"The Young Winter December Moon" - December 23, 2014

Young Winter December Moon

"The Young Winter December Moon" - December 23, 2014
“The Young Winter December Moon” – December 23, 2014

Young Winter December Moon

During the early part of the current lunation I was observing and sketching in Mesa, Arizona and caught the thin crescent Moon in the southwestern sky just after sunset. Venus was also visible much closer to the horizon but not close enough to the Moon to be included. Earthshine improved and brightened as the hour passed.

Sketching:
For this sketch I used dark blue sketching paper (8.5” x 11”), white, yellow and brown pastel pencils, blending stumps, white Pearl eraser.

Telescope 6”f/7.2 Dobsonian telescope, 28mm eyepiece 39x
Date and Time: 12-23-2014; 18:15 – 19:10 local time
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Transparency: clear 4/5
Temperature: 18 °C (65°F)
Colongitude: 295.3°
Lunation: 1.74 days
Illumination: 4.1%

Frank McCabe

4 thoughts on “Young Winter December Moon”

  1. Frank,

    It was such a pleasure to open ASOD today and see your lunar sketch. It made me smile as it did the first time I saw it. There is is something about this sketch that is more than just a sketch. When I see it it brings about all the reasons I love astronomy and sketching. There is something this sketch captures that is hard to put into words. You just got it all down here.

    Cindy

  2. That’s so nice Frank!
    We know here that sketching a complete moon disk is not a piece of cake so a first Whaw for this exercise. On top of that a second whaw about what Cindy wrote, (with the words I can use so easily with my poor English) this sketch hold something special, something you can not achieve with a camera.
    Thank you for those two whaw’s Frank!

    Michel

  3. Cindy, Michel and Jen

    Thank you all for your kind words on my lunar sketch.

    Frank 🙂

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