White Conté on Black Paper – Page 16 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Shepard Courtier of Selene

Northeastern Lunar Limb Crater: Endymion
By Frank McCabe

Northeastern Lunar Limb Crater: Endymion

The lunar libration on this evening was not favorable for viewing Mare
Humboldtianum. However the 125 kilometer diameter dark floored crater Endymion was
well placed in lunar morning sunlight just 300 km. southwestward of the mare
center. I was keen on rendering this crater because I knew it to be large, ancient
and in possession of a remarkable rim and rampart. Crater Endymion is an ancient
nearly four billion year old Nectarian formation. The highest reaches of the
mountains on the rim and apron tower at 4600 meters above the dark lava flooded
floor. I was unable to see under the viewing conditions the ray streaks from
crater Thales (not visible in the drawing) that are best seen at high sun. The
notable terracing on the inner rim was in shadow but much of the broken crater
ramparts were clearly visible about the crater’s circumference. Craters Atlas and
Hercules were visible nearby very close to the sunrise terminator and if the
temperature would have been a couple of dozen degrees warmer I would have enjoyed observing and sketching them.

Conditions at the time of this observation were less than ideal with a brisk wind
out of the northwest and an air temperature of -19° C (-2° F). I stretched this
sketch out over two hours plus so I could take frequent finger thawing breaks. I
have observed under much colder conditions but I need to take off my gloves to
sketch.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 9”x 12”, white and
black Conte’pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased
(-4) and contrast increased (+2) after scanning using Microsoft Office Picture
Manager.

Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 2-10/11-2008 23:15-2:20 UT (sketching time was 45min.)
Temperature: -19°C (-2°F)
clear, breezy
Seeing: poor back and forth between Antoniadi III and IV
Co longitude: 322.1°
Lunation: 3.8 days
Illumination: 17.2 %
Phase: 131.1°

Dances on the Limb

Solar H-alpha sketch collage 2008 02 11, 1214ST -1304ST (1714UT – 1804UT)
By Erika Rix

2008 02 11, 1214ST -1304ST (1714UT – 1804UT)

Solar H-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 14.0 °F / -10.0 °C

Winds: WNW at 8.1 mph, light scattered and later completely overcast

Humidity: 49%

Seeing: 2/6-5/6

Transparency: 2/6

Alt: 35.9 Az: 176.9

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell,

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added -25 brightness, +5 contrast after scanning in color at 300 dpi. I then turned
the image into monochrome. I scanned initially in color to eliminate cross hashes
that the scanner creates in grayscale. Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun
insert.

At first glance in h-alpha around 10x magnification, only two prominences, SSE and
West, popped out at me. I didn’t waste much time with the 40mm eyepiece since I
usually use it for initially getting the Sun in the FOV. At 19x the eastern
prominence looked like two fingers curling towards each other with the southern most
of the two a little brighter. Taking the magnifications to 57x I could make out a
very faint thin line connecting the two and also noted the strands of contrasted
prominence within the two fingers at 33x. Seeing was much worse at the higher
magnifications but I had moments where it settled for a detailed view.

Moving South at low magnification, the prominence appeared to be two separate
entities with the westerly portion of it looking like a hook or letter C opening up
to the East. Increasing magnification with the zoom eyepiece, I was amazed to see
with slight averted vision at first several connections between the two. After
discovering them, I could actually look at them straight on to make out the delicate
network of strands. It was truly beautiful and very delicate.

A similar thing happened to me with the western set of prominences. The most
northerly of the four on the western limb grew almost twice in size with a
magnification of around 33x. The prom itself didn’t grow, but rather my ability to
see the actual size of it with a modest magnification. The additional length of it
disappeared at 57x.

The little set of prominences at the NNE limb became brighter as the session went
and also became better defined with the lower one (more northerly) turning from a
fuzzy little thumbprint into a thin branch reaching to the one that was more to the
East.

I noticed a dark round dot around 40 degrees on the disk from the East and pretty
much on the equatorial line. It was very small and tweaking the Etalon did not show
any signs of plage. Other than that, there were no significant surface details such
as plage or filaments to me visually. The disk was alive with hairlike structures
and a mottled appearance, very pretty.

Petavius Yet Again

Evening and Morning Light on the Crater Petavius
By Frank McCabe

On the 6th day of March 2007, I sketched crater Petavius in the evening light
close to the time of sunset at Petavius. This large rather circular floor
fractured crater appeared elongated and ellipsoidal because of its proximity to
the limb and in a somewhat unfavorable libration. I was hoping on Wednesday
evening during the next lunation to catch the crater again just after sunrise but
I was thwarted by clouds and rain 16 days after the first drawing. However the
next evening had some breaks in the cloud cover before the rains reappeared and I
was able to sketch Petavius in the lunar morning sunlight and also at a more
favorable libration which explains its more circular appearance. Upon completion
of the second drawing I rotated and resized it using Microsoft paint and placed it
with the earlier sketch. Seeing the same features in the morning and evening light
adds to the endless enjoyment of lunar observing any time during a lunation or
between lunations as occurred here. The March 6th sketch (evening at the crater)
was posted at this site March 17, 2007. The March 23rd sketch (morning at the crater)
made 17 days later is posted second. I used the same telescope and eyepiece to
sketch both drawings.

