Posidonius Area

Posidonius Crater
Posidonius Crater

Hi all,

Friday evening just before the altocumulus clouds of the approaching depression covered the sky, I could do another sketch of the moon: This time it was crater Posidonius and its surroundings.

Ah, by the way, this time I tried a new pen: For the bright areas (e. g. the western rims of Posidonius A and J), I took a whitecoal pen instead of chalk pen. That provided much brighter contrast.

Another novelty for me: I didn’t use a diagonal but an Amici prism, so that the view in the eyepiece wasn’t mirrored at all. The view was a bit less bright, but for the moon it’s still bright enough.

Object Name: Posidonius
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Germany, Dusseldorf area
Date: 2015-04-24, 2130-2205 CEST
Media: chalk pastel pencil, whitecoal pencil and charcoal pencil on black sketching cardbox
Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT
Eyepiece: TS HR Planetary 7mm

Clear skies

Achim

Solar Serpent

Solar Filament & Prominence - 26 April 2015
Solar Filament & Prominence – 26 April 2015

Aloha!

I was delighted this morning to find this dark and large filament at the north-eastern limb of our Sun. It had the appearance of a large serpent with foot like projections anchoring it to the solar surface and then visible curving around the limb. The filament is magnetic curtains of plasma hovering over the Sun’s surface, this an especially large and detailed one. I read on the Spaceweather site that the length of the filament would measure the distance from the Earth to the Moon. That’s one big serpent!

Solar Filament & Prominence
h-alpha 60mm Lunt 35x
Maui, Hawaii
4/26/15 0800-0845 HST
Black Strathmore Artagain Paper
White Conte’ Crayon & charcoal pencils, black & white
Photoscape Software to colorize, Photoshop Software to reduce size

Cindy L. Krach
Haleakala Amateur Astronomers

Posidonius Crater

Posidonius Crater
Posidonius Crater

Hi all,

yesterday evening just before the altocumulus clouds of the approaching depression covered the sky, I could do another sketch of the moon: This time it was crater Posidonius and its surroundings.

Ah, by the way, this time I tried a new pen: For the bright areas (e. g. the western rims of Posidonius A and J), I took a whitecoal pen instead of chalk pen. That provided much brighter contrast.

Another novelty for me: I didn’t use a diagonal but an Amici prism, so that the view in the eyepiece wasn’t mirrored at all. The view was a bit less bright, but for the moon it’s still bright enough.

Object Name: Posidonius
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Germany, Dusseldorf area
Date: 2015-04-24, 2130-2205 CEST
Media: chalk pastel pencil, whitecoal pencil and charcoal pencil on black sketching cardbox
Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT
Eyepiece: TS HR Planetary 7mm

Clear skies

Achim

Solar Prominence from Ireland

Solar Prominence - 13 May 2015
Solar Prominence – 13 May 2015

I went out to sketch the AR 2339 in h-alpha but when I saw this massive Hedgerow type prominence on the limb it had to be done.
PST 40 halpha scope ,8mm eyepiece / 50X
Pastels and Conte on black paper. 13:33 UT May 13th 2015
Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland

Best regards
Deirdre

Deirdre Kelleghan

Astronomer
Artist
Educator

Website http://deirdrekelleghan.net

Twitter https://twitter.com/skysketcher
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/deirdre.kelleghan
Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=59574021&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile

Total Lunar Eclipse – 4 March 2015

Lunar Eclipse - 4 April 2015
Lunar Eclipse – 4 April 2015

Easter Rabbit Moon Flies a Kite Over Maui

Aloha!

Eyes turned to the sky early this morning on Maui for the shortest total lunar eclipse of the 21st Century. This is due to the Moon passing through the edge of the umbra instead of the center where the circular diameter of the Earths shadow would be widest. The maximum time for totality (when the Moon passes into the umbra) can be up to 1 hour 40 minutes so the umbral portion lasting only a little more than 4 minutes is a short one. The time of partial eclipse this morning made for a beautiful transition across the lunar surface of darkness and then totality. As I always see a rabbit in the Moon I thought maybe the Easter Rabbit Moon has a lot to do getting all those eggs hidden and no time for a long performance, though it was still a great show!

