crater – Page 4 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Capuanus Crater and Lacus Timoris

Lunar crater Capuanus on the shores of the Lake of Fear - December 1, 2014 — Lunar crater Capuanus on the shores of the Lake of Fear – December 1, 2014

Aloha!

I have been lucky enough to have clear skies the past 3 nights and took advantage of sketching some feature of the Moon every night. On 12/1/14 my eye rested upon the partly eroded walls of Capuanus Crater and the surrounding region north of Palus Epidemiarum. At the time of the observation the 60 km wide crater cast a deep shadow to the west and over a rim of rock placing it partially in shadow. Smaller Elger Crater is visible just to the west of the rim of Capuanus just beyond the shadows. A multitude of smaller more complex appearing craters border the southern edge of Capuanus. The small mare of Lacus Timoris (Lake of Fear) can be seen to the south near the terminator.

Cindy (Thia) Krach

Capuanus Crater 10 day lunation
12/1/14
2130-2245 HST
12.5” Portaball, 6.7mm 227x
Maui, Hawaii
Black Fabriano Paper 6”x 6”
white & black Conte’ Crayons

Crater Posidonius at Sunset

Lunar crater Posidonius and environs at sunset - August 7, 2012 — Lunar crater Posidonius and environs at sunset – August 7, 2012

Crater Posidonius at Sunset

On this night I watched the sunset terminator creep slowly toward ring-plain crater Posidonius; in addition I sketched the crater and other features on the floor of Mare Serenitatis. Posidonius (96 km.) is an old upper Imbrian era impact remnant. Its age is underlined by the way shadows penetrate the rim at numerous points betraying impact damage there. The highest part of the rim is on the terminator side of this crater. Sunlight was still reaching Posidonius A and other high points on ridges including one on the inner ring. Beyond this crater to the west and south the great serpentine ridge could be seen in best light. This ridge is made up of dorsa Smirnov and dorsa Lister.
 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 just slightly using my scanner.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 241x
 Date: 08-07-2012, 06:30 – 07:40 UT
 Temperature: 29°C (85° F) clear, calm
 Seeing: Antoniadi III
 Colongitude 147.9 °
 Lunation 19 days
 Illumination: 73.4 %

  Frank McCabe

Luna Through Cloud

The six day old crescent Moon through the clouds - April 16, 2013 — The six day old crescent Moon through the clouds – April 16, 2013

Not really an astronomical observation more a romantic interlude.

Best to all, Dale

Do you want to know more about my interest in astronomy? If so take a look at my Website: http://www.chippingdaleobservatory.com/

Keep up to date with observations from Chippingdale Observatory by reading the Blog http://www.chippingdaleobservatory.com/blog/

Lunar craters Aristoteles and Mitchell

Lunar craters Aristoteles and and Mitchell - November 28, 2014 — Lunar craters Aristoteles and and Mitchell – November 28, 2014

Hi,

Tonight I could do yet another lunar crater sketch:

Object Name: Aristoteles and Mitchell
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Germany, Dusseldorf area
Date: 2014-11-28, 1910-1940 CET
Media: chalk pencil and charcoal pencil on black sketching cardbox
Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT
Eyepiece: TS HR Planetary 7mm
Clear skies!

Achim

Lunar craters Snellius and Stevinus

Lunar craters Snellius and Stevinius - November 25, 2014 — Lunar craters Snellius and Stevinius – November 25, 2014

Hi,

yesterday evening, I got the opportunity to do another chalk/charcoal sketch of the moon. Here we go with my sketch of craters Snellius and Stevinus. Due to the bad seeing, I couldn’t go beyond the 10mm eyepiece this time.
Object Name: Snellius and Stevinus
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Germany, Dusseldorf area
Date: 2014-11-25, 1715-1745 CET
Media: chalk pencil and charcoal pencil on black sketching cardbox
Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT
Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm
Clear skies!

