Astronomy Sketch of the Day – Drawings and sketches of an astronomical nature

Hiatus

Dear fellow astronomical sketchers,

Over eight years ago on March 17, 2007, ASOD launched with our first sketch of the day. In that time, it has been our honor to receive and publish more than 2,800 astronomical sketches from observers of all backgrounds across the globe. You are the ones who have made ASOD successful.

Along the way, the administration of the site has been a home-brewed effort–from site design and administration to the daily processing of your excellent submissions. As you have noticed, it’s not without a few glitches. We value the site, our contributors and our visitors greatly. However, Rich and I have reached a difficult cross-roads. We have both found ourselves at a point where we are unable to continue keeping the site current. For the time being, we will not be posting new submissions. However, we intend to keep this vast and inspiring archive of astronomical sketches live and accessible to all.

If we can determine a viable path to restart daily posts, to increase engagement and quality of the user experience, and overcome a number of growing technical challenges, we will make sure to announce it here. Thanks again for all of your support for this rewarding facet of amateur astronomy.

Yours truly,
Jeremy Perez
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Lunar Crater Plato

Please find attached a sketch of the lunar crater Plato and its environs….I used soft graphite pencils to do the sketch on cartridge paper. The colours were then inverted on the computer. This sketch is based on a number of observations I have made of Plato in the last year. I use a Meade LX90 GPS telescope. It has an aperture of 203mm. Plato is one of my favourite regions on the Moon as I love how the crater is filled with deep shadows when the sun is at a low angle.

My name: Kiran
Object Name: Plato
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: South East United Kingdom
Date of Sketch: 14th June 2015
Media: Graphite Pencils
Equipment: LX90 GPS (8 inch aperture)

Many thanks
Kind Regards

Kiran

Dibujo de Aristillus

El dibujo esta realizado en cartulina blanca con lapiz de grafito observando por un 12″ a 168X .
El dibujo fue realizado el dia 26/5/2015.

The drawing is made of white cardboard with graphite pencil looking for 12 “to 168x.
The drawing was made the day 05/26/2015.

J.Tapioles

http://pastorgalactico.16mb.com/
http://pastorgalactico.blogspot.com.es/

Blue Planetary

Hi ASOD. I’m from Lincoln, Argentina.

Blue Planetary is a Planetary Nebula in the constellation “Centauro”.

Object Name: NGC 3918/ Blue Planetary

Object Type: Planetary Nebula

Location: Lincoln, Argentina

Date: 12/04/2015 at 8:30 p.m.

Media: Pencils 6H, 4H, 2H, HB, B, 4B and 6B, white paper, red lantern and “Difumino”. Inverted with Photoshop.

Telescope: Meade Dobson 8″

Eyepiece: Ultra Wide Angle 6mm

Weather: Clear with some clouds

Seeing: Regular

I hope you enjoy the sketch. Regards & Good Luck!

Crater Davy and its Crater Chain in Davy Y

Crater Davy (35 km.) and the Davy crater chain (catena) were my targets for this evening of sketching and although the seeing and transparency were predicted to be above average that was not the case.
The Davy crater chain is 45-50 km. in extent. It arcs across the floor and eastern rim of crater Davy Y (70 km.). Since it does not line up with any impacts of note it is not likely a sequence of secondary craters. There is also no evidence of volcanic activity associated with this chain. Robert Wichman and Charles A. Wood as well as H. J. Melosh and E. A. Whitaker believe that a comet (or asteroid) may be responsible as it broke up while inside the Earth’s roche limit. As it went in on the moon like a train of meteors it would have created a chain of impacts. A paper published in 1994 by Melosh and Whitaker explains the hypothesis.

Crater Chains on the Moon: Records of Comets Split by the Earth’s Tides?; H. J. Melosh and E. A. Whitaker, Lunar and Planetary Lab, University of Arizona, Tucson, Az.

Sketching:

Black Artagain paper, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils, white Pearl eraser, blending stumps

Telescope 13.1” f/6 Dobsonian telescope on an equatorial drive platform at 332x with 6mm eyepiece

Date: 03-29-2015, 00:00 – 03:00 UT

 Temperature: -5°C (24° F) clear, calm
 Seeing: Variable, Antoniadi III(fair)-IV (poor)
 Colongitude: 11.6 °
 Lunation: 8.4 days
 Illumination: 64.7 %

  Frank McCabe

Crater Davy - Labeled — Crater Davy – Labeled

NGC 2266

• Object Name: NGC 2266

• Object Type: Open cluster

• Location: San Martín de Montalbán Spain

• Date: 2015/03/14

• Media: Graphite Pencil HB 2, torchon 1 and 130g drawing sheet

• Inverted color GIMP 2.8

Notas de observación:

NGC 2266 es un cúmulo abierto en la constelación de Geminis; fácil de encontrar; se encuentra a 1º 50’ de la estrella epsilon. Unas cartas de mag. 6,5 son suficientes para localizarle.

