This is my impression of Eratosthenes. I find it to be one of the most remarkable
craters on the Moon. The sketch was rendered on Strathmore Windpower sketch paper
with a 2HB mechanical pencil. Post processing was done with MGI Photosuite III.
Jason Aldridge
North Port, Florida
On August 5th 1971 the Astronauts of Apollo 15, David Scott, James Irwin, and
Alfred Worden were coming home. It was the 11th day of the mission, and the 2nd day
of their voyage back to Earth after a successful mission to the lunar surface.
Six days earlier on July 30th, Apollo 15 Commander David Scott and Lunar Module
(LM) pilot James Irwin had landed in the Rima Hadley/Montes Apenninus region of the
Moon in the Lunar Module Falcon. “OK, Houston. The Falcon is on the Plain at
Hadley.”, said David Scott upon touchdown. The Command and Service Module (CSM)
pilot, Alfred Worden continued in lunar orbit in the CSM Endeavour and conducted
scientific experiments. While on the lunar surface, Scott and Irwin made three
moonwalk Extra Vehicular Activities (EVAs), becoming the 7th and 8th men to walk on
the Moon. During the EVAs which totalled 18 hours, 35 minutes, they covered 27.9
km, and collected 76.8 kg of rock and soil samples. They also took photographs, set
up the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP), and performed other
scientific experiments. This time the Astronauts didn’t just walk on the Moon, for
this was the first mission to employ the Lunar Roving Vehicle. Scott and Irwin used
the Rover to
explore regions within 5 km of the LM landing site. After the final EVA, David
Scott performed a televised demonstration of a hammer and feather falling at the
same rate in the lunar vacuum.
The LM lifted off from the Moon on August 2nd after 66 hours, 55 minutes on the
lunar surface. Once the Falcon docked with Endeavor, the lunar samples and other
equipment were transferred from the LM and it was jettisoned after a one orbit
delay.
The LM Falcon impacted the Moon on August 3rd, 93 km west of the Apollo 15 ALSEP
site. It had an estimated impact velocity of 1.7 km per second.
On August 4th, after Apollo 15 underwent an orbit-shaping maneuver, a scientific
subsatellite was spring-launched from the Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) bay
into lunar orbit. The Apollo 15 crew began the transearth injection on the next
orbit which started their long journey home.
The next day, August 5th, Alfred Worden stepped into the black vacuum 196,000 miles
from the earth to become the first man ever to take a floating excursion outside
his craft in interplanetary space. The Apollo 15 astronauts, in prearranged
collaboration with Soviet and Dutch astronomers, were trying to observe what some
scientists suspect are “black holes” in the sky.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Niel Armstrong was celebrating his 41st birthday. In
Houston not too far from Mission Control, Credence Clearwater Revival was jamming
at the Coliseum . Across the Atlantic Ocean in Munich Germany, An American Soldier
and his wife (Justin and Janet Aldridge) were celebrating the birth of their first
child. They named him Jason.
Two days later on August 7th, the Apollo 15 Astronauts splashed down in the Pacific
Ocean, 330 miles north of Honolulu, Hawaii and 6.1 mi from the recovery ship USS
Okinawa. 16 months later, Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan would be the last man
to walk on the Moon.
A child of Apollo, Jason would grow up with dreams of traveling to the Moon. He saw
the color photographs of Mars that returned from the Viking Missions, and he knew
that someday he would visit Mars as well. He watched as the Voyager spacecraft flew
past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and he knew that Man would explore the
solar system and beyond in his lifetime.
Today I am 36 years old. The dreams I had as a child are all but a fond memory now.
No Human has been back to the Moon, and there have been no manned missions beyond
Earths orbit. NASA plans to return to the Moon by 2018, almost 50 years after Niel
Armstrong first set foot there. I think my feelings about this matter are best
described in the words of Apollo 15 Commander, David R Scott:
“As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I sort of realize
there’s a fundamental truth to our nature, Man must explore . . . and this is
exploration at its greatest.”
I would like to dedicate this lunar sketch to the brave men of Apollo 15, David R
Scott, James B Irwin, and Alfred M Worden. I am honored to have been born during
their historic mission.