Sketching: 1st Sketch
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a soft blending stump.
Telesccope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece
Date: 3-6-2007 2:45-3:30 UT
Temperature: -6°C (21°F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi IV
Colongitude 113.5°
Lunation 16.5 days
Illumination 95%


Sketching: 2nd Sketch
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a soft blending stump.
Telesccope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece
Date: 3-23-2007 1:10-2:20 UT
Temperature: 17°C (62°F)
Partly and at times mostly cloudy, variable winds
Seeing: Antoniadi III- IV
Colongitude 320°
Lunation 4 days
Illumination 22 %

Frank McCabe

Prominent Arches

Solar prominences, January 23rd, 2008 1125ST -1240ST (1625UT – 1740UT)
By Erika Rix

2008 01 23, 1125ST -1240ST (1625UT – 1740UT)

Solar H-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 21.0 °F / -6.1 °C

Winds: variable at 5.8 mph

Humidity: 63%

Seeing: 6/6

Transparency: 3/6

Alt: 28.1 Az: 160.5

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added -30 brightness, +9 contrast after scanning. Tilting Sun program used for
digital Sun insert.

The NE and the SE limbs continue to put on a display for us. I didn’t get a chance
to observe yesterday for all the overcast and light snowfall, but over the past
several days’ observations, it’s been very interesting to watch the changes and
compare observations.

The solar disk had long u-shaped very thin filament looking lines reaching almost
from the SE limb to the inward 1/4th of the disk. The opening of “u” was facing
outward toward the large prominence on that area of the limb. This was the
prominence that I concentrated on today for a sequence that spanned only about 45
minutes’ time. Funny, it seemed much longer than that, and as much as it changed in
that time frame, I would have expected it to have been longer as well. Seeing was
terrific, but transparency was only average with moments of excellent clarity as
well as an orange haze all around the disk in my FOV.

Differences in the first two sketches almost alarmed me and I worried that I had
made one too compact width wise and the other too spread out. There’s a chance that
I may have indeed done that, although as a sketcher, I try to make my sketches as
true to my observations as I possibly can. Once I recorded the last two, though, I
could see the movement of the prominence indeed spreading out, getting fainter to
the eastern side of it with each sketch. It was almost as if that side of the
prominence was getting weaker and losing structure. I would have loved to stay out
all day to record this.

The NE prominence was not quite as tall as the SE prominence, but it was easier to
view, although I did have to adjust the outside etalon as there was quite a
difference between the two prominences for best bandwidth viewing. I normally tweak
as many things as I can with the scope to tease out details in my observations, but
I normally don’t have to adjust the etalon that much between different prominences.

I observed 8 different areas of prominences around the limb total.

A Brief Winter Interlude with the Moon

The gibbous Moon on January 27th, 2008
By Frank McCabe

Trying to observe old Luna in winter can be a difficult challenge in the
Midwestern Great Lakes Region. Constant cloud cover punctuated by brief, frigid
clearing will try your patience during set up, scope cool down and observation.

One solution is to observe and sketch without a telescope. Pick a spot that gives
you an interesting view. Sketch quickly then go back inside and have a cup of tea
or hot chocolate. If you did bring a scope outside, by now it may have lost the
heat that will make observing possible. If cloudy you have something to show for
your efforts as you put away your equipment and wait for a better opportunity.

This was my naked eye view of the nearly 19 day old waning gibbous moon near local
midnight as it climbed above my neighbors Horse Chestnut tree.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 10”x 8”, white and
black Conte’pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased
after scanning.

Naked Eye Drawing
Date: 1-27-2008 6:05-6:30 UT
Temperature: -9°C (15°F)
partly cloudy, calm
Seeing: Average
Co longitude: 142.5°
Lunation: 18.8 days
Illumination: 77.1 %

Frank McCabe

Prominade on the Limb

Solar H-alpha 2008 01 25,
1205ST -1330ST (1705UT – 1830UT)
By Erika Rix

2008 01 25, 1205ST -1330ST (1705UT – 1830UT)

Solar H-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 16.0 °F / -8.9 °C

Winds: SSW at 4.6 mph

Humidity: 71%

Seeing: 5/6

Transparency: 2/6

Alt: 30.5 Az: 170.9

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm
Zhumell, ETX70-AT with 8mm TV Plossl for white light observation.