Achim

Lunar Crater Copernicus

Across the Carpathian Mountains resting on the eastern Ocean of Storms is the
landmark crater of the Sea of Islands, mighty Copernicus. Copernicus is a 95
kilometer diameter complex crater that begins to show itself in all its majesty
two days past first quarter. During the time of “Snow-Ball Earth” 800 million
years ago the event that created Copernicus suddenly occurred. What remains is a
3.8 kilometer deep hummock covered flat floored, centrally peaked, terrace walled
spectacular sentinel. Especially during high sun the bright ray system of this
crater can be seen extending from the base of the glassy glacis in all directions.
The descent from the rampart to the mare floor below is about one kilometer. Three
of five peaks were clearly visible in morning sunlight. In 1999 the Clementine
near infrared camera detected magnesium iron silicates in the peaks indicating
rebound of this deep rock through the surface crust following the impact event.
To view this impressive crater all you need is a good pair of binoculars and an
opportunity between two days past first quarter and one day past last quarter.
Weather permitting, you can see it tonight.

Sketching:

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

Telescope: 13.1 inch f/5.9 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 218x
Date: 11-03-2014, 00:45 – 02:10 UT
Temperature: 0°C (32°F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co longitude: 23.2°
Lunation: 8.9 days
Illumination: 69.3 %
Phase: 67.4°

Frank McCabe

Lunar Crater Clavius

My sketch of lunar crater Clavius together with smaller craters Porter and Rutherfurd at the top of the drawing. Clavius measures 225km in diameter and is located near the southern pole of the Moon. It is named after Christophorus Clavius, a 16th century German mathematician and astronomer.

Regards,

Alexei Pace
Astronomical Society of Malta

The Aristarchus Plateau

The Aristarchus Plateau, the lunar crater Aristarchus and environs – October 5, 2014[/caption]The Aristarchus plateau is one of the biggest and most spectacular volcanic regions in the Moon. With good seeing and the Moon high above the horizon, the region was impressive on October 5th, when it was near the terminator. Vallis Schröteri, the giantic lava channel meanders through the plateau starting from the famous Cobra Head vent, which is now mostly under shadow. The Aristarchus crater has a very bright wall with two dark bands; and to its north, Rupes Toscanelli stands out nicely. Finally, to the south of the plateau, the Herodotus Omega dome is easy to see, thanks to the oblique illumination.

Sketch: 2HB graphite pencil on white paper, scanned and processed with Photoshop CS3
Object Name: The Aristarchus Plateau
Location: Asturias, Spain
Date: October 5th, 2014 21:30-22:30 UT
Instrument: 120mm f/8.3 refractor + Barlow 2x + UWA 6,7mm (300x)
Observing report (in Spanish): https://sites.google.com/site/astrodgonzalez/observaciones/201410-aristarco
Best regards,
Diego González

Gassendi at Terminator

Lunar crater Gassendi - October 4, 2014 — Lunar crater Gassendi – October 4, 2014

Object Name: Gassendi
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Dunboyne Ireland
Date: 4th October 2014
Media: Graphite pencil H2, H3 & B6 with standard white stock and technical drawing equipment.

This is actually sketched as observed through the eyepiece with a 15mm on a 9.25 SCT rather than from the phone screen. The seeing was fair but a weather front was fast approaching and just managed to observe long enough to capture this detail. At the same time I took some snapshots through the eyepiece with my smartphone for a smartphone astronomy site – so got to do both before the clouds rolled in. Adding the phone to the sketch allows me to add a technical drawing into the mix which I not (only) enjoy but also allows me to capture the evenings activities and optical equipment used during the session.

Many Thanks

Kevin

Rupes Recta on the Moon

Rupes Recta, "The Straight Wall", a linear fault - March 15, 2008 — Rupes Recta, “The Straight Wall”, a linear fault – March 15, 2008

Object Name: Rupes Recta on the Moon
Object Type: Moon crater
Location: Chiba Japan
Date: 2008/3/15
Media Black graphite pencil on a white paper. Contrast adjusted with PC.

Equipments:: Telescope: Televue 85, Eyepiece: Pentax XW-10 with Power mate 2.5x

After outlining major features using solid lines, dotted lines and numbers(1-9) are used to express gradation in brightness(right). The numbers are replaced with “real” darkness after the lines are copied on another paper (left).

Thanks.

Takeshi