Category: mons, mountains

Cusp of Moon and Sinus Iridum

Hello artists,all o.k.? Compliments for last Moon sketches ,great work ( at Frank in paricular)at all.
I made three sketches of Moon ,two in one week,but at moment i sent you my two sketches,one of a cups of crescent Moon,one of Sinus Iridum and environs.
I used my refractor Kenko 80mm 1000 f.l.,little but perfect for this work.
About my sketch of Moon cups,i go at hill near my town.At first i go for one observing session but when i see in eyepiece this incredible zone i decide to draw quyckly.
I see the mountains coming out from shadow ,one light thread of light on the surface.
The Moon phase was crescent(one day),this is the first time that i made one sketch of this zone,i want to made other,nextly.
The second ( and last) sketch i made last friday.
I mounted my refractor on the roof of my room’s terrace,i list music….perfect Moon sketch session.
One incredible neat vision ,the Sinus Iridum, Bianchini crater, Mount Jura and many splits and shadows…..very difficult work !
I go to bad satisfied but with head-ache.
I hope like you.
Ciao a tutti,Giorgio.

About first sketch( cups of Moon):

Site:Pergola (Serraspinosa Hill,400 meters over see level )
Date:7 of May 2011 10,50 p.m.
Moon phase : Crescent
Instrument:Refractor Kenko 80/1000
Eyepiece:15mm + Barlow (133x)
Seeing :Very good
Air: Calm.light cold.
Technnics:Graphite pencill on withe paper fabriano.

About last sketch (Sinus Iridum and environs):

Site :Pergola,Marche Region,center Italy
Date:13-14 of May 2011 from 10,40 p.m. to 01,13 a.m.
Moon phase: Crescent (11,3 days )
Instrument: Refractor Kenko 80mm/!000
Eyepiece:15mm+ barlow
Seeing:Good,turbulance and light clouds at the end.
Air: Light cold,no wind.

Domed Citadel

Sketch of Mons Rümker

On this rather fine fall night, with the sunrise shadow moving across Sinus Roris, yet not quite reaching crater Harding, I was able to see and sketch the volcanic mound feature known as Mons Rümker, named after German astronomer Karl L. C. Rümker. This hummocky volcanic multi-domed plateau is raised above the basaltic plain of northwestern Oceanus Procellarum just enough to make it stand out in grazing light.

In the late 19th and on into the 20th century, this feature was believed to be an old collapsed and battered crater. Today it is known to be the frozen remains of a once active cluster of lunar volcanoes arranged in an incomplete circular arching mound. This entire mound measures 70 kilometers across and was observed and sketched while the lighting was good enough to see nice relief from the flat surroundings.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: 400 series black Strathmore Artagain paper 9″ x 12″, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils, Conte’ crayons, a blending stump, and plastic eraser. Brightness was decreased -1 and contrast increased +1 using my scanner for this sketch
Telescope: 13.1” f/ 6 Dobsonian with 6mm eyepiece (333x) on an equatorial tracking platform
Date: 11-19-2010 06:00 – 07:30 UT
The Moon was nearly 60° above the southern horizon
Temperature: -1°C (30°F)
Weather: mostly clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co longitude: 65.1°
Lunation: 13.1 days
Illumination: 94.1%

Oak Forest, Illinois

Frank McCabe

Shattered Rim

Object Name (Valles Inghirami, Baade, Bouvard)
* Object Type (Lunar Valles)
* Location (York, UK)
* Date (18th January 2011)
* Media (graphite pencil, white paper)
Instrument: Skywatcher Skyliner 152mm f8 Dobsonian, 10mm e.p, x2 Barlow.

What’s an astronomical sketcher to do at full moon? These are actually good times to catch rare details on the lunar limb, and here I have caught three of the valleys on the south-western limb of the moon close to the crater Inghirami, which in turn is just south-west of Schickard. These valleys are radial to the Orientale basin and created by the same impact. Vallis Inghirami is the easiest to spot by virtue of its proximity to the crater of the same name, whilst Bouvard is also striking by virtue of its greater elevation and length. Baade is harder to pick out because it’s behind Vallis Inghirami and mostly hidden behind its own rim. This dramatic landscape mirrors the cataclysmic event that must have created it about 3.5 billion years ago.