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

The NE and the SE limbs are still at it. Snows and overcast prevented me from
viewing yesterday, but on the 23rd of January, two proms on the NE limb were spread
out a little further from each other and the one that was around 55 degrees PA had
two very bright upright legs to it with a faint line of connection in between them.
Today, there is a very tall fainter prominence around 45-50 deg PA that looks like
two hands pressing against each other with a small prominence just north of it by
about 2-3 degrees. Then around 55-60 degrees PA (maybe even a little more distance
than that) was a brighter prominence defined by a very bright tall slender arm on
the northern side of it with a few shorter slender arms jetting out to the southern
portion. The base of the main southern portion was about twice as thick as the
northern arm.

To the SE around 135 degrees was a very bright cone shaped prominence about half as
tall as the two proms on the NE limb. The inside of the cone appeared hollow.
Bumping up magnification, and adjusting the T-max, I noticed a small, round, faint
cloud just to the south of it, reaching up above by about half its height. I
lowered magnification again for better contrast and it didn’t take long for me to
notice a few other portions of it. Playing with the zoom eyepiece, I soon found a
happy medium in magnification to tease out as much detail as I could, bringing out
this prominence to fuller glory. It was huge and very similar in shape, only much
fainter, to the prominence in this same area two days ago.

I was hoping to see some sort of evidence from the pore that the Hinode captured.
Of course, it most likely is too small yet for me to see and even so, with the poor
transparency today, I imagine it would have been difficult even it were visible for
my scopes. After my H-alpha session, I pulled out the ETX70 for a white light view
and couldn’t see any evidence with pore nor facula. Something I did see, however,
was a claw like marking just inside the limb about 25 degrees in the NNE quadrant.
I’ve included a close up view of what it looked like. There were dark areas
resembling a filament that had dissipated.

All in all, I observed 7 different areas of prominences around the limb. The NW
section of limb appeared rough and turbulent with the long section of short
prominence weaving up and down off the limb.

Clearing the Confusion

Rosenberger and Vlacq near the Terminator
By Frank McCabe

This region of the moon is often called the confusing southeastern lunar highlands
for all the large and medium sized look-alike craters. This appearance continues
to the lunar far side as can be see in lunar orbiter photos. But looking again the
picture really changes dramatically at low sun. The two large craters I have
chosen for this sketch are both ancient (pre-Nectarian) and pre-date the early
basin formation on the moon. Rosenberger crater (96 km.) is the largest of the
pair to the left (east) in the drawing. This four billion year old crater has a
rim worn down to the level of the surrounding highlands by numerous crater impacts
and inner wall subsidence that has obliterated most of the wall terracing. It is
2.6 kilometers from the highest rim point to the mostly flat crater floor which in
the low sun was showing off its low central peak. A crater of 14 km. was about to
be consumed by shadow at the time of this sketch. This floor crater is Rosenberger
S. The other large crater to the southwest of Rosenberger is Vlacq, a crater of 89
kilometers and from all appearances perhaps the youngest of the pair. The twin
peaked central mountains and terraced walls give this crater a younger look. It
also appears from the bulging of the wall shared with its larger neighbor that the
body that struck the moon forming Vlacq came in second.
The observing and sketching was enhanced by steady seeing intervals that lasted
several minutes at a time.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 9”x 10”, white and
black Conte’pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased
after scanning.

Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 6mm eyepiece 241x
Date: 11-28-2007 5:30-7:00 UT
Temperature: -3°C (26°F)
partly cloudy, breezy
Seeing: back and forth between Antoniadi II and III
Co longitude: 135.2°
Lunation: 18.5 days
Illumination: 80.3 %

Sunny Day Flyby

Sun and Jet, SW prominence and visitor
By Erika Rix

2008 01 20, 1140ST -1205ST (1640UT – 1705UT)

Solar h-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 10.4 °F / -12.0 °C

Winds: from the West at 9.2 mph gusting to 19.6 mph, scattered clouds

Wind chill: -8 °F / -22 °C

Humidity: 57%

Seeing: 5/6 with moments of 3/5

Transparency: 5/6

Alt: 28.4 Az: 164.8

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added -37 brightness, +1 contrast after scanning.

Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun insert.

The first thing that caught my attention this morning during the observation was the
bright substantial prominence on the SW limb. A careful scan around the limb of the
Sun showed a total of six prominences, all quite a bit smaller and varying in
shapes. The SE prom resembled the letter A. Moving to the NE, the next prom looked
like a flag waving to the North. Further NE, the prominence hugged the limb,
spreading out like an inchworm. The next three on the NW side were slender fingers,
two of them dual fingers.

