acr_astro

Dear all, after coming home from work this afternoon, I decided to do a solar sketch in my garden at pretty hot 35°C. Now cooling down in my 23°C living room with the blinds down, I'd like to share a striking large prominence at the limb with you. I have never seen such a large one before: Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-Cel 10mm Date & Time: July 31st, 2020 / 1600-1630 CEST Location: home garden, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: reddish Koh-i-Noor Toison d'Or pastels and pastel pens on black Hahnemühle mould-made pastel paper Size: 24 x 31 cm Clear and sunny skies! Achim

Dear all, today we're having a sunny day with just some small cumulus over here in Germany. So a great opportunity to try my new black mould-made paper doing a pastel sketch of the H alpha sun. Here's the result: Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-Cel 10mm Date & Time: July 13th, 2020 / 1530-1600 CEST Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: reddish Koh-i-Noor Toison d'Or pastels and pastel pens on black Hahnemühle mould-made pastel paper Size: 24 x 31 cm Clear and sunny skies! Achim

Hi Mike, a fine sketch of Mare Crisium! Never heard of Mons Usov. I'll have look some day... Clear skies Achim

Dear all, I have recently purchased dark blue mould-made pastel paper and yesterday I had the opportunity to use it in dusk to do a chalk sketch of the waxing crescent moon. The paper color fit well with the evening sky. But since charcoal for the shadows would have been looking odd, I decided to try a new technique for the dark areas. Even though you're lacking the ability to sketch really small details, I used a kneadable eraser for the terminator and craters. For the smaller craters, I additionally used a metal erasing pattern to erase just a small circle. So in the end, this moon is made of just chalk. (apparently no cheese ) Telescope: TS 70/420 ED Eyepiece: ExploreScientific 6.7mm/82° Date & Time: June 24th, 2200-2300 CEST Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: Koh-i-Noor chalk pen and kneadable eraser on dark blue Hahnemühle mould-made pastel paper Size: 24 x 31 cm Clear and skies! Achim

Hello Mike, a nice sketch of this far-southern lunar area! Thanks for sharing! Achim

Hello Mike, thanks for the wonderful feedback. But looking at your sketches, I don't agree that your're just playing with chalk - your sketches are great! Clear skies! Achim

Hello Mike, a very detailed sketch! I like the realistic 3D way your're depicting the crater rims and shadows and the grey tones and textures of the lunar surface! Clear skies! Achim

Dear all, tonight I have hoped to get a clear sky to observe and sketch the Golden Handle of Sinus Iridum and I've been lucky: Just interrupted by some smaller clouds and dimmed by cirrus, I was able to sketch it. Here you are: Telescope: Martini 10" f/5 truss-tube Dobsonian Eyepiece: Explore Scientific 6.7mm/82° Date & Time: June 1st, 2020 / 2215-2315 CEST Location: Home terrace, Dusseldorf Region, Germany Technique: Koh-i-Noor chalk, extra charcoal and whitecoal pens and pieces on black sketching paper Size: appr. 25x25cm Clear skies! Achim

Hi Ruud, Laudropb and Mark, thanks for your great feedback! Clear skies! Achim

Hello Mike, that's a wonderful sketch of this large - and famous - lunar area! I have the three craters named after the Apollo 11 astronsuts on my lunar target list for quite some time. I should make them some evening. So I see your sketch as an awesome reminder for me Clear skies! Achim

Dear all, yesterday I've sketched the 134km pre-nectarian lunar crater Walther at the terminator. Whether it's Walter or Walther is a bit of a mystery: Rukl, the "Atlas and Gazetteer of the near side of the moon" and the Clementine Atlas call it Walter, John Moore, Wikipedia and the IAU call it Walther. So it's a bit like "Where's Waldo"... However here it is: Telescope: Martini 10" f/5 truss-tube Dobsonian Eyepiece: Explore Scientific 6.7mm/82° Date & Time: May 29th, 2020 / 2230-2330 CEST Location: Home terrace, Dusseldorf Region, Germany Technique: Koh-i-Noor chalk, extra charcoal and whitecoal pens and pieces on Seawhite of Brighton black sketching paper Size: appr. 20x25cm Clear skies! Achim

Dear all, as visible on the GONG H alpha network monitor on the internet, there's a nice, pretty large prominence on the solar limb. So I set up my gear and looked by myself during my lunch break. As usual the sketch is R/L-mirrored. Here it is: Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-Cel 10mm Date & Time: May 26th, 2020 / 1315-1345 CEST Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: reddish Koh-i-Noor Toison d'Or pastels and pastel pens on grey Hahnemühle mould-made pastel paper Size: 24 x 31 cm Clear and sunny skies! Achim

