Gibbous Venus and the Crescent Moon
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe
The western sky at twilight was just cloud free enough for one to see the planet Venus and the 1.23 day old moon together. I was about 12 hours away from catching a flight back to Chicago from Phoenix and I had just enough time for a quick free hand graphite sketch on copy paper before retiring for the night. I included with the sketch notes on the sky colors and cloud locations so that I could make an oil pastel drawing when I arrived back in Illinois.
Sketching:
This is a re-drawn sketch in oil pastels of the Moon and Venus in the western sky on dark blue construction paper 12” x 14”.
The original graphite sketch was completed in about 20 minutes on the back patio looking due west.
No optical aid was used.
At the time of the sketch (March 16, 2010, 7:26 pm local time) the moon was 1.5 % illuminated and only 1.25 days old. Lunation 1079
The sky was partly cloudy and filled with aircraft contrails especially in the west.
The air temperature was a pleasant 24° C (75° F).
Location: Mesa, Arizona
Frank McCabe
Frank
What a lovely vista.
These sort of scenes lead me to quote an old bit of Aussie slang-
“A bloke would not be dead for quids”
Scott.
Soooooooo atmospheric Frank, very lovely. Who says you need optics to enjoy and captures stunning astronomical vistas? 🙂
Dale, UK
Scott and Dale,
Thank you both for you kind and generous responses.
Frank 🙂
compliments for your great panoramic sketch.I made,this week,many sketches of deep-sky,galaxies in Leo and Coma with my dob 10″.
One question: I sent to Asod,many sketches of Moon and Mars,but i don’t see in this site.Why?
Ciao,Giorgio.
Hi Giorgio,
I have sent you an email. A submission you made a couple days ago is actually queued up. However, since late December, I’ve been taking care of the site for Rich. If you only sent submissions to webmaster@asod.info, that’s probably why I haven’t noticed them. Please be sure to also submit to asod@perezmedia.net. Your sketches are excellent, and we definitely want to feature them here.
Clear skies,
Jeremy