This is a 7×50 binocular view sketch during totality. The Rabbit in the Moon appears to be flying a kite asterism which seemed fitting for the spring occasion of the season.

Happy Easter!

Cindy (Thia) L. Krach
Eclipse time 12:16-3:45HAST
Umbral Phase 1:58-2:03 HAST
Maui, HI

Black Strathmore Artagain paper
Conte Crayon & x colored pencils, white charcoal pencil, brush technique to apply colors
Contrast adjustment in Photoscape

Lunar Crater Gassendi

Crater Gassendi - 31 January 2015
Crater Gassendi – 31 January 2015

Hi all,

tonight I had a look outside and – yeah, no clouds and clear skies.

So I took out the 10″ f/5 truss dobsonian and prepared for lunar sketching: Today the floor-fractured crater Gassendi attracted me and presented nice central peaks and its rimae on its ground.

Telescope: 10″ f/5 Martini Dobsonian

Eyepiece: Skywatcher Planetary 5mm

Date & Time: Jan 31st, 2015 / 1925-2015 CET

Place: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany

Technique: chalk, charcoal and white pastel on black sketching cardbox paper

Hope you like the sketch.

Clear skies!

Achim

Southern Gems

NGC3293 - Gem Cluster
NGC3293 – Gem Cluster

Object Name: NGC3293 – Gem Cluster
Object Type: Open Cluster
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date: 02/24/15
Media: HB, 2H, 3H. pencil rubber, color pastels, Photoshop.
Telescope: SkyWatcher Maksutov 5″.
Eyepiece: Explore Scientific 14mm 82º (107x).
Conditions: Poor seeing, heavy light pollution.
Observations: Young and compact open cluster in Carina. Lots of unresolved double stars.

Western Highland Peninsula Craters

Western Highland Peninsula Craters
Western Highland Peninsula Craters

For those that observe and sketch the Moon, trying to pick targets just before, just at and just after first quarter can be much fun because there are so many choices in good relief. On this occasion I chose two large walled plain craters near the terminator. Albategnius (129 km.) the younger of the two ancient craters and further from the terminator it was displaying its central peak (1.5km. tall) and large crater Klein (44 km.) on its rim. Crater Halley (36 km.) to the northeast is notably a kilometer deeper than Klein and although further from the terminator has a completely shadowed floor with that greater depth.

The other large crater Ptolemaeus (154km.) was on the terminator at the beginning of my sketch.
With the sun so low the rim shadows were long and were creating a special effect. In combination with the rim shadow of little crater Ammonius (8.5 km.) I could see old Nesse. Jim Adlhoch describes the floor shadow as looking like the head and neck of the Loch Ness monster- see Lunar Photo of the Day September 4, 2014.
http://lpod.wikispaces.com/September+4%2C+2014
Crater Ptolemaeus has a floor covered with many shallow bowl shaped craters, ghosts buried under lava. These ghost craters can be seen at low sun but the central peak is completely absent. To the north is crater Herschel (41 km.) with a shadowed floor.

Western Highland Peninsula Craters
Western Highland Peninsula Craters

Sketching:
For this sketch I used: Black Canson sketching paper, 10”x10”, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils and blending stumps.

Telescope: 13.1 inch f/ 6 Dobsonian and 9 mm eyepiece 222x
Date: 01-28-2015 00:05-02:00 UT
Temperature: -4°C (25°F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi II
Transparency: 4/5
Co longitude: 0.7°
Lunation: 7.20 days
Illumination: 56.1 %

Frank McCabe

Conjunction of Venus and Mercury – 18 January 2015

Conjunction of Venus and Mercury - 18 January 2015
Conjunction of Venus and Mercury – 18 January 2015

Living in Eastbourne, I am lucky enough to have the famous cliffs at the end of the South Downs close by; the panoramic views they afford are ideal for watching sunrises and sunsets, which are frequently rendered even more beautiful by dramatic coastal clouds. On Sunday 18th January I was driving back from a visit to the beach further east at Normans Bay, when I noticed a break opening up in the blanket of cloud to the west. Instead of heading home I made the short detour up to Beachy Head, where I was treated to this wonderfully picturesque celestial scene.

Best regards and clear skies, Oli

18/01/15 18:45 UT
Soft pastels on Rembrandt pastel paper with acrylic paint for Venus