Dear all, compared to four days ago, the solar disc and the prominences looked a bit more interestingly varied. I could do a sketch during the lunch break: Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm Date & Time: May 19th, 2020 / 1300-1330 CEST Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: red and orange Koh-i-Noor pastels and pastel pens on grey Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper Size: 24 x 32 cm Clear (and sunny) skies! Achim

Hi all, as well today the sun is shining brightly here. I set up the Lunt to have a look at it, at first just for observing. However, somehow I cannot resist and have to do a sketch This time I've chosen reddish pastels on grey paper to better catch the color of the view in the eyepiece. Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm Date & Time: May 15th, 2020 / 1400-1430 CEST Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: red and orange Koh-i-Noor pastels and pastel pens on grey Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper Size: 24 x 32 cm Clear (and sunny) skies! Achim

Excellent sketch, Marios! Which technique are you using? Clear skies! Achim

Hello Mike, it is quite seldom to see crater sketches in full light here. Yours is wonderful! Well done! Clear skies! Achim

Hello Koen, Jeremy and Ruud, thanks a lot for the wonderful feedback! And thanks for all the likes! Clear skies! Achim

Hi Mike, excellent work! Independent of bearing in mind that these were just quick sketches: Great results! Clear skies! Achim

Dear all, after a fast-changing mixture of sun, clouds and showers yesterday, it cleared up during the evening -- as promised in the weather forecast. I had carried my 10" f/5 truss-tube dobsonian telescope to the terrace at 6 p.m. already. So it was perfectly cooled down at 9 p.m. when the clouds had vanished. The air was clear and seeing was good too. Honestly I don't remember such a clear view on the moon for years. This time I selected the famous crater Tycho - which I have never sketched since starting with lunar sketching six years ago! So this time it was up to Tycho to be finally sketched. Named after the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) who worked on a star catalogue, a model of the solar system (with the earth in the center, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn circulating around it - but Mercur and Venus circulating around the sun ) and who discovered a Super Nova in Cassiopeia in 1572. Tycho has been working in his observatory on the small island Ven in the Oresund between Denmark and Sweden. We have visited the island and the museum two years ago during our summer holiday. And last autumn, I brought a commemorative 20 DKK coin from our vacation in Denmark: But now back to the crater: When looking at the moon with binoculars you see the dominant bright rays from Tycho's impact across the south west of the moon. Tycho has a diameter of 85km and is about 4.8 kilometers deep. I was impressed by the wonderful pair of central peaks. The slopes on the southwestern rim and the structured crater floor where great to observe and sketch as well. I added the smaller craters (listed starting from North in counter-clockwise direction) Sasserides F, Tycho T, F and U, Tycho E and Tycho B in the south west. Now I've learned that Surveyor 7 has landed in January 1968 between Sasseriedes F and Tycho T. All right, after all of this text, here's the sketch: Telescope: Martini 10" f/5 truss-tube Dobson Eyepiece: ExploreScientific 6.7mm/82° Date & Time: May 2nd, 2020, 2100-2145 CEST Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: Koh-i-Noor chalk and carcoal pens on black sketching paper Size: appr. 10" x 10" Clear skies! Achim

Hello Mike, great sketches - have fun with the new gear! Clear skies Achim

Dear all, thanks for the great feedback and the likes! Clear skies! Achim

Hi Andrew, don't worry, I don't take it personally. The aim is to catch the craters as they are but with a diameter of max 6 cm and chalk and charcoal pens there's always room for improvement So it can be at best similar to what you see in the eyepiece - depending on your eyes as well! Clear skies Achim

Dear all, yesterday evening I did a tiny sketch of the waxing crescent moon. While observing, I detected a star half a lunar diameter away from the lunar north pole. I looked it up and identified it as 105 Tau. At the beginning of the sketch at 0900 CEST, the earth shine was not visible yet. But during sketching it appeared. Telescope: TS 70/420 ED Eyepiece: ES 6.7mm/82° Date and Time: April 26th, 2020 / 2100-2200 CEST Location: Home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: Koh-I-Noor chalk, charcoal and whitecoal pens on black sketching paper Size: diameter 2.5" Clear skies! Achim

Dear all, today I tried to improve my pencil sketching capabilities for the H-alpha solar disc. I must admit that at least for me, the result pretty much depends of the selected material - at least I get better results with charcoal compared with pencil. However, it was fun to do it: Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm Date & Time: April 17th, 2020 / 1130-1200 CEST Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: Koh-i-Noor 1900 Toison d'or pencils (4H, 2H, HB, 2B) on sketching paper Size: 3.25" diameter Clear and sunny skies! Achim

Hello Mike. A wonderful sketch! Thanks for sharing with us! Clear skies! Achim