maria – Page 5 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Astronomy Camp – Daylight Moon

The L.C. Bates Museum in Hinckley, Maine received a NASA SOI (Summer of Inquiry) Grant this summer, and astronomy camp was held this past week. Twelve campers, age eight to twelve, observed the sun’s photosphere (whitelight) and chromosphere (h-alpha), put together a Gallileoscope, flew a 5′ tall Montgolfier-inspired hot-air balloon, constructed Alexander-Graham-Bell-type tetrahedron-cell kites (flying machines), learned how to measure a celestial object’s altitude and azimuth, and made the attached drawing after a daytime observation of our moon. The sketch was made from a projected image of our daylight observation.

Submmitted by John Stetson

Lunar Terminator: Mare Spumans and Mare Undarum

On this evening, two days past full moon and with favorable libration on the eastern portion of the Moon, I chose two irregular maria targets for sketching. Mare Spumans was completely visible while Mare Undarum was only partly exposed beyond the terminator.

Although I have examined these little ancient “lakes” in the past this has been my first attempt to capture them on paper. Both are surrounded by bright, densely cratered upland and are close enough to Mare Crisium to be within its eject blanket and basin rings.

This is a very attractive region of the Moon for sketchers with craters Langrenus and Messier and Messier A nearby and Mare Crisium just to the north. I purposely kept these features out of my view to focus on lesser observed targets. In addition to the maria subjects, craters : Webb (22 km.), Apollonius (53 km.), and Firmicus (56 km.) provided eye catching targets across the view.

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: 08-04-2012, 04:00 – 05:50 UT
Temperature: 29°C (85° F)
hazy, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 110.6 °
Lunation 16 days
Illumination: 94.9 %
Libration: in Lat. -5° 45’, in Long. +05° 38’

Frank McCabe

Graphite Moon

Jozef Kozar, M.Sc.
administrator / chief editor
—–
www.spaces.sk
space research magazine

Sea of Nectar

Hi!

I present to you my last sketch of the Moon surface.
In the center of the sketch is Mare Nectaris and craters i.a: Teophilus, Cirillus, Catharina, Fracastorius, Isidorus, Capella and more.

Object: Moon, Mare Nectaris
Scope: SCT 5″
Magnification: about 178x
Technique: White pastel crayon on black paper.
Author: Aleksander Cieśla (wimmer)

www.astro-art.com.pl

Mare Imbrium

I ‘m relatively new to astro sketching, actually this is my second serious attempt.
Pictured is Mare Imbrium in the middle, with large craters from north to south: Plato, Archimedes and Eratosthenes. I ‘m really starting to love this area.

The drawing was made with pastel crayons on white paper, directly behind a WO Megrez 80 II FD, 123x magnification. Hope you like it!

Erik van Woerkens, from Belgium.

Mare Imbrium

Aloha!

I submit my most recent sketch of a close up detail of Mare Imbrium of 1/1/12. First observation of the New Year for me & first attempt using white pastel & black artist paper for a moon sketch. I found it a bit frustrating at fist since I have always sketched in black charcoal on white paper for the moon. After I got the hang of it I really enjoyed the texture & detail I could create with the black paper.

I am currently working on an Astronomical League Certificate for the moon and I am amazed how much more detail I must learn to sketch. I want to know what every crater & peak of light is that I am recording on paper.

On this night I used my 8” Dobsonian & 14mm Explore Scientific EP
Seeing was excellent, Temperature 65 degrees F from 4000 ft elevation
Maui, Hawaii

Thia Krach

Mare Serenitatis

Location: Budapest, Hungary
Date: 3rd October 2011
Media: Graphite pencil used on white paper
Equipment used: 130/650 SW, 93x

Dear Asod,

I send you here my sketch about Mare Serenitatis, an area where a very interesting landscape can be observed. We can see craters, chains of hills, ruptures and deeper areas in one place, also with different colours in the material. I liked it so much I tried to sketch despite it was not an easy peace of cake. I hope you will like it.

Kind regards,
Judit Hannak

—
dr. Hannák Judit

Classic Crater

Hi all,

My original intension when I selected the crater Copernicus was to have the terminator line very close to it. I didn’t get my timing right by a long shot! Instead, it was closer to a Lunar mid-day, making the shadows very short.

