Category: Planetary

Moon and Venus – May 22, 2012

Moon and Venus - May 22, 2012
Moon and Venus - May 22, 2012

I was in Mesa, Arizona for a few days and on the evening of Tuesday May 22, 2012, at 8:45 pm (local time) I was treated to a fine view of the Moon and Venus before they set in the West Northwest.

A sliver of the Moon was illuminated by the sun and the remainder lit by the gibbous earth (earthshine), a real treat for a mid-westerner like myself. I had some sketching materials with me so I made this sketch of the view on this warm evening 37°C (98°F).

Sketching:

Blue sketching paper, blending stumps, Crayola pencils (assorted colors), oil pastel crayons (assorted colors), Conte’ crayon pencils black and white, white and pink Pearl erasers

Venus was at waning crescent phase on 2 weeks from its solar transit.

Moon phase: 2.2 days old waxing crescent

Illumination 4%

Frank McCabe

Comet West, East of the Milky Way

Comet West
Comet West

Hey Artists!

I would like to send you a restaurated sketch of comet West, one of the brightest comets
in the last 40 years. This is a naked-eye-sketch from my observation 8. Mar.- 76.
The nucleus of this comet broke apart in four, and at the end of this month I could
observe three components on line in the coma with my telescope!
The tail of comet West was also beautiful and bright with synchronic dusttail in
the beginning of this month. A very interesting object to observe in scope and 10 x 50 binos.
I used pen and pencil on white paper and inverted.
Location: Trondheim, Norway.

Best wishes from Per-Jonny Bremseth.

An Imminent Rendezvous with the Sun

Venus - May 16, 2012

Location: Rocbaron Provence France
Date: 16 may 2012 – 9:20 PM
Media: graphite pencil, white paper, circle inverted while scanning

It’s always nice to have a look at Venus while so close to the sun, just some weeks before her sun’s rendez-vous June 6th.
I prefer to draw the brilliant Venus when the darkness is not too deep, then the contrast is more convenient.

Clear sky to you all

Michel Deconinck

Site Web: http://astro.aquarellia.com

Saturn, Titan and Raindrops

Saturn and Titan
Saturn and Titan

Object Name: Saturn
Object Type: Planet
Location: Deventer, The Netherlands
Date: May 13, 2012
Media: Pastel pencils on black paper

Last night I wanted to make a sketch of Saturn, mostly to capture as much moons as possible through my old 75mm f/15 Polarex/Unitron refractor. After 45 minutes of sketching at 200x with pastel pencils on black paper, Saturn was pretty much done (although I found it surprisingly difficult to draw a good ellipse for the rings), and just when I added the easily visble Titan, I heard some droplets on the trees next to me and felt something on my head: RAIN! I immediately covered the pastel sketch witch my hand and rushed inside my shed. After the sketch was save I pulled the telescope out of the rain. The most abrupt ending of a sketching session ever! I had completely missed the incoming clouds while viewing through the eyepiece.

Anyway, both the sketch and the telescope survived. Sadly with only one moon observed: Titan.

Clear skies and kind regards,
Roel Weijenberg
www.roelblog.nl

A Near Miss

Comet Garradd and Messier 92
Comet Garradd and Messier 92

Object Name: Comet Garradd and M92
Object Type: comet, globular gluster
Location: Cherry Springs Dark Sky Park, Pennsylvania
Date: February 3, 2012
Media: Digitally simulated chalk and white pencil on black paper.

I literally had seconds to glimpse it this morning, so my sketch cannot be accurate (9:30 UT). We were completely socked in. I waited 45 minutes for a tiny tear in the cloud cover to sweep rapidly across
Hercules. Then for another 30 minutes there was no other opportunity and I went back to bed. Now, a long wait under almost complete cloud cover makes you exceptionally well dark adapted… so I really believe it was the comet that I saw with the naked eye for a few moments as I was raising my binoculars with
shaking hands. Blue, near grey zone, altitude 2400 ft/700 m.

Mars – February 10, 2012

Mars - February 10, 2012
Mars - February 10, 2012

On the night of Feburuary 10 th, 2012, ….. with a good, stable atmosphere, I could observe fairly good details on the surface of Mars.

General whole details of my sketch are seems to resemble the photographes of Fredd. Willems in the [Alpo – japan ] homepage on FEB. 3th , 2012. who had taken it with a C 14.

One of differences between my sketch and C 14 photoes is , the size, shape of the rather graysh white elliptical spot which sticked together beside the ” BIGGER” white NPC. …… my sketch shows ( that is to say, in the eyepiece view ….) a fairly more bigger size elliptical spot than C-14 photo.

telescope; 8 inches achromat f/ 12 refractor at x500
home-made equatorial
Location; at backyard my house in South Korea
white paper, graphite pencils

Altair83 Observers at Flassans

Altaïr83 Club Observing
Altaïr83 Club Observing

Object Name (form Orion to Venus)
Object Type (End winter sky)
Location (Flassans-sur-Issole Provence France)
Date (3/16/2012 )
Media (graphite pencil, watercolour, white paper, software paint.net)

During the March 16th night the Flassans-sur-Issole, a nice south France site was sketched with some observers of the Altaïr83 club. The site is mainly used for astrophotography I liked the red light effect of the atmosphere, brilliant eyes and red led. On my sketch we can see from left to right the Orion constellation, the Hyades, Pleiades and near the horizon, Venus close to Jupiter.

I made this sketch using graphite pencil, then I put the red colour effect in my workshop then I had to reverse the sky via paint.net.

Clear sky to you all

Michel Deconinck

Mars – March 23, 2012

Mars - March 23, 2012
Mars - March 23, 2012

Location: Bayarian Alps, Germany
Date: 23. March 2012, midnight
Media: Pencil on Paper, scanned
Observer: Christian Rausch
Telescope: 12inch/F5 Dobson (Hofheim Instruments)

Conditions:
– seeing: II (good)
– 375x and 500x (Nagler Zoom 3-6mm)

Since the transparency in this night was poor I’d to cancel all my faint objects from my list.

But the seeing was good an therefore I decided to have a try with Mars. Attached the result.

Best Regards
Christian

http://www.licht-stimmungen.de/