Mars – Page 5 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Hornet in the Hive

Hi,

Object Name : Mars and M44
Object Type : Planet, Open Cluster
Location : Skrzyszow, Silesia, Poland
Date : 4.20am 2011-10-02
Media : graphite pencil, color added in GIMP

Dobson 1200/200 + SWA 32mm + SWA 15mm

It’s hard to say, that the condition was nice. The seeing was perfect but only in zenith. I saw perfect Jupiter. One of the best I’ve ever seen!
Unfortunate, near the horizon, there was fog.
In my location, the Mars was only on altitude 25 degree, so I have to write: seeing was not good.
Please, forgive me, that I had to colorized sketch using digital magic. One more thing: there is planet any surface on sketch. It is only the moisture…

Clear sky!
Marek

Mars unraveled

Mars
Planet
Malta (35.52N; 14.26E) at www.znith-observatory.blogspot.com
October 2009-May 2010
Graphite pencil, charcoal, white paper, scanner

This 2009-2010 Mars map is a collage of sketches made through my telescope (SCT 200mm, and colour filters) which spanned from October 2009 till May 2010. Mars offers the best telescopic views at opposition. Large surface markings offer interesting analysis and comparison with similar maps produced by astro-imagers using camears instead of their eyes. As often seen through an astronomical telescope eyepiece, the planet’s orientation is inverted, with Mars’ north polar cap at the bottom.
For a full detailed 2009-2010 Mars Apparition report, including visual observations and sketches made, I invite readers to CLICK HERE.

Charles Galdies

Mars on the Evening of June 10, 2010

Mars – June 10, 2010
By Carlos E. Hernandez

I made an observation of Mars on June 10, 2010. Although the angular diameter was less than six arc-seconds (5.7” to be exact) I was able to detect albedo features when the seeing steadied for moments at a time.

Date (U.T.): June 10, 2010
Time (U.T.): 01:00-01:15
CM: 276.2*W-279.9*W
Ls 102.4*, De 23.1*, Ds 24.2*
p 90%, 5.7” (Diameter)
Instrument: 9-inch (23-cm) F/13.5 Maksutov-Cassegrain
Magnification: 295x and 388x
Filters (Wratten): 30 (Magenta) and 38A (Blue)
Seeing (1-10): 5-6, Antoniadi (I-V): III
Transparency (1-6): 4

Notes:
01:00 U.T. (CM 276.2*W, Wratten 30 (Magenta): The North Polar Cap (NPC) appears small and brilliant (10/10) with a dark (3/10) collar surrounding it. Lemuria and Cecropia appeared dark to dusky (3-4/10) and mottled. Utopia and Casius appeared dark to dusky (3-4/10; Casius appearing as a dark (3/10) “spike-like” albedo feature). Elyisum appeared bright to very bright (7-8/10) with a very bright (8/10) cloud over it. The Hyblaeus Extension appeared dark to dusky (3-4/10) following Elysium. Mare Cimmerium appeared dusky to dull (4-5/10) over the south-preceding limb. Electris and Eridania appeared shaded (6/10). Mare Tyrrhenum and Syrtis Minor appeared dark to dusky (3-4/10) on the central meridian (CM). Syrtis Major appeared as dark to dusky (3-4/10), mottled, wedge-shaped albedo feature following the CM. Hellas appeared very bright (8/10) with a cloud over it. Zephyria, Aeolis, Aethiopis, Aetheria, Isidis Regio, Neith Regio, Meroe Insula, and Aeria appeared bright (7/10). Extremely bright (9/10) evening limb haze (ELH), south polar limb haze (SPLH), and morning limb haze (MLH) were noted as well.

A digital image produced in Pixelmator.

Carlos E. Hernandez
Pembroke Pines, Broward County, Florida

Receding Mars – May 22, 2010

Mars – May 22, 2010
By Charles Galdies

Mars
Planet
Malta 35:52N; 14:26E; http://znith-observatory.blogspot.com
22 May 2010, 19:32 UT
Media (coloured pencils, white paper, scanning software, image processing)
200mm SCT f/10, 422x, seeing 4/10, trans 3/5

The style of this sketch portrays the feeling of ‘distancing’ from the planet Mars, shown as a small globe against a larger, black background.

Mars’ apparent diameter is now reduced to around 6″, which is far from a maximum of 14″ I have viewed and sketched last January. Still, 5 minutes of observation time in not so ideal atmospheric conditions (lots of air turbulence) and bright moonlight were enough to detect the main albedo features on the surface of Mars, currently residing in the constellation of Leo.