I was hesitant to sketch it, having my expectations dashed, and took an hour before I decided “What the heck! Just do it”.

Conditions were quite good for Sydney. At the best of times, using 222X is barely useable, giving only fleeting moments of clarity. This night was more good than poor! And an added bonus, NO DEW!

This is the first time I’ve used charcoal and soft pastels to do such a finely detailed sketch. It took a little getting used to, but what I really like about this materials is you can build up the layers to achieve the result you want. I found them very forgiving, unlike the cold.

Two hours, a pot of tea to keep the cold at bay, and a gorgeous orange tube C8, and this is the result.

Object: crater Copernicus
Scope: Orange tube C8
Gear: 9mm TMB Planetary Type II, 222X, + two polarizing filters
Date: 14’th May, 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Conditions: Fair
Media: Black & white charcoal pencils, grey soft pastel pencil, and white ink on black paper, A5 size.

Cheers,

Alex M.

A Lunar Sketching Duet

Dale Holt of the UK and I have sketched from across the Atlantic in the past more or less at the same time and even on the same target. This past week it was all different as we met in Phoenix, Arizona and for five, dark, dry, transparent nights observed on the Peralta trail road near the base of the SuperstitionMountains not far from Apache Junction. Following crescent moonsets each night we scrutinized many deep sky targets up to the predawn hours and beyond on one occasion. This was possible as my daughter Michelle generously provided her two Dobsonian telescopes for our use all week. Back at our respective home observing sites, we are thankful to get that rare, clear transparent observing night but for this entire week, we never encountered a single cloud daytime or night time and fantastic transparency around the clock.
A highlight of our week together was lunch with Jeremy Perez in Flagstaff, during a day trip to northern Arizona.
On the last night of our observing, it was time to sketch the first quarter Moon and this time side by side from our base in Mesa, Az. Dale chose for his sketching target the lunar Alps including the front range from Promontorium Agassiz past P. Deville to Mons Blanc and including Mons Piton out on Mare Imbrium. Dale used the ten-inch Orion dob. telescope f/ 4.7 with a 9mm Ortho.eyepiece. Note the long shadows extending from the peaks and pointing towards the terminator, an awesome view in the eyepiece. I used the six- inch dob. telescope f/ 7, a 12mm Plossl eyepiece, and my targets were the three craters Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel along the terminator further on to the south.
If you have the opportunity to do a sketching duet, do not pass up the great opportunity; it can be great fun as we quickly discovered.

Sketching:
Dale Holt
White pastel on black Daler Rowney paper at 133 x

Frank McCabe
Graphite on white recycled Strathmore sketching paper at 89 x

Time: 9 June 2011 beginning 04:25 UT we finished in about an hour
Lunar information:
Lunation: 7.3 day old Moon
Illumination: 51.2%
Co-longitude: 4.1°
Phase 88.6°

Frank McCabe

Crater Lambert on Mare Imbrium

Lambert crater is a smallish complex crater of 30 kilometers diameter resting on the floor of Mare Imbrium. This Eratosthenian crater must be some 2.5 billion years old. Its outer rampart is impressive, as is its floor, which unfortunately was not seen on this occasion due to morning shadowing.The ghost crater Lambert R was detectable but is best seen closer to the terminator as sunset approaches during the waning crescent phase. Further south from Lambert and Lambert R, crater Pytheas (20 km.) was also visible. Closer to the sunrise terminator Mons La Hire was casting long shadows while crater Euler (29 km) was just catching light on its eastern rim.
To the north of Lambert, Dorsa Stille and Dorsum Zirkel were easily visible along with many small craters.

Sketching Information

Lambert crater on ebony black Canson paper using white and black Conte’ pastel pencils
Sketch Date: April 13, 2011, using a 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian telescope riding on an equatorial platform with a 6mm eyepiece for 241x at 03:00-04:10 UT
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Weather clear, calm, 50 degrees F (10 degrees C)
Lunation 9.5 days
Moon 67.9% illuminated
Colongitude 27.7°
Rükl Atlas Pl 20

Frank McCabe