It was very difficult to move around wearing my coveralls, oversized thick winter
gloves that I had to borrow from my husband because I still can’t find mine after
the move last spring, and heavy winter muck boots. Leaving the gloves off my
fingers for more than a few minutes made them a little painful with the wind that
came in over the observatory wall as well as the metal knobs on the telescope. I
was able to do part of the sketch with Paul’s gloves on, but had to add the finer
details without them. Tuning and focusing the scope was a chore as well.

I did manage to catch a bright plage area to the eastern 1/3rd of the disk. It was
fairly small and compact and I almost missed it altogether as I was moving the disk
around in my FOV looking for surface details. Other than that, surface details
were insignificant. I lacked the ambition to drag out my ETX for white light filter
views to see if there were any signs of a sunspot near the plage that I saw in
h-alpha.

The excitement of the session, other than witnessing the beautiful SW prominence,
was a jet crossing in front of the Sun. The contrails started out small and then
resembled a shock wave as it crossed in front of the solar limb to the NE and then
spread out even more as it traveled further away. It almost reminded me of a
Moreton wave from photos I’ve seen. I’ve tried to add that affect to my sketch,
realizing that shape of the jet is most likely very inaccurate at best. My
concentration was on the contrails, and the jet shape was just a few flashes in
front of me as I was trying to capture the whole scene. The most remarkable part of
the contrails was the “pulling effect” as it crossed the limb. It looked like the
jet was pulling streamers, almost smears, of plasma away from the Sun. Very cool,
indeed.

Twists of the Solar Flux

January 18, 2008 Solar Prominences
By Erika Rix

20080118

Solar

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA, Lat 40.01/Long -81.56

Erika Rix

Still not quite recovered from the neck surgery, Paul was good enough to open and
close the roll off roof of the observatory for me. I was able to carry down the
battery supply for the LXD75 for tracking as well as close up (after my session) the
southern drop down wall that enables me to view the Sun at the lower altitude. The
enclosed area within the observatory certainly helps control the stability of the
scope with the winds today at 11.5 mph. The temperature was comfortable at 26F, but
with the lack of surface details, I wrapped up the session in just less than an
hour’s time.

The haze limited the performance at higher magnification, but with a little
patience, I had moments where I could drop down to 7mm (57x) with the zoom eyepiece.
Seeing flipped back and forth and the best views seemed to be around 30x
magnification.

There were 7 areas of prominences that I was able to record with no significant
surface detail. Three of these areas were sketched.

The brightest prominence was about 55 degrees PA and I did a three sketch sequence
of it noting the small changes in appearance over 40 minutes’ time span. This was
after the original overall sketch of the limb. The basic outline of this prom
really didn’t change a great deal. But looking closely within the structure, there
was quite a difference in the intricate network.

At 1209ST (1709UT) at the end of the session around 70 degrees PA, a very bright
small blob of a prominence appeared and then left just about as quickly. It may
have just been that I was able to see it well during a brief moment of steady clear
seeing. Still, it was very noteworthy and I was happy to catch it.

Sketch media: black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and white Prang pencils,
white vinyl eraser, fixative

Post processing: -25 brightness, +4 contrast, resized and created collage by pasting
selected prominences on black background. Used digital disk for position angles
from Tilting Sun program.

Sunrise Ray

Pitatus and Hesiodus in the Morning
By Frank McCabe

Pitatus and Hesiodus in the Morning

On this evening I was able to take full advantage of a break in the weather with
the nearly nine day old moon high in my southern sky. As luck would have it
craters Pitatus (98km.) and Hesiodus (44km.) were positioned in full light beyond
the sunrise terminator and displaying some of their best features. What initially
caught my eye was the famous “sunrise ray” beaming across the floor of Hesiodus
through a break in the northwestern wall. This sun ray play was underway for about
45 minutes before I began this sketch. Partially illuminated near the floor center
of Hesiodus was little crater D with much of its rim reflecting sunlight. Hesiodus
and its larger neighbor Pitatus are both ancient worn Nectarian period craters on
the south border of Mare Nubium. Pitatus is a floor fractured crater with lava
having flooded the floor through the many cracks especially near the inner walls.
Most of Rimae Pitatus was in shadow at the time of this observation and the low
elongated central peak was dazzling in the sunlight. Although the shallow floor of this
crater was in light, the lava on the floor is dark and in places is interrupted by
brighter regions. The entire floor is mostly smooth and gradually rises and falls
especially close to the inner rim. For me the view was about as good as it gets in lunar observing.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, 12”x 9”, white and
black Conte’pastel pencils and a blending stump. Brightness was slightly decreased
after scanning.

Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 1-17-2008 0:05-1:15 UT
Temperature: -1°C (30°F)
partly cloudy, slight but cold wind
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co longitude: 21.2°
Lunation: 8.8 days
Illumination: 66.4 %