Aristarchus and Vallis Schroteri

Object Name: Aristarchus and Vallis Schroteri
Object Type: Lunar Crater
Location: Bristol, UK
Date: 18th Dec 2010
Media (graphite pencil sketch at the scope and then digitized using graphics tablet and Photoshop)

I usually sketch in some detail at the scope (mainly HB and 2B). I then scanned the result into Photoshop and use a Bamboo Pen graphics tablet to remaster the sketch. The final sketch was then “blurred” a touch to simulate the actual view which is never as sharp as I would like to see!)

Observational date: I use a Nexstar 8SE teamed with a Hyperion 8-24 mm zoom. Most of the sketch was at the 16mm stop with occassional use of Barlow and was drawn in moderate seeing conditions. The moon was 13 days old.
I could see the main circular formation with the hint of rays in SE. The crater had high walls although I could not see the terraces. The flat floor had a smallish central mountain. Herodotus was prominent to the W. Vallis Schroteri could be seen N of Herodotus by a craterlet called ‘the Head of Cobra’. The valley ran towards N then W.
Chris Lee

Sunset Terminator Across Mare Crisium

Mare Crisium is that interesting isolated sea on the northeastern side of the visible lunar surface. Only about half of it was visible during this sketching session.
The Nectarian Period event that formed this feature occurred more than 3.8 billion years ago. The mare portion of the basin is about 500 kilometers across. In the grazing sunlight across the floor, wrinkled ridges were visible in the north to south direction. Also on the western floor craters Picard (24 km.), Peirce (19 km.) and Swift (11km.) stood out in the low light. I could clearly see the lighter colored bench lava that partly buried craters here such as Yerkes (37 km.). Tall flat top mountains (massifs) beyond the shore stand at 2-5 kilometers above the sea. Also beyond the sea to the West crater Proclus (28 km.) with its remarkable bright rays was reflecting some sunlight.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: 400 series black Strathmore Artagain paper 9″x 12″, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils , and Conte’crayons, a blending stump, plastic eraser. Brightness was decreased -2 and contrast increased +1 using the scanner for this sketch
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian with 6mm (241x)
Date: 12-23-2010 10:00 – 11:30 UT
Temperature: -8°C (18°F)
Weather: clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Co longitude: 120°
Lunation: 17.7 days
Illumination: 94.5%

Oak Forest, Illinois

Frank McCabe

Burning Candles at Both Ends

Clear skies and a prominent day-11 moon on the evening of 16th December had me out really enjoying sketching; it wasn’t too cold (to begin with), the skies were clear, the target was high and I had plenty of time…..all a rare occurrence.

I sketched one of the most architecturally pleasing parts of the moon; the Sinus Iridum, which is a large crater/small basin with a partially flooded rim.

Of the two promontories, the one on the right (Promontorium Heraclides) is also known as the moon maiden, because at certain times it resembles the profile of a lady, with her long hair falling away off her shoulders. Also visible are the wrinkle ridges which might be traces of the buried rim, and craters Bianchini, Maupertuis, La Condamine and Bouguer.

Awaking on 17th at 4am with busy thoughts, I decided that viewing Saturn would be better than attempting to get back to sleep. And so it was.

I was surprised by quite a lot. The rings had opened up quite a bit since I saw them last spring. Not being close to opposition, the planet was quite small and I couldn’t see much detail on the planet itself. Only one moon was obvious; Titan predictably. With effort, another moon could be viewed roughly forming a right-angled triangle between Titan and the planet; it’s the faint spot at middle-left of the picture. This turned out to be Iapetus, which was pleasing because I haven’t seen that very often. It was new for me to see a moon so out of plane with the planet and the rings as last year they were mostly in line. It was good to see such old friends again.

* Object Name – Sinus Iridium, Mare Imbrium; Saturn, Titan, Iapetus.
* Object Type – Lunar Crater, Mare; Planet, Moons.
* Location – York, UK
* Date 16th December 2010, 17th December 2010
* Media – Graphite pencil on white paper. Observing instrument: Skywatcher Skyliner 152mm f8 Dobsonian, 10mm e.p., x2 Barlow.

“All Hail, Caesar!”

