Milky Way
Sketch and Details by Janis R
That bright “star” is Jupiter.
8/31/84. Kavanaugh Farm, Chester County, Pa. Made before light pollution really degraded the observing site.
Category: Pastels on Black Paper
Crater Plato and Environs
Plato and Environs
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe
One of the more famous features of the lunar surface is the walled plain crater Plato. This 100 kilometer crater was formed on the blocks of ejecta or the debris field (lunar Alps) of the Mare Imbrian basin forming event and it preceded the lava upwelling that flooded the floor of the crater and then the maria. Beyond the highland rise of the crater to the north is Mare Frigoris. To the west of the crater is Plato A a 22 km. crater beyond the ramparts of Plato. Just on to the smooth Imbrian lava to the south are the Teneriffe Mountains including Mount Pico at the east end of the chain. A portion of Rimae Plato was visible intermittently in among the rugged mountain bases of the Alps as seeing briefly reached average value now and again. The central peaks present at the time of the Plato impact are buried under 2 kilometer of lava and only small craterlets can be seen on the floor. Two of these were in and out of visibility as I drew this sketch. The rim on the shadowed side of the crater has irregular peaks that reach to 2.6 km. above the crater floor. At times of lower sun angles the irregular peaks cast long shadows that allow you to locate these summits.
In the years of the 17th century after the invention of the telescope, crater Plato changed names three times. In 1645 it was named Lacus Panciroli by Michael van Langren and in 1647 Johannes Hevelius named it Lacus Niger Major and finally Fr. John Baptist Riccioli in 1651 gave it the name we call it to this day.
If you have a telescope take a look at the crater floor and watch it change in brightness as we approach and then go past full moon. The moon is not light pollution it is a rewarding astronomical target.
Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 10”x12”, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and a blending stump. After scanning, Brightness was decreased (-2) and contrast increased (+2) using Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 9 mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 9-10-2008, 1:15 – 2:30 UT
Temperature: 15° C (60° F)
clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 29.6 °
Lunation 10.2 days
Illumination 72.7 %
Frank McCabe
Alexander’s Waning Ray
Alexander’s Waning Ray
By Richard Handy
When the waning Moon brings long spires of deep shadows to the mountains and scarps that line the western shores of Mare Imbrium, the peaks of the Montes Caucasus become beacons of bright white light, radiant and dazzling in the last rays of late lunar afternoon sun. This arcuate, rugged range, a remnant of the multi-basin rings raised by the titantic Imbrium impact, reach a lofty 6000 meters in elevation above Mare Imbrium and Serenitatis today. The strait that separates the Caucasus and the Montes Apenninus is probably the result of the previous Serenitatis impact. The collision excavated a large section of crustal material at the eventual and almost tangental intersection of these two great lunar basins, so here no mountains nor hills were lifted high enough to survive the much later inundation by mare basalts. The dark parabola of shadowed Alexander is illuminated by a single, slim dagger of light. Was this ancient Pre-Imbrium 82 km crater the result of an oblique impact? The heavy fill of ejecta from the Imbrium or Serenitatis events and the remainders of its sparse and broken ramparts make interpretation difficult, still it’s general elliptical depression begs this question. Between the Montes Caucasus and the Montes Alpes to the northeast lies Cassini with it’s smooth appearing glacis. This Lower Imbrium crater almost looks to have impacted into a semi-liquid layer of basalt, so soft and thin is the appearance of it’s glacis. To the northeast of Cassini, The Montes Alpes, a great blocky wedge composed of lineated chunks of broken regolith, is scattered radially from the center of Imbrium, evidence of the sheer power of an explosion that lifted up mountain ranges and tossed aside blocks of lunar crust the size of stadiums hundreds of kilometers from it’s center. Beyond the field of view of this sketch, the Vallis Alpes confirms the readjustment that occcured millions of years after the Imbrium event, as large sections of crust pulled apart under the stresses of sublithospheric flows.
Sketch details:
Subject: Alexander’s Waning Ray Rukl: 12, 13,
Time: 9:50 UT to 10:17 UT Date: December 30, 2007
Seeing: Antoniadi III -IV Weather: clear and 10 mph breeze
Lunation: 20.68 days
Colongitude: 164.0 deg.
Illumination: 58.9%
Lib. in Lat.: +03 deg. 30 min.
