maria – Page 2 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

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

Early Morning Pitatus and Neighbors

Lunar crater Pitatus and environs - September 17, 2014 — Lunar crater Pitatus and environs – September 17, 2014

Lunar crater Pitatus and environs (labeled) - September 17, 2014 — Lunar crater Pitatus and environs (labeled) – September 17, 2014

Pitatus is an old, large 97 km. diameter crater on the edge of Mare Nubium. The floor of this crater has a linear central peak which was casting a fine elongated triangular shadow at the time of this observation and sketch. To the south craters Wurzelbauer (88 km.) and Gauricus (79 km.) could be seen; both of these craters show badly warn rims; both much older than Pitatus. Attached to the northwest rim of Pitatus is the crater Hesodius (43 km.). At about the eighth or ninth day of lunation you can observe the famous “sunrise ray” beaming across the floor of Hesodius through a break in the wall with Pitatus. This is certainly a sight worth observing.

Sketching:

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

Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 09-17-2014 10:00-11:25 UT
Temperature: 5°C (42°F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co longitude: 187.3°
Lunation: 22.6 days
Illumination: 39.0 %

Frank McCabe

Crater Gassendi and the northern part of Mare Humorum

Lunar crater Gassendi and the the northern part of Mare Humorum - September 5, 2014 — Lunar crater Gassendi and the the northern part of Mare Humorum – September 5, 2014

Here is a sketch of the Moon on the 5th of September from my backyard
in Adelaide, South Australia.

The moons phase was waxing at 83%, with only the very western edge
still in shadow. I observed with a C11 SCT. Seeing was quite
reasonable, so I took a 15mm eyepiece + 2x Barlow for a close look.

The shallow illumination on Mare Humorum made the creases on the mare
floor stand out. Crater Gassendi, toward the bottom, showed stark
shadows. Rimae Hippalus was visible, passing through the partially
submerged crater Hippalus at the top right. Because I used a diagonal
prism, the sketch is mirror imaged.

I used pastel chalks and black and white pastel pencils on black
paper.

-Ivan

Sinus Iridum

Hi,

Find attached a sketch of Sinus Iridum with craters Bianchini, Laplace A, Laplace D and Heraclides E done yesterday evening.

Object Name Sinus Iridum, The Moon
Object Type Impact basin
Location Dusseldorf region, Germany
Date June 8th, 2014, 2120-2205 CEST
Media white pastel pen, charcoal pen on black cardbox paper
Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 127/1500 SLT
Eyepiece: TS HR Planetary 7mm
Best Regards,

Achim

Gassendi in Mare Humorum

Mare Humorum and Gassendi crater - March 12, 2014 — Mare Humorum and Gassendi crater – March 12, 2014

Object name: Mare Humorum, Gassendi Crater
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Lisbon, Portugal ( 38º 44′ N 9º 30′ W)
Date: 12-03-2014
Media: graphite pencil

Equipment: ED doublet refractor, 80/720mm, (3.15″) F9; EP 9mm OR, 80x.
This was my third sketch, the first attempt was such an enjoyable expirience that I repeated it the following nights.
Fortunately I had 3 or 4 good nights in a row.

Clear skies
Bernardo Andrade

Lunar Terminator Near to the Western Limb

LunarTerminator West Limb-February 25, 2013

Lunar Terminator Near to the Western Limb

On Sunday evening I was getting a wonderful view of the lunar terminator near the western limb just a half day before full Moon. The favorable longitudinal libration of -04° 40’ was creating an opportunity to see craters along the terminator that are often poorly placed for viewing.
With storms on the way from the southwest this was a good evening to attempt a sketch. The calm before the arrival of storms often leaves the seeing fair to good as was the case on this night. Craters such as Vasco da Gama (99 km.), Bohr (73 km.), Dalton (63 km.), Balboa (71 km.) and part of Einstein (175 km.) were all seen. Craters Cardanus (51 km.) and Krafft (53 km.) and the crater chain (catena) between them were in bright sunlight. The views all along the terminator were magnificent.
Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper (9” x 12”), white and black Conte’
pastel pencils. In addition a small artist’s brush and powdered Conte’ white crayon was used for blending. Contrast was slightly increased (+2) using a scanner to better match the original.
Telescope: 13.1 inch f/ 5.9 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 327 X
Date: 02-25-2013, 04:00-06:30 UT
Temperature: 0.0° C (32° F)
Partly cloudy, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 86.9 °
Lunation 14.87 days
Illumination 99.5 %

Frank McCabe

Sinus Iridum

Object name: Sinus Iridum
Location:Cañuelas, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Media: 6B, 2H pencil; White paper.

The Apollo 17 Landing Site

Apollo 17 Landing site- January 11, 2014

I was hooked when the Chinese [Change III ] had landed on the moon on 14 th December 2013 .

The landing site was in the Mare Imbrium where the peculier landmarks or configurations of the ground were not stood at all, so it seems to me difficult to search the Landing site.

Instead, I have established a plan as an attempting practice to search the Apollo 17 landing site that was issued in the S& T DEC. 2002 p118 or http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~durda/Apollo/landing_sites.html and for the first time I have flown there this night with my refractors …… the result is this a sketch.

It took only 5 minuites to find out where there was with the aid of the one meter diameter paper MOON map of the Arizona University press , …. in the eyepieces, at first I have easily found out the three craters configuration as a red lined triangle marked in my sketch , but without enough previous study for the morphology of this place it was hard to find ” there” [Red lined box].

For the light gathering power of 8″ lens was weak I used only 133 magnification , further the 12″ lens was not adequate in this bad seeing.

—————-

Object; The Apollo 17 Landing Site

Observe/ Sketch; 11. JAN, 2014

8″ f12 refractor, x 133

Lunation ; 11 day

Air temperature; – 8 degree C [very cold]

Location ; Backyard home in South. Korea

White paper [40 x30 cm] , graphite pencils