On this last evening of Spring, I selected for sketching this region of the moon close to the terminator between Mare Nubium and Mare Cognitum. Four large craters noticeably damaged by low flying Imbrium ejecta formed the subject matter of this sketch. From south to north I sketched crater Guericke (59 km) with its flat lava flooded floor that opens to Mare Nubium. Crater Parry, smaller at 49 km in diameter is older than the former and also flat floored. The other two craters which look ghostly at high sun are larger, even older and share common walls with Parry. These craters are Bonpland (61 km.) to the west and Fra Mauro (96 km.) to the north of Parry. The wall of Parry encroaches on Bonpland and both together on Fra Mauro to betray the cratering sequence. The Apollo 14 landing site would be just beyond the bottom edge of the sketch. Thirty nine and a half years ago the late Alan Shepard Jr. and Edgar D. Mitchell were walking around at Fra Mauro while the late Stuart Roosa orbited the moon in the command module.
Sketching:
For this sketch I used: Black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 9”x 14”, white and black Conte’ Pastel pencils and crayons, blending stumps, Pink pearl plastic eraser.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian, 9mm eyepiece 161x
Date: 6-21-2010, 1:15-2:45 UT
Temperature: 20°C (68°F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude: 19.5°
Lunation: 8.6 days
Illumination 70.6%
Observing Location: +41°37′ +87° 47′
Rűkl: Chart 42 and 43
Frank McCabe
Frank
Nice detail, you can tell by looking that the moon has some very old features on its surface.
Scott.
Wow!Great work Franck.I hope to made with this technics,other sketch of deep-sky objects,on 10″ dob from the hill at five minutes from my home.
Bye,Giorgio.
Giorgio,
Thank you for the nice words. Look forward to your next sketch here.
Frank 🙂