Lib. in Long.: +06 deg. 29 min.
Phase: 280.2 deg.
Telescope: 12″ Meade SCT f/10
Binoviewer: W.O. Bino-P with 1.6X nosepiece
45 deg. W.O. erect image diagonal
Eyepieces: 18mm W.O. Plossls
Magnification: 271X
Sketch Medium: White and gray pastels on Strathmore black Artagain paper
Sketch size: 18″ X 24″
Jovial Giant
Jupiter-July 11th, 2007
By Richard Handy
The fog along the San Diego coast finally relented enough for a observation and sketch of Jupiter last evening. The Atmosphere was steady enough at Antoniadi II by the time I started around 6:00 UT. I was so happy to get a chance to sketch at the eyepiece after such a long spell of foggy evenings. Jupiter’s elevation above my southern horizon made use of my binoviewers with a 45 degree erector diagonal so comfy! The creamy off-white colors separating the major bands caught my attention first, as they should I guess, since they seem to dominate in total area the visible face of Jupiter. Guess that’s why Jupiter appears like a bright yellow star to our naked eyes. The rusty hue of the NEB was fun to try to capture. I noted burnt sienna barges on some areas along it’s southern fringes. At places the bands appeared broken. The grayish caps at times looked to have little filigrees running along their margins, but the seeing just couldn’t hold long enough to render them.
Sketch details:
Object: Jupiter
Time: 5:57 UT until 6:35 UT Date: 7-12-07
Seeing: Antoniadi II Weather: clear
Telescope: Meade 12 SCT, f/10
Binoviewer: W.O. Bino-P with 1.6X nosepiece
W.O. 45 degree Erector Diagonal
Eyepieces 18 mm W.O. Plossl
Magnificaton: 271X
Medium: Colored Conte’ pencils and colored chalks on 9″ x 12″ Strathmore Artagain black paper
Sketch size: 9″ x12″ Jupiter’s disk is about 5″ in diameter
Holmes in a Spin
Comet 17/P Holmes
28th October 2007
18:40 UT Mag 2
Reflector FL 1200mm/8mm eyepiece/150X Pastel/Conte/Black Paper
Here is my sketch from October 28th, I got going early to avoid the predicted cloud cover. I had a long look into the halo around the nucleus. The material emanating from the pin point center seemed to be heading in a more southerly direction than I had observed in previous evenings. I could see darker areas fanning in the opposite direction in the inner halo. A star was visible just inside the outer halo. Because I could see a star through the out gassing then it must be very thin? The star was visually similar in size to the comet nucleus but a little dimmer. Sometimes the coma seemed to momentarily have transparent spaces within it. I have not seen a star in the area of the dark spaces, I wonder if these spaces are filled with dust?
All this was visible even though there was a 17 day moon rising almost directly under the icy action.
Deirdre Kelleghan
President
Irish Astronomical Society 1937 – 2007
Public Relations Officer IFAS
http://www.deirdrekelleghan.com/
http://homepage.eircom.net/~irishas/index.htm
http://www.irishastronomy.org/
Like a Tart
“She appears like a tart that my cooke made me last weeke, here a vaine of bright
stuffe, and there of darke, and so confusedlie all over. I must confess I can see
none of this without my cylinder”.
These were the honest words of William Lower an amateur astronomer written upon
observing the Moon with his new “perspective cylinder” in 1608.
In the history of Man Kind this is but a heart beat in time but how the telescope
has evolved from that primitive Galilean spy glass that only the privileged few
could ever hope to own! Now even the most modest instrument delivers views of the
heavens and Moon in particular that our astronomical forefathers could only have
dreamt of!
One thing that hasn’t changed for me and countless others is the “confusedlie” of
the Moon. It is an awe-inspiring yet bewildering sight to all but the most
experienced lunar observer. I myself am very much a Lunar apprentice and each time
I fly over the terminator with my telescope and settle upon “she who takes my
heart” I am learning my way around not only the shadows, bright ridges and crater
rims but through my post sketch research feature names, dimensions and geological
composition.
On the late evening my visual voyage of 250,000 miles at the eyepieces of my
binoviewer was just such an adventure.
I deliberately selected a relatively demure region, shunning the bright and large
craters in a deliberate attempt to stray from the well trodden path.