Jason Aldridge
PS: Happy Birthday Niel Armstrong!
*Sources: NASA NSSDC Master Catalog Display: Spacecraft, Apollo Flight Journal, New
York Times articles from 8/6/1971, Credance Clearwater Revival official web site.
Sketching Materials: 0.5mm Mechanical Graphite Pencil, Strathmore Windpower Sketch
Paper, MGI Photosuite III software for post processing.
2006 07 07
Lansberg/Gamma and Delta
“Wednesday night (Thursday for UT), was a practice session for imaging with my
Rebel. I finally bought a t-ring adaptor during a star party a few weeks ago and
had some fun playing with the new toy. The guys in the DSLR forum are giving me some
great pointers. Feels very strange entering that realm, but I have a feeling it
will compliment the sketching well for my observations. Plus gives me yet another
way to enjoy this hobby to the fullest!
It was then time to put the camera away and dig out my sketch kit. Paul, being the
thoughtful husband that he is, bought Tom L’s binoviewers for me last month. Tom,
if you’re reading this, I absolutely LOVE them! Wow! Thank you both so much!!!
I’ve been having a lot of fun with black Strathmore paper and Conte’ crayons for my
solar work, so with Rich in mind, I got up the nerve to try my first lunar sketch
with this media. Lansberg and the surrounding craters were my main targets that
night. I explored the terminator, tried to count craterlets in Plato, and admired
Copernicus (and was tempted to try it again, as the last time I tried to sketch that
beauty, my sketch was cut short and it was never completed).
Lansberg is from the Imbrian period and is about 41km. The central mountains stuck
out like two eyeballs in a dark room and I was pleased to see some terracing. All
the little craterlets around Lansberg belong to it with Kunowsky D being the
exception to the NW. Reinhold is trying to slip into the scene to the NE, but got
its toe stuck in the door. Montes Riphaeus was very dramatic, or at least compared
to the rest of the scene in that area.
After a great day today, which included solar observing (boy, that sun feels
great!), I set up with the binoviewers again tonight. Although seeing was poor, I
went ahead and bumped up magnification with 8mm TV Plossls (love that EP so much, I
had to get another one!). It was good enough to support the level of detail needed
to observe domes. Had I wanted to jump into a few complex craters, I believe a 20mm
would have been best. So, domes it was and why not a pair? Mons Gruithuisen Delta
and Gamma were flagging me down and I just could not resist.
They are also from the Imbrian period and close to 20km each. Looking at VMA, Delta
is classified as a mountain and Gamma is a dome. Rukl calls both of them a domelike
mountain massif. Hmmm, let’s see what Chuck Woods has to say about them. Aha! He
calls them domes, most likely formed of silicic volcanic rocks. For more reading on
this, see The Modern Moon, page 37. I would love to be one of the geologists that
Chuck suggests may someday bang on the domes with their rock hammers to see what
they are made of.
It was a bit disappointing that I didn’t see the summit crater on Gamma, but there
was an obvious darkened area on the western top portion of it. I loved buzzing
around in the all the little dips and valleys to the north of it, though. The
little raised line between Gamma and Gruithuisen K looked like a pea pod. Isn’t the
lava covered floor beautiful in that region?”
Sketches done with black Strathmore Artagain paper and white Conte’ crayons
Erika Rix
Zanesville, Ohio
There was a very thick mist that night, and the moon was hardly visible behind the clouds. I put the scope outside with no intent for observing, as I wanted to adjust a new home made focuser. It was a very pleasing surprise to discover that there was absolutely no turbulence at all on the Moon.
Despite the thick clouds, the light and contrasts were still strong, and everything was frozen, no movement at all. I jumped on my pencils, and made a draft of Eratosthenes, one of my favorite craters on the Moon, maybe my favorite. I like the long and thin design of the Apennine mountains terminating like a lyra, with that black and strange hole, just at the limit of infinite darkness.
Pierre Desvaux
– Medium used: White Conté on black Canson paper
– Telescope: Home made 16″ Dobson, Nagler 12, barlow 2X Celestron
– Date: December 2006
– Place: Blanzy, Bourgogne, France
