius, it looked absolutely incredible with its walls illuminated magnificently. It is a walled plain located between Mare Serenitatis and Lacus Somnorium 95 Km in diameter. This is a very interesting and busy feature its floor covered in craterlets, rilles and peaks. To the west there is a double wall which is highly illuminated in the sketch. There is a central crater A, with another tiny crater P just below. The large crater to the upper left is Pos J, to the upper right on the edge of the sketch is Pos P. Of all my lunar sketches to date I think I have enjoyed making this one the most, I’m also pleased with the result I feel it has slight ‘H Percy Wilkins’ look about it.

6″ f9 triplet refractor @ 300x

Sketch made with Conte pastels & Derwent pencil pastels worked with blending stumps & erasers on Black Daler Rowney paper

Dale Holt

Chippingdale observatory

NE Hertfordshire

England

Crater Inghirami

Lunar Crater Inghirami
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

This ancient crater is from the Nectarian period and is nearly four billion years old. Crater Inghirami measures 90 km. in diameter and is about 3 km.deep. The ancient floor is cratered, ridged and rubble covered with ejecta launched from the Basin Orientale forming event that followed after the impact making of Inghirami crater.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9”x 7”, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased (-3) using my scanner.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 9 mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 12-11-2008, 1:10 – 2:20 UT
Temperature: – 2°C (28° F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 73.1 °
Lunation 13.5 days
Illumination: 97 %
Libration: in Lat. -6° 3’, in Long. -3° 45’

Frank McCabe

Two Quarters Make a Half

The Moon Near First Quarter
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Near Last Quarter

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils, white Conte’ crayon and a blending stump. Brightness was reduced by a value of -4 (using Microsoft OfficePicture Manager) after scanning.
Telescope: 4.25 inch f/ 5 Dobsonian and 21mm eyepiece 26x

Date: 11-19-2008 12:20-13:30 UT
Temperature: -2° C (28° F)
Partly cloudy, light winds
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude: 168.7 °
Lunation: 21.6 days
Illumination: 53.9 %

First and Last Quarters
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Combined sketches

These two sketches were made during lunation (number 1062). The first one on the left was sketched just before first quarter (11-6-08) and appeared here November 22, 2008. The second sketch on the right, made just before last quarter and is the sketch above. Both were sketched on separate pieces of paper but were combined electronically on a black background after scanning.

Frank McCabe

Aurora Over Pottsville, Pennsylvania

Auroral display over Pottsville, Pennslyvania
Sketch and Details by Janis Romer

It was an enormous auroral display that was seen as far south as Arizona. This is what I saw from my balcony. Rather than appearing like the graceful arcs of light you see in photos, the aurora appeared to me as flickering white “blocks” with rays. There were two huge red aurora “clouds” book ending it. I sketched it exactly as I saw it, without any effort to make it conform to common knowledge.

Sketch was made March 12, 1989 using Conte’ pastel pencil on black pastel paper at Pottsville, Pa. Original is 12″ x 24″

Basin Bailly

Lunar Basin Bailly
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

The terminator was approaching the southwestern limb of the moon as the basin Bailly, nicely visible due to favorable libration, came under full illumination. Bailly is large for a crater but small for a ringed basin at 300 kilometers in diameter. In the grazing sunlight the irregular basin floor with numerous craters was evident but no sign of the inner crater ring was visible as can be seen in overhead spacecraft images. The far side inner wall was beautifully illuminated in direct sunlight while features beyond were in total darkness. The depth of this basin is about 6 kilometer below the rim. The two large bright rimmed craters at the south end of Bailly’s floor are first older Bailly B at 65 km. and then younger Bailly A at 38 km. Also notable in this view is a portion of a bright ray of ejecta traceable back to Tycho (not in the drawing) and crossing crater Kircher (75 km.) before reaching the south end of Bailly. The 3 large craters below the Tycho ray are in descending size: Bettinus (73km.), Segner (70km.), and Zucchius (66 km.) which is the youngest of this group of craters.

This was the first evening the moon has been visible from my location since this lunation began. Although a little bit on the chilly side for sketching, it was a pleasure to get out and draw the moon again.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9”x 7”, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased (-2) using the scanner.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 9 mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 12-11-2008, 5:15 – 7:00 UT
Temperature: – 3°C (26° F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 73.1 °
Lunation 13.58 days
Illumination: 97 %
Libration: in Lat. -6° 3’, in Long. -3° 45’

Frank McCabe

A Full Quarter

8 Day Old Moon
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

This was my last chance in very pleasant unseasonable weather to comfortably capture the entire visible lunar surface at once. I drew this moon sketch on a long 7” x 14” piece of Strathmore 400 Artagain paper with the aid of an 8” protractor for the initial semicircle. After I finished the drawing, I made a background change that Rony DeLaet taught me to do with a previous whole moon sketch. I added a larger black background by first darkening the sketch electronically with Microsoft Office Picture Manager by a value of -5. I then pasted the image to a black background using Microsoft Paint. To draw this sketch I needed a small scope so I used the finder scope of my 18” which doubles as a 4.25” f / 5 Dobsonian. Some of my favorite views of the moon have been witnessed with this little scope. With the moon at 48% illumination the curvature of the terminator in this very late waxing crescent phase was just discernable and gave the moon a slight 3-D effect at the eyepiece. The large crater Maginus is the one poking out beyond the terminator near the top of this south up sketch.

Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a blending stump and my index finger too. Brightness was reduced by a value of -5 (using Microsoft OfficePicture Manager) after scanning.
Telescope: 4.25 inch f/ 5 Dobsonian and 21mm eyepiece 26x

Date: 11-05-2008 to 11-06-2008 / 23:00-1:00 UT
Temperature: 20° C (68° F)
Partly cloudy, breezy
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude: 3.5 °
Lunation: 7.99 days
Illumination: 48.0 %

Only a Waning Gibbous Moon in Mind

Waning Gibbous Moon
Sketch and Details by Deirdre Kelleghan

Waning Gibbous Moon
Bray, Co Wicklow Ireland
January 28th 2008
200mm dob/FL 1,200mm/25mm eyepiece/48X
Lunation 19.60 days 01:35 – 03:42
Pastels and conte on black paper

I enjoy doing full phase lunar sketches, pastels help bring out the subtle grey tones.
In the time it takes to do these drawings there is nothing else in my mind, the concentration is
all consuming. The moon is a wonderful teacher and a great place to play.

Dee

—
Deirdre Kelleghan
President
Irish Astronomical Society 1937 – 2007
Public Relations Officer IFAS

Oscail do Shuile D’iontas na Cruinne
Open Your Eyes to the Wonder of the Universe

Craters Cardanus & Kraftt with the flooded plain Eddington

Craters Cardanus & Kraftt with the flooded plain Eddington
Sketch and Details by Dale Holt

The upper crater of the pair is Cardanus named
after Girolamo Cardano 1501-1576 an Italian
mathematician.
This is a crater 49 Km in diameter, terraced with a
small central peak. Below is Krafft named after a
German Astronomer Wolfgang Ludwiig Krafft 1743-
1814.
This is a crater of 51Km diameter with a flooded
floor. To the lower right we see the bright illuminated
rim of the flooded plain Eddington named in memory
of the Cambridge astrophysicist Arthur S Eddington
1882-1944.
This sketch was made using black & white hard
Conte pastels on black Daler Rowney paper with
bright highlights made with a Derwent watercolour
pencil.

This image and caption appeared in the LDAS Newsletter 2008-10.doc
Permission to use this image was given by the artist and author Dale Holt