Planetary – Page 35 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

So Father, So Daughters

Sketch by Luna De Wit

Sketch by Nine De Wit

Inspired by the hobby of their father, Nine (4) and Luna (7) made two astrosketches. The youngest took the artistic freedom to unite the Sun with the nightsky. It doesn’t surprise me that the oldest put the Moon on her drawing, after all she was named after this celestical object. Hope you like it!

Clear skies
Jef De Wit

Object name: (night)sky
Location: Hove, Belgium
Date: somewhere in 2009
Medium: color markers on white paper and cardboard, color stickers

Watercolor Mars – March 4, 2010

Mars – March 4, 2010
Sketch and Details by Andrew Watkinson-Trim

Pencil sketch at eyepiece worked up with watercolours later in the warm! This is offered as a comparison with my first attempt at drawing Mars using the same equipment from the same location. The seeing was reasonable, but again the manual Alt/Az mount necessitated frequent repositioning of the object. I was attempting this time to capture something of the colour of the planet as seen in the eyepiece, to show the astro-camera-imagers at my astronomy club what sort of results are realistically possible for a novice with a bit of patience!

AWT

Saturn occultation by the Moon

Saturn occultation by the Moon
Sketch and Details by Fred Corno

Please find attached a drawing of the Saturn occultation by the Moon occurred on the 22nd of May 2007 from approx. 19.23 through 20.34 UT.
The occultation was visible from Europe, and I recorded the event in a drawing made at the eyepiece of my 5” apochromatic telescope.
Drawing was prepared in advance with a large disk representing lunar surface, where terminator position and main features were marked in graphite pencil.
During the event, I marked at 19.23 (point 1), 19.28 (2), 20.34 (3), 20.35 (4), 20.38 (5), 20.40 (6) the position of Saturn, drawing the shape of the planet.
Eventually, black for the unlit part of the moon and the sky surrounding it and the colors for the planet were added.
As Saturn was the most amazing feature of the event, unconsciously I drew it larger than its real size: nevertheless final effect of the sketch finely matches what remains in my memory of that wonderful night.

Best regards.

Fred

Mars – March 6, 2010

Mars – March 6, 2010
Sketch and Details by Charles Galdies

Malta, http://znith-observatory.blogspot.com
6 March 2010
graphite pencil, white paper

After so many nights with bad weather, last evening offered a fair glimpse of the red planet on its distancing away from the earth.

Still, the slight wind and lack of good transparency where not helpful to get to an accurate sketch of what Mars was offering last night. Even though I was using a new 10mm eyepiece which gave me higher magnification, the illumination of the surface disk seemed to have decreased since I last observed the planet almost a month ago.

Most prominent was Niliacus Lacus next to brighter Chryse. The edge of N. Lacus lining Chryse could not be efined so I could not locate its exact termination. Tempe region next to N. Lacus was evident as a lighter region.

The detection of the delicate features of Sinus Meridiani was more challenging last night. Inspite of the poor transparency the detection of S. Meridiani and its adjacent Margaritifer Sinus extending to Oxia Palus was possible. Pyrrhae Regio was not well defined.

Changing to a blue filter did not help much to add significant detail to the above.

Mars 2010 in a Turn

Rotating Sketch of Mars 2010
Sketch and Details by Frédéric Burgeot
3D Mapping and Video by Pascal Chauvet

Hi,

Here is a “movie” of Mars in motion. I made a planisphere from a dozen of my sketches of the red planet, and my friend Pascal Chauvet has made a movie with my planisphere. The sketches have been made in France, from December to February, with a 16” Newtonian, 350X of magnification with a binoviewer.

Best regards,
Fred Burgeot.

Flat version of Mars Sketch
By Frédéric Burgeot

Mars – February 5, 2010

Mars – February 5, 2010
Sketch and Details by Aleksander Cieśla

Hello!
I would like to present my latest sketch of the planet Mars.

Object: Mars
Date: February 5th, 2010
Place: Poland, Wrocław
Equipment: Schmidt-Cassegrain 5″ with Antares SW 7,4mm
Filters: Moon & Skyglow, #12, #21, #80A, #25, #58 colour filters
Seeing: 3/5
Transparency: 1,5/5
Weather: Light fog, stable air.
Technique: Graphite pencil and GIMP2 tooling.
Oserver: Aleksander Cieśla (Wimmer)

Mars – February 18, 2010

Mars – February 18, 2010
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe

Conditions were much improved over those of last Thursday for observing and sketching the planet Mars. The air column above me was mostly steady with temperatures just a degree above freezing.
Mars is now growing smaller in the eyepiece at 13.0″ of arc and 0.72 A.U. from us. 98% of the disk is illuminated and shining at visual magnitude -0.9. The central meridian of Mars was centered around 269° at the time of the sketch.
The north polar cap is clearly diminishing in size and visual brightness. In addition to the major features such as: Syrtis Major, Hellas, Mare Australe, Utopia/Casius, Mare Cimmerium and Mare Tyrrhenum; I was able to see clouds over the Elysium volcanic field and the albedo feature Nodus Alcyonis also appeared during moments of very steady seeing.
Before beginning this sketch I spent 30 minutes looking at Mars through red, green and light blue filters to assist with locating low contrast features.

Sketching:
The eyepiece sketch is the one on top in graphite pencil. The second color sketch was made indoors.
White sketching paper 8″ x 11″; HB graphite pencil, blending stumps for blending orange, brown and yellow Crayola pencil shavings.
Date 2/19/2010 – Time 3:00-3:35 UT
Telescope: 13.1 inch f/5.9 Dobsonian and 9mm eyepiece 218x
Temperature: 1°C (34°F)
clear, calm
Transparency 4/5
Seeing: Antoniadi III

Frank McCabe

Mars Near Opposition 2010

Mars – January 30, 2010
Sketch and Details by Serge Vieillard

Just after the opposition of 2010, opportunity to draw the planet finally arrives. It is necessary to compromise with a cloud covered sky these last months and a lack of certain spirit. It is necessary to force ones self to use the rare opportunities, the cold being particularly lively this year. But I decided not to let this nice night of ice on January 30th get away. When I took out the T250 (10”) and installed it on the equatorial plate the show began. The planet rides high up in the sky but the atmosphere is a bit turbulent. I contented myself to use 300x with an orange filter from time to time. Others magnifications of 500x were welcome for this tiny planetary disc of a little more than 14″ of arc.

Translation by Frank McCabe

Mars – January 19, 2010

Mars – January 19, 2010
Sketch and Details by Christian Gros

Au T180 avec des grossissements de x270 à x308. Mars me paraissait plus jaune qu’orange ! Sur le côté j’ai pu voir la présence de nuages qui donnaient cette aspect beaucoup plus clair !

Christian Gros

Google Translation:

At T180 with magnifications of x270 to x308. Mars seemed more yellow orange! On the side I could see the presence of clouds that gave this aspect a lot clearer!

Christian Gros

Thirty-four Observations—One Map

Mars Map
Sketch and Details by Fred Corno

Date: blend of 34 observations from 2003, 2005 and 2007
Telescopes used: Vixen VMC 200L and Taka FS 128

The attached map represents the blend of 34 observations collected over 4 years. In order to correctly position features depicted in the various sketches made during the observations, reference coordinates grids were made and superimposed to the original drawing, then features were reported on a Lambert projection grid of the whole planet according to reference coordinates.
Original sketches were made marking on a 54 mm blank circular shape color density areas at the eyepiece, then refining with graphite pencil and colored pastels, after the observing session, and blending tones with an artist stump.
Present drawing was made with colored pastels.

Best regards

Fred