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Dear all, yesterday, the weather forecast promised a clear evening with just a few small cumuli, so I prepared everything for a lunar sketch: Putting the Dobsonian to the terrace, collecting the sketching material and dressing up for -2°C. In the end, the sketching session was not as relaxing as expected. There was some poor seeing due to the heatings from the houses here in the city, then neighbours opened the window and that lead to an outage of visibility for five minutes. When I then had done half of the sketch, the clouds became more and the moon was gone. So I had to finish the sketch in the north of Promontorium Laplace from memory afterwards. Here's the result: Telescope: Martini 10" f/5 truss-tube Dobsonian Eyepiece: ExploreScientific 6.7mm/82° Date & Time: February 11th, 2021 / 2015-2115 CET Location: home, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: Koh-i-Noor chalk, extra charcoal and whitecoal pens and pieces on black Hahnemühle Ingres mould-made pastel paper Size: 24x31cm Clear skies! Achim

Dear all, after a long working day in the office I was first too tired to go out for lunar observation and sketching. But when sitting on the sofa and reading for a while, I couldn't resist and set up my small ED on the terrace.The 6.5 day old moon was already just 10° above the horizon and just a bit above the houses in the neighbourhood. At the terminator the three craters Aristoteles, Eudoxus and Alexander drew my attention. So I picked up my sketching stuff. This time I tried something new and just took a single, white pastel pen. Here's the result: Telescope: TS 70/420 ED Eyepiece: Explore Scientific 6.7mm/82° Mount: Berlebach Castor II Alt-Az on Berlebach Report 222 tripod Date & Time: November 10th, 2021 / 2015-2030 CET Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: white pastel pen on black sketching cardbox size: appr. 8cm x 12cm Clear skies! Achim

Dear all, this morning, before going off to work, I started the day with a lunar sketch of lunar sunset before sunrise at home. I had put the 5" MAK outside over night, so it was properly cooled. Telescope: Celestron NexStar 127 SLT Eyepiece: Explore Scientific 6.7mm/82° Date & Time: January 16th, 2020 / 0715-0745 CET 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. 20x30cm Clear skies! Achim

Dear all, these days we have a sunny and hot summer over here. Today I tried to capture the "aura" of the sun caused by some dust in our atmosphere when doing the pastel sketch of the H alpha solar disc. I spent almost half an hour with the solar disc and its aura and then just 15 minutes for the proms and filaments. So here's the result: Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm Date & Time: June 26th, 2019 /1030-1115 CEST Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: red and orange Koh-i-Noor pastels and pastel pens on black Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper Size: 24 x 32 cm Clear (and sunny) skies! Achim

Dear all, these days we have a sunny and hot summer over here. Today I tried to capture the "aura" of the sun caused by some dust in our atmosphere when doing the pastel sketch of the H alpha solar disc. I spent almost half an hour with the solar disc and its aura and then just 15 minutes for the proms and filaments. So here's the result: Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm Date & Time: June 26th, 2019 /1030-1115 CEST Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: red and orange Koh-i-Noor pastels and pastel pens on black Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper Size: 24 x 32 cm Clear (and sunny) skies! Achim

Dear all, yesterday evening I have chosen