I didn’t think it worthwhile to use colour filters due to the limited seeing conditions. However a light blue filter could have slightly enhanced the visibility of the features.

The much reduced north polar cap was seen as tiny bright patch adjacent to Niliacus Lacus. Underneath, the prominent Mare erythraeum was also visible.

No other subtle features were detected along the edge of M. erythraeum next to Chryse. Tharsis appeared bright.

Charles Galdies

Mars Pastel Sketch – February 5, 2010

Mars – February 5, 2010
Sketch and Details by Mark Seibold

Technical information regarding the sketch:

At my current residence of Sandy Oregon in the home driveway; 30 miles east of Portland Oregon:

After Observing Mars through my Nexstar 5i and 10.1″ f/4.5 Coulter Odyssey Dobsonian telescope on two evenings of February 5th and 6th 2010, I produced this large 22″ X 30″ pastel impression with artists conceptual Martian landscape showing a dust storm over the polar cap region as science news reported today. The pastel chalks were applied to black Stonehenge 100% cotton cold pressed pastel paper. Through broken clouds over two nights, I eventually rendered most of the prominent albedo features on the martian surface; the left hemisphere edge exhibited a definite blue limb haze along most of the discs edge on the evening of February 5th at approximately 7 UT ~ 9 UT.

Planche Mars 2010

Mars 2010 Composite
Sketches by 24 Observers
Composite by Serge Vieillard; Description and Submission by Christian Gros

I am attaching a board of the 2010 opposition of Mars, realized by Serge Vieillard. He gathered the drawings displayed on the French sites AstroSurf and Webastro and made this beautiful spiral. The drawings of the most experienced ones are alongside the beginners (the youngest artist was only ten years old), which makes such a collective approach so worthwhile. It is interesting to note the style of each, and he has been very careful to position the drawings so that we can see the rotation of the planet!

Object Name: Mars
Object type: Planet
Location: France
Date: April 12, 2010

(French-English Translation using Google and other online dictionaries)

Original French description:
Je vous joins une planche de l’opposition martienne 2010 réalisée par Serge Vieillard. Ce dernier a recensé les dessins présentés sur les sîtes francophones Astrosurf et Webastro et en a fait cette belle spirale. Les dessins des plus chevronnés cotoient ceux des débutants (le plus jeune dessinateur n’a que dix ans), ce qui fait tout l’intérêt d’une telle démarche collective. Il est intéressant de remarquer le style de chacun, et Serge a bien pris soin de positionner les dessins de telle sorte que l’on peut voir la rotation de la planète !

Artists:
Yohan Archambaud
Jean-Marc Beraud
Nicolas Biver
Fred Burgeot
Xavier Camer
Cricri
Youenn Daniel
Pierre Desvaux
Sebastien Graziani
Christian Gros
Christophe Gros
Vincent Gros
Vincent Jacques
Daniel Paletti
Emmanuel Pelegrin
Ptit Prince 974
José Rodrigues
Gérard Sirven
Daube Sonne
Pierre Strock
Bruno Thien
Julien Vandermarlière
Serge Vieillard
Vvastro

Mars Map 2009-2010

Mars Map 2009-2010
Sketch and Details by Kris Smet

Hi,

i’d like to submit the mars map from the opposition 09/10 made from various observations through my 8″ & 12″ dobsons (both f/5 which is not really ideal for planetary observing) from my backyard in belgium.

mars regularly got high enough (up to 60+ degrees) to compensate for the mostly mediocre seeing here. there were a few nights of good seeing though, especially the evening of 01 march showed some very good to excellent seeing! i’ve attached that sketch too.

i only use orthoscopic eyepieces (university optics, 4,5,6,7,9,12.5mm) wich yield up to 250x and 375x magnification in the 8″ & 12″ scopes. i find them to provide a noticeably clearer and crisper image than various standard plossl’s, and they don’t cost an arm and a leg!