De magnitud 9.5, no lo aprecio en el buscador de 9x.

Es un pequeño y llamativo grupo bien separado del fondo que se halla en un campo estelar rico.

Tiene forma de triángulo, en el que destaca uno de sus lados formado por una cadena arqueada de varias estrellas brillantes, cuya magnitud va descendiendo gradualmente desde una de las estrellas de una esquina (mag. 9).

Concentrado al medio, con dos docenas de estrellas pequeñas diseminadas irregularmente y con un fondo moteado debido a las estrellas que no son resolubles con este equipo.

De tamaño considerablemente grande, unos 5’ o 6’.

Observation notes:

NGC 2266 is an open cluster in the constellation Gemini, easy to find; 1 is at 50 ‘of the star epsilon. Letters of mag. 6.5 are sufficient to locate. Magnitude 9.5 do not appreciate it in the search box 9x.

Is on small and striking good fund separate group that is in a rich star field.

It is a triangle, which highlights one side formed by a curved chain of several bright stars, whose magnitude gradually descending from one of the stars of a corner (mag. 9).

Concentrated in the middle, with two dozen small stars scattered irregularly and with a mottled background because the stars are not solvable with this team.

Considerably large, about 5 ‘or 6’.

Greetings to all visitors of this page.

PVG. Alcorcon, Madrid 2015/06/10

A Sun Event

17 May 2015 Sun - Compilation — 17 May 2015 Sun – Compilation

Our friends of the La Blaque observatory in Varages had organized an afternoon dedicated to solar observation. We were ten of us behind the eyepieces to admire the hot sun rays.
Here join a small overview of the animation (the base color comes from the coffee offered by Caroline)

We deploy heavy EQ, Celestrons (the famous Hats of AiryLab) some large Lunts a Skywatcher and other solar bino’s. I had a lot of work at the sketch board !!! Only a 150 mm Lunt was devoted to the photography.
Here is a little souvenir from the H-alpha compiled views from the Fred’s Hat, the 150/1200 for WL and a nice Jean-Luc bino for 3D view…

As the sun had become much quieter than previous days, it was not particularly complex to draw today, but we do what we can with the star we have! On the left we can see the active area around the end of the AR2339 spot.

Clear sky to you all

Michel Deconinck

Crater Gassendi

Object Name: Gassendi crater
Object Type: Moon
Location: Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country)
Date: 29-5-2015
Media: graphite pencil on white paper.

This is a sketch of the crater Gassendi, one of the most beautiful “fractured floor craters” on the moon.

The sketch was made through my 6” achromatic refractor (TS Individual 152/900), binoviewer, a pair of 8 mm eyepieces and glasspath at 293x. The seeing was variable, usually bad but with very good moments of few seconds that allowed me to perceive the structure called “Rima Gassendi”: a pattern of fractures inside the crater.

I hope you to enjoy with this sketch.

If you wish to read more about this observational report and others, please visit the web of my astronomical group (www.laotramitad.org).

Best regards.

David Sedano

Posidonius

Hi folks, this is a sketch of the moon crater Posidonius.

It’s a nice crater 100km diam. at the East border of Mare Derenitatis, beside Lacus Somniorum. To the West, the light line is Dorsa Sirnov.
Adjacent to Posidonius is crater Chacornac ( 54km Diam.) and on the other side, Danelli ( 28 km diam).
Posidonius is somehow like Gassendi , ( Gerald North: Observing the Moon)

Posidonius es un bonito cráter de 100 km de diámetro en el límite Este del Mare Serenitatis junto al Lacus Somniorum.
Junto a él, el cráter Chacornac ( 50,4km de diámetro) y al otro lado, el cráter Danielli ( 28 km diámetro).
Al oeste , la Dorsa Smirnov que es esa línea clara justo en el Terminador.
El cráter Posidonius tiene un aire familiar que recuerda a Gassendi, tanto en tamaño como en fisonomía ( Gerald North: Observing the Moon)

Regards,
Aurelio

___________________
Aurelio Alcalde

Needle tip end of the crescent Moon

l like the crescent Moon shining on the western sky in remained blue,vermilion hue just after sun set.

lt was always looked as most mysterious, beautiful, or with some a feeling of affection.

Of course l used to see not the horizon alone but l see beyond over in my mind trillions of trillions of moons rising on over its parent planets maybe from in our own galaxy to in the Hubble Deep Fields galaxies. Also l think about trillions of advanced civilizations.

Observed; 2014. 10.29 ( Original eyepiece sketch)

Painted; 2015. 6.5

320mm refractor x270

Graphite pencils, water color, acrylic color, white/black paper

Moon limb span; 50km for [A], 50km for [B], [A]&[B] to be connected

South Korea