Three prominences on the solar limb – September 11, 2014
Aloha!
While observing our ever changing Sun today I was struck by a grouping of prominences on the western limb. All of them of high intensity and curving towards the same direction. They made me think of the story of Goldilocks & The 3 Bears!
Cindy (Thia) Krach
Solar Sketch
Black Strathmore Paper
Pastel and colored pencils
60mm Lunt h-Alpha
56X
Maui, Hawaii
Webmaster’s note: Cindy has been instrumental in organizing a new Sketching Observing Award Program for the Astronomical League. Check it out here.
The H-alpha Sun – May 9, 2014Non inverted colors on white paper.Inverted
Aloha!
I was enjoying the Sun this morning and trying to decide how to represent the most prominent features. Sketching the Sun has just not gotten me the feeling that I can really represent it as well as I would like to as far as colorizing goes. I like using black paper but it isn’t smooth enough whereas plain white paper is. But when I have tried to add color later, it just loses what I see in the scope.
So today I tried a little something different. I like how some inverted blue colors really become the right colors for the Sun. So I put some oil pastel colors to paper & inverted to see what I could use. The nice thing about the oil pastel is I can scratch off small little lines to try to get the details of the solar surface. I had to think in negative to produce the sketch in order to preserve black, white and the different tones of red. This is my 1st attempt using this technique and I am not entirely happy with it but it is a bit of an experiment.
H-alpha Sun
5/9/14
60mm Lunt 88x
Oil Pastel, white permanent pen, white paper, Lyra polycolor pencils, a needle to scratch off the oil pastels to produce dark lines
Inverted with Photoscape software
LunarTerminator West Limb-February 25, 2013LunarTerminator West Limb-February 25, 2013
Lunar Terminator Near to the Western Limb
On Sunday evening I was getting a wonderful view of the lunar terminator near the western limb just a half day before full Moon. The favorable longitudinal libration of -04° 40’ was creating an opportunity to see craters along the terminator that are often poorly placed for viewing.
With storms on the way from the southwest this was a good evening to attempt a sketch. The calm before the arrival of storms often leaves the seeing fair to good as was the case on this night. Craters such as Vasco da Gama (99 km.), Bohr (73 km.), Dalton (63 km.), Balboa (71 km.) and part of Einstein (175 km.) were all seen. Craters Cardanus (51 km.) and Krafft (53 km.) and the crater chain (catena) between them were in bright sunlight. The views all along the terminator were magnificent.
Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper (9” x 12”), white and black Conte’
pastel pencils. In addition a small artist’s brush and powdered Conte’ white crayon was used for blending. Contrast was slightly increased (+2) using a scanner to better match the original.
Telescope: 13.1 inch f/ 5.9 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 327 X
Date: 02-25-2013, 04:00-06:30 UT
Temperature: 0.0° C (32° F)
Partly cloudy, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude 86.9 °
Lunation 14.87 days
Illumination 99.5 %
Crater Lambert, Mons La Hire and Dorsum Zirkel – February 9, 2014
Made this sketch of crater Lambert, Mons La Hire and Dorsum Zirkel and surrounding areas this evening, using my 505mm mirror and Watec video camera on its least sensitive setting. The view on the monitor was delightful and one I shared with optical designer and engineer Mr Es Reid of Cambridge, all very civilized and enjoyable.
The sketch was made on black A5 220gm art paper using Conte hard pastels and acrylic paint for bright highlights and deep shadow.
I’ve been doing a study on lunar phases and this is my latest sketch. This is a photo of it from last night after wrapping up my observing session. No adjustments have been made to the sketch other than cropping the lower blank portion of the paper.
My phase sketches used to take close to two hours to complete at the eyepiece. I’ve been building up my endurance to 3-4 hours for a single sketch to include more detail. Obviously, the terminator is drawn first to “freeze” the time stamp on the phase. Then I work my way across the disk at a more leisurely pace, moving my observing chair and stool gradually as the session progresses.
I used a 102mm f/9.8 refractor on an LXD75 mount, 20mm eyepiece setting on my Hyperion zoom, and a 13% T Moon filter to help with contrast. The media is black Strathmore Artagain paper (60 lb., 160 g/m2), white charcoal pencil, black charcoal pencil, white Conte’ crayon, white Conte’ pastel pencil, black Conte’ color pencil,and a blending stump for the maria. I used a circular 6-inch protractor to outline the lunar disk.
Total eyepiece/sketch time is just over four hours on this one.
An unusually clear winter day here in Chicagoland with high clouds racing towards us in front of our next round of snow. As twilight began the Moon remained at a good altitude for sketching as long as I worked quickly. During this sketch earthshine became exceptional but high thin clouds began to erase the fine view and heavy clouds ended the sketch before I finished.
Sketching:
For this sketch I used black sketching paper (12” x 14”), white and black Conte’ pastel pencils, blending stumps, white Pearl eraser.
Telescope 4.25”f/5 Dobsonian riding on an equatorial platform, 21mm wide field eyepiece 26x
Date and Time: 02-03-2014; 17:30 – 18:25 local time
Seeing: mostly Antoniadi III
Transparency: clear to overcast
Temperature: -6.7 °C (20°F)
Colongitude: 315.8°
Lunation: 3.85 days
Illumination: 20%
Favorable longitudinal libration
Three nights in a row clear sky, it doesn’t happen a lot in cloudy Belgium. I guess I was just lucky. Nice to see the changing shadows and libration. I hope you like it too.
Clear skies
Jef De Wit
Object: Philolaus (+ Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Mouchez and Poncelet)
Object type: lunar crater
Location: Hove, Belgium (51°09’ N 4°28’ E)
Date and time: 11-13 January 2014
Equipment: 8 cm refractor (WO Zenithstar 80 FD)
Eyepiece: 3,5 mm Nagler T6 (158x)
Medium: white, gray and black pastel pencils on black paper, scanned, contrast
adjustments with Paint Shop Pro, compilation and text with Paint
At last a chance has come over these holidays to do some observing. Top of my list is Wolfgang’s Webb Society object of the season , Bi-polar reflection nebula in Orion, NGC 2163, not even listed in the Keppler & Sanner bible!
In the last hour I picked the nebula up readily enough by star hoping to the target but had to keep the exposure time of the video camera shorter than usual due to the residual breeze. That said I’m pleased with the result, it is an interesting object and a first observation for me. Appearing as a bow tie N-S in position there are a couple of dark notches visible and a short dust lane in the lower lobe in my sketch. I hope other member get sketches and images too.