It turns out that my target area turned out to be Lacus Exellentiae. I was
initially drawn to a crater with a brightly lit rim just to the left of centre in
my drawing that my subsequent atlas searches found as being nameless apart from
being marked as (b) in a few of the atlases I own . The crater on the right close
to the terminator however turned out to be Clausius with a diameter of 24km and
was situated close the controlled crash site of the European Smart -1 Lunar
orbiter on September 3rd 2006.
A happy hour spent and no longer so Confusedlie!
Moon 11 days
14″ (350mm) Newtonian 193x
Sketch with Derwent watercolour pencils, Derwent Pastel pencils & conte hard
pastels. Blending stumps used, sketch on lightweight black card.
Finished worked scanned but un processed.
Dale Holt
Chippingdale observatory, Nr Buntingford, Hertfordshire UK
Lunar eclipse duet
I had wonderfully clear weather the morning of August 28th, 2007 and was able to create a sequence of sketches of the total lunar eclipse for the ingress side of the event. Unfortunately the Eucalyptus grove in the west blocked my attempt to sketch the egress. Erika Rix graciously offered to animate this sequence for me, thank you so much Erika, you did such a wonderful job! I hope you all had a chance to witness this one, it was an awesome and colorful event.
Telescope:12″ SCT f/10
Eyepiece: 35mm Televue Panaoptic
Magnification: 87X
Medium: white Conte’ Crayon and colored pastels on black 400 series Artagain paper
Richard Handy – Sketches
Erika Rix- Animation
From Sirsalis to Damoiseau
This was the first time that I had used my new (to me) Superscopes 6″ F9 triplet
refractor for a sketch. As per usual I sketch what my eye is most drawn to and
then research the area after.
In this case I struggled to match up the craters that I had captured with any of
my many books & atlases. In the end I got a best match from an excellent free
down load picture Atlas/portfolio by Alan Chu. I decided that it must be the
Sirsalis region although the stunning illumination I enjoyed wasn’t captured in
any thing that I had in my library.
I used the following:
Superscopes 150mm F9 triplet refractor, Denk binoviewer with 2.5x lens, 2x 23mm
Celestron Axiom eyepieces straight through so no diagonal delivering 146x.
6″x8″ (150mm x 200mm) light black card of unknown origin
Derwent watercolour pencils, Derwent pastel pencils, conte sticks & blending stumps
25.8.07, 21.30UT sketch time 10minutes.
Location: Chippingdale observatory, Chipping Nr Buntingford, Hertfordshire, England.
Dale Holt
Whirlpool in space
The Spiral Galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) in Canes Venatici
For the amateur M51 is easy and a showpiece if the sky is dark, but is quite
sensitive for light pollution which easily makes it fade in the background. Under
very good conditions, even suggestions of its spiral arms can be glanced with
telescopes starting from 4-inch. Low magnification is best for viewing this pair
Right Ascension:13 : 29.9 (h:m)
Declination: +47 : 12 (deg:m)
Distance: 37000 (kly)
Apparent Dimension:11×7 (arc min)
Sketch was made large on A4 black cartridge paper using white and colored pastels
and pencils after viewing an astrophotograph…
The sketch was then scanned and processed in Photoshop cs.
All the Best from Athens,
Peter
The Lost Treasure of Hercules
Messier 92: Globular Cluster
And yet, another one of those Globs – don’t worry, there are plenty, 29
in the Messier Catalog alone, but I am slowly pulling through, one more
down on the list and counting. All in all, I’d say: again not bad, measured
up to the years of life it cost me to draw it. You sit there at the telescope,
frozen to the spot in a never-ending struggle to decide, whether you’ve
seen the detail or not, whether you should draw it or not, your hands are
getting cold, your neck is getting stiff and the cluster simply keeps refusing
to turn out the way you want it or see it. Well, the longest journey comes to
an end, so here it is: M 92! I like to call it The Lost Treasure of Hercules,
because it is a great view, yet often overlooked due to its proximity to the
far more well-known M 13. Maybe next time you visit the area, remember to
make a little stop-over at M 92.
Date: April 15, 2007
Location: Kegelhaus, Erbendorf, Bavaria, Germany
Instrument: Dobsonian 8″ f/6
Constellation: Hercules
Seeing: II of VI
Transparency: I-II of VI
NELM: 6m2
Magnification: 133x
Technique: white pastel pens and white ink-pen on black cardboard
Sebastian Lehner