Hello again,

I did this sketch last weekend. My intention had been to do two sketches of the terminator creeping across the Alpine Valley over two consecutive nights. This was supposed to have been the first of those sketches. I only had a vague memory of the location of the Alpine, so when I came across this incredible “gash” in the Lunar landscape, I thought ‘great, that was easy’! Didn’t I get a surprise the next evening!

What I was looking at was the mountain range next to the crater Julius Caesar. This range was being illuminated only on its eastern face, and the main body of it was still completely in the dark. I guess it wasn’t so hard to see how I confused the features. This silhouetted mountain range would otherwise have been overlooked by me as a feature to sketch. I’ll be chasing down a few more now, along the terminator.

Scope: Celestron C5, 5” SCT
Eyepiece: TMB Planetary Type II 6mm, 200X
Location: my backyard in Sydney
Media: Pencil, paint & ink on white paper

Many thanks for looking,

Alex M.

A Quiet Corner of Serenity

Object Name Apollo 17 landing site, Taurus Littrow valley
Object Type Lunar crater, Mare, Mountains, Dorsum.
Location York, UK
Date 11th December 2010
Media Graphite pencil on white paper
Instrument Skywatcher Skyliner 152mm f8 Dobsonian, 10mm e.p. plus x2 Barlow. Seeing quite wobbly.
A lovely crescent day-5 moon and clear skies yesterday evening meant that cooking had to wait for lunar sketching to finish.

Because it was rather nicely illuminated near the terminator, I chose to sketch the corner of Mare Serenitatis on the edge of the Taurus mountains which was the site of the Apollo 17 landing. This is also a seasonal ploy as the landing took place on December 19th 1972.

Here, I’ve labeled the sketch, with x marking the landing site of the lunar module “Challenger”.

The rim of the Serenitatis basin is marked by blocky Massifs of uplifted crust, fractured radially, and the landing site is a valley between three of these massifs; North, South and East. A major objective of the mission was to sample the dark mantle which coats this part of the edge of the basin, and which is very obvious in a small telescope.

Below are some links to images taken by the Apollo 17 crew, which illustrate some of the features in the sketch.

Overhead view of landing site in the Taurus Littrow valley

View of the Taurus Littrow valley from orbit.

View from the landing site

North Massif

View to south with South Massif

Peter Mayhew

A Near Full Moon Study

Hi all,

Tonight we had one of the clearest nights for a long time here in Sydney, and I wasn’t about to let a near full Moon spoil the occasion! So I pulled out my easy to set up 8” dob, and made this quick sketch over the next hour. Since this scope is an f/4, I used my 30 year old RKE eyepiece to give me the best low power image available to me. OH, how I love this eyepiece!

I even had a nice surprise too. For one very brief moment, a satellite crossed through my field of view. It’s happened many times to me, BUT this one happened across the disk of the Moon!! At first I thought it was a balloon, but then it occurred to me “since when does a balloon have spiky bits hanging off it?!!!”

Scope: 8” f/4 newtonian, dob mounted
Eyepiece: Edmund Scientific RKE 28mm, 29X
Filters: 2 polarizing filters
Media: China graph & graphite pencils on black paper.

Clear skies,

Alex M

Lunar Crater Prinz and Montes Harbinger

Crater Prinz
Lunar Crater Prinz and Montes Harbinger
By Ferenc Lovró

I was just cruising around the terminator of the Moon, testing the new cooling equipment on my OTA, when I found a very interesting mountain chain with some ruined crater at one end, near the crater Aristarchus which was right on the terminator. The view was so spectacular, that I decided to make a sketch. I found out that the large crater was Prinz, and the mountains attached are Montes Harbinger. I’ve sketched some additional minor craters nearby that have been cropped out from this image. A really unusual view, worth taking a peek when it’s near the terminator!

Also known as: Prinz, Krieger C, Vera, Angström, Montes Harbinger, Rimae Prinz
Date/time: 2010.03.26 20:00 UT
Equipment: 12″ f/5 Newtonian
Magnification and filter(s): 300x + 15% neutral filter(s)
Seeing: 2/10 Transparency: 4/5
Location: Nádasdladány, Hungary
Observer: Ferenc Lovró