catena – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

Moon-Crater Mersenius

Lunar crater Mersenius - August 7, 2014 — Lunar crater Mersenius – August 7, 2014

Hello,

After some weeks during the “White nights” without a look in the sky, I started observation at the 7th August with my new 130/1200 Aspherical Doublet Apochromat (it was planned by Ralf Mündlein and me in the last two years) the planet. The air was quite well and the conditions were warm and dry.

A nice crater with some little impacts and mountains at the bottom took my attention. So I made a drawing of this view. I hope you like the “Mersenius”.with it´s nice landscape.

CS Uwe

Object: Moon
Object Name: Crater Mersenius
Telescope: 130/1200 Aspherical Doublet Apochromat
Eyepiece: 7mm Nagler / Maxbright Binocular
Magnification: about 170x
Location: near Tauberbischofsheim Germany

Another Look Near to the Altai Scarp at Higher Sun

The lunar craters Riccius, Rabbi Levi, Zagut and Lindenau near the Altai Scarp - July 4, 2014 — The lunar craters Riccius, Rabbi Levi, Zagut and Lindenau near the Altai Scarp – July 4, 2014

Riccius, Rabbi Levi, Zagut and Lindenau - Labeled — Riccius, Rabbi Levi, Zagut and Lindenau – Labeled

Two hundred or so kilometers to the southwest of the Altai Scarp you will find a mix of large and small highland craters that may catch your eye as they did mine. Many have written of the “boring” look-a-like craters of this region but good lighting can make a big difference in appeal here. Ancient Riccius crater (71 km.) is a worn, an almost obliterated remnant, covered and surrounded by crater from 10-15 km. of various ages. Adjacent to Riccius is crater Rabbi Levi (81 km.) with an interesting short chain of craters across its floor. The next crater Zagut (84 km.) is the largest of those in the sketch with Zagut A (11 km.) near the center of the floor and Zagut E (35 km.) pushed through the eastern wall of Zagut. Next to Zagut is crater Lindenau (53 km.) which is younger than the other large crater here as evidenced by the sharper rim and what looks like a part of a central peak remaining.
A fine summer evening of observing and sketching after a long spell of poor weather.
Sketching and Equipment:

For this sketch, I used black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 8” x 12”, white and
black Conte’ pastel pencils and blending stumps.
Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece (241x) riding on an equatorial platform
Date: 07-04-2014, 01:15-02:50 UT
Temperature: 16° C (60° F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Average – Antoniadi III
Transparency: 4.5/5
Colongitude: 349.0 °
Lunation: 6.7 days
Illumination: 36 %

Frank McCabe

Former moon of the Moon

Lunar crater Schiller
Sketch and Details by Árpád Szent-Andrássy

Object Name: Schiller crater
Object Type: Lunar crater
Location: Hungary, Debrecen
Date: 29th November 2009
Medium: white paper, graphite pencil.
Instrument: 5” Maksutov

Hi
This is my first sketch that I would like to share with you on ASOD. I used my 127/1500 Maksutov scope with a start diagonal to observe the Moon from my balcony, and finished the sketch next morning. After scanning, I slightly adjusted contrast and brightness of the image with Gimp, and that was all.

Best regards: Árpád

A Catena Linked Pair

With high pressure moving into my observing area, there was a good chance that the
cloud cover would break up and move out before local midnight. Eventually it did.
The nearly full moon hung low and large in the sky to the south. The largest mare
on the lunar surface is the Ocean of Storms. A pair of similar looking, north to
south oriented craters at the western extreme of the Ocean of Storms is linked to
each other by a rille-like chain of craters. The southern most crater of the pair
is the 50 km. diameter Cardanus. This crater was demonstrating its terraced walls
and hilly irregular ramparts in the low altitude sunlight. Following the catena
southward for a little more than 60 km. we arrive at the other member of the pair
named Krafft. Like Cardanus crater Krafft (51 km.) has in addition to the features
of the former, a crater of 13 km off set from the center of the floor. The sun was
high enough to illuminate much of the impact debris of the region in the form of
numerous crater rays. Closer to both the terminator and limb of the moon in the
libration zone larger craters Vasco de Gama and Dalton are making their appearances
from the long lunar night.



Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a blending stump. Contrast was slightly increased after scanning.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 241X
Date: 7-29-2007, 3:10-4:30 UT
Temperature: 23° C (74° F)
Partly cloudy, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Colongitude   83.6 °
Lunation   14.6 days
Illumination 99 %
Libration long. -4.7°

Frank McCabe