Saturn – Large Sketch from Observation Through the Telescope With Artists Conception Below
By Mark Seibold
From Sandy Oregon, 30 miles east of Portland, at the home driveway – Saturn Observed February 28 ~ March 2 Through 10.1″ Newtonian- Large Pastel Sketch produced:
I observed Saturn through my 10.1″ Newtonian at medium to high power magnification (120X ~ 240X) on several evenings last week, in effort to see some detail in the rings and surface cloud banding. Seeing was medium to marginal at times through the evenings. Using Sol Robbins template and other images from the web to accurately proportion the rings, I rendered this 19” X 25” pastel impression showing about what is seen in a good medium telescope if one stands back say 25 feet from the full image on a standard computer screen. Saturn’s disc was sketched at 7 ¾” at the equator. The Cassini division was easily visible and the crepe ring only hinted at high magnification at 240x through a 5mm Super Plossl eyepiece through my 10.1″ f/4.5 Newtonian-Dobsonian telescope with average seeing conditions at times with glimpses through steady atmosphere.
The foreground was quickly added from imagination for depth and drama as a final touch, which seems to captivate a view from one of Saturn’s moons, possibly Titan with a suggestion to an ocean-scape.
The sketch was photographed with a Sigma 35mm DSLR under white balanced studio lights.
I love the concept of taking the eyepiece rendering and using your
artistic talents to develop an overall image that would look beautiful
hanging in any living room.
Mark,
You have created a stunning scene here. Your use of blue gives the feel of cold you would expect in this part of the solar system.
Frabk 🙂
Thank you John and Frank. I apologize for the late delayed reply here. I believe I had experienced some problems trying to log into the username and password protocols before, and just figured it out this morning on March 3rd, 2020.
I must say that I am honored, and owe a great thanks to Frank McCabe for posting these other sketches of mine in the Astronomy Sketch of the Day, as I was not aware that I had been published here at this site more than once.