Western rim of Mare Crisium

Crater Line Linne
Mare Crisium (Move mouse over image to view labels)

2012 09 04, 0330 UT – 0615 UT Mare Crisium
Erika Rix, Texas – www.pcwobservatory.com

AT6RC f/9 1370mm, LXD75, Baader Planetarium Hyperion 8-24mm Mark III (FOV 68 degrees at 171x), no filter
84F, 56% H, winds gusting 5-10 mph, clear, Antoniadi IV increasing to II, T 3/6
Alt: 11deg 43´, Az: 83deg 22´ to Alt: 46deg 21´, Az: 105deg 21´
Phase: 318.4 degrees, Lunation: 17.48 d, Illumination: 87.4%
Lib. Lat: -03:07, Lib. Long: +03.74

Type: Sea (Sea of Crisis)
Geological period: Nectarian (From -3.92 billion years to -3.85 billion years)
Dimension: 740km
Floor: lava-filled and is ~ 1.8 km below lunar datum
Outer rim: ~3.34 km above lunar datum

Eyepiece sketch on black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, Derwent watercolor pencil, black charcoal, black oil pencil.

The evening started off with DSO hunting while waiting for the Moon to come up, even though the stars were and faint galaxies were starting to wash out from the moonlight rounding the eastern horizon. I started a sketch of M12 that will have to wait for another night to complete when the Moon isn’t so much of a factor.

Once the Moon rose between two short junipers behind me, I switched to black paper and scanned the terminator. Mare Crisium looked like it was taking a bite out of the Moon. I’ve always been a bit intimidated at sketching rough terrain, but took a stab at it nevertheless. Sketching in the highlights makes it incredibly easier in fast moving areas such as along the terminator. The trick is to have very sharp pencils at hand, and I made sure of that during set up before it got dark outside – although I did have to resharpen once or twice during the session (as well as stand up and stretch.) It was a rush against time to render the basin’s western edge before the shadows swallowed the view.

I began with the inner ridge line along the terminator, marking each highlighted crest individually with a very sharp Conte’ pastel pencil. Then as quickly and accurately as I could, started working my way west, alternating between the Conte’, charcoal, Derwent and oil pencils, focusing first on the highlights, then the shadows, followed by albedo.

Of particular interest, Crisium sports the crash landing site(although not visible from last night’s lunar phase) of the Soviet’s Luna 15 in 1969 and the landing site of Luna 24, 1976, when soil samples where successfully brought back to earth.

This was my first time observing the Moon with the AT6RC and once seeing sharpened up, the views were crisp and clear with good contrast. It’s especially good that we’ve never had to collimate this scope and I’m looking forward to trying it out on Jupiter soon.

Boat Moon

Boat Moon
Boat Moon

Hi
Boat-Moon 2012-02-13 – 7:30 PM Local Time
Object Name (moon)
Object Type (boat-moon)
Location (Provencal France)
Date (2012-02-13 7:30 PM Local Time)
Media (graphite pencil and watercolour pencil)
Material (Newton telescope 114/500 25x for the moon and naked eyes for the landscape)

Yesterday I climbed with a light telescope on my back to reach the St-Sauveur Mountain, one of my preferred watching places for the moon. I made this unusual view of the « boat-moon ». This is unusual in the south of France, where this position of the moon is quite strange for us. The moon was less brilliant than Venus or Jupiter, not very easy to find out at the beginning of the night.

This sketch was made “naked eyes” for the landscape and with the use of my light telescope (Newton telescope 114/500 25x) for the very new moon (less than 2 days).

The day after in my workshop I coloured the moon using a light blue watercolour pencil and a brush, then I inverted the moon colour with my computer/scan. After this I just position the moon where she was the day before.

A small video explain the journey, just look at : http://youtu.be/2MqIN-E8jRA

Clear sky for all of you !

Michel
http://astro.aquarellia.com/

“Perhaps the Finest…”

Hey !

I send you the planetary M.27, “The manual”.

This is a easy object, bright and perhaps the finest in the
northern hemisphere. But M.57 is the most
special for us in Norway. I did not see any central star in this
planetary, and the “ears” were very faint.
It is a very splendid object in small telescopes too. More info on
my sketch!
I used crayons (watercolours) on black paper only.
The sketch was made outside Trondheim city, Norway.

Clear skies, from Per-Jonny Bremseth.

Open Cluster IC 4665

Hi

The distance to this cluster is about 1400 light year. IC 4665 is
in constellation Ophiuchus near the Beta Oph. It is a very loose
and bright object(4,2 mag.) and fantastic view in the binoculars
with small magnification.

Object name: IC 4665
Object type: Open Cluster
Location: Tarnów , Poland
Date: 17 June 2010 r.
Time: 22:15 UT
Artist: Krzysztof Pieszczoch (Astrokrzychu)
Equipment used: Binocular 16X50 (2″) FOV 4,25 deg.
-pencil , rubber

Weather conditions:
Ä cool evening
– clear sky

Yours sincerely,
Krzysztof Pieszczoch

Messier 7 Open Cluster in the Scorpius

M7
Messier 7
By Kiminori Ikebe

This is an open cluster near the tail of the Scorpion. It is very large and much larger than M6 nearby. It is easily visible to the unaided eye. There are about 15 bright stars with fainter stars filling in space among them. Brighter stars form a misshapen “X” or “H.” There are two almost identical bright stars at the center, which stand out among bright stars in the cluster.

M7 (NGC 6475) Scorpius open cluster
Difficulty level 1

Date of observation: 2001/05/03
Observing site: Kuju, Japan
Transparency/seeing/sky darkness: 2/1/4
Instruments: 32cm Dobsonian with WF32 at 50x
Width of field: 1.4 degrees

Translated by Eiji Kato