To increase more i use them in combination with a televue 2,5x powermate which has the additional benefit of sharpening the edge of the fov (a normal barlow does the same as well) which is very useful when using a dobsonian telescope. i can mount the 8″ scope on a tracking mount, but not my 12″ scope.
when seeing is poor, use is made of an apodizing mask which improves seeing drastically in my experience, but dims the view a bit, but that’s hardly a problem with a target as bright as mars through a 12″ scope!

i’ve made around 20 separate sketches from which i put together the map. i started sketching mars from june 30 2009, altough i observed the tiny 4,7″ disk during the morning twilight one month earlier. observing and sketching during winter can be hard as temperatures dropped to about -14°C (from where you live this may not sound very cold though) and you need to try to keep your head as still as possible looking through the eyepiece.

a rough outdoor sketch is redone and coloured with standard colour pencils inside, where it’s warm, on a template between 3 and 8 cm depending on the actual size of the planet’s disk. then it’s scanned, sometimes brightness and contrast need to be adjusted a little, and for the individual sketches a glowing background is added representing my view through the scope.

greetings

Kris

Faces of Mars

Mars Compilation – January 10 – March 9, 2010

These sketches were created by 27 members of the www.CloudyNights.com Sketching Forum. They are based on observations of Mars on and around its opposition, from January 10th, 2010 to March 9th, 2010. Multiple mediums were used from pencil and paper to digital. The community of forum members whose sketches are shown are from the following countries: France, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, South East Asia, United Kingdom, and USA. The instruments they used and the date of their observation is as follows:

Jay Eads	250mm Newtonian	01/10/2010
Sol Robbins	152mm Newtonian	01/11/2010
MikeSemmler	80mm Refractor	01/23/2010
Kris	203mm Newtonian	01/26/2010
Cpl43uk	203mm Catiotropic	01/23/2010
Astroducky	318mm Newtonian	01/27/2010
Sixela	400mm Newtonian	01/27/2010
CarlosEH	229mm Catiotropic	01/29/2010
Dweller25	203mm Newtonian	01/29/2010
Jeff Young	152mm Catiotropic	01/29/2010
BillP	102mm Refractor	01/31/2010
Uwe Pilz	152mm Catiotropic	01/31/2010
Rerun	102mm Refractor	02/04/2010
Special Ed	200mm Catiotropic	02/05/2010
Jef De Wit	305mm Newtonian	02/04/2010
MarkSeibold	127mm Catiotropic	02/05/2010
Phxbird	152mm Newtonian	02/07/2010
Erika Rix	406mm Newtonian	02/07/2010
Mathteacher	100mm Refractor	02/07/2010
NUNKY	120mm Refractor	02/08/2010
Frank5817	333mm Newtonian	02/13/2010
Tommy5	152mm Refractor	02/14/2010
NerfMonkey	305mm Newtonian	02/15/2010
JayScheuerle	120mm Refractor	01/20/2010
Robert Forgacs	305mm Newtonian	02/02/2010
Roel	102mm Refractor	03/01/2010
S1mas	127mm Catiotropic	03/09/2010

Compiled and submitted by William Paolini

Watercolor Mars – March 4, 2010

Mars – March 4, 2010
Sketch and Details by Andrew Watkinson-Trim

Pencil sketch at eyepiece worked up with watercolours later in the warm! This is offered as a comparison with my first attempt at drawing Mars using the same equipment from the same location. The seeing was reasonable, but again the manual Alt/Az mount necessitated frequent repositioning of the object. I was attempting this time to capture something of the colour of the planet as seen in the eyepiece, to show the astro-camera-imagers at my astronomy club what sort of results are realistically possible for a novice with a bit of patience!

AWT

Mars – March 6, 2010

Mars – March 6, 2010
Sketch and Details by Charles Galdies

Malta, http://znith-observatory.blogspot.com
6 March 2010
graphite pencil, white paper

After so many nights with bad weather, last evening offered a fair glimpse of the red planet on its distancing away from the earth.

Still, the slight wind and lack of good transparency where not helpful to get to an accurate sketch of what Mars was offering last night. Even though I was using a new 10mm eyepiece which gave me higher magnification, the illumination of the surface disk seemed to have decreased since I last observed the planet almost a month ago.

Most prominent was Niliacus Lacus next to brighter Chryse. The edge of N. Lacus lining Chryse could not be efined so I could not locate its exact termination. Tempe region next to N. Lacus was evident as a lighter region.

The detection of the delicate features of Sinus Meridiani was more challenging last night. Inspite of the poor transparency the detection of S. Meridiani and its adjacent Margaritifer Sinus extending to Oxia Palus was possible. Pyrrhae Regio was not well defined.

Changing to a blue filter did not help much to add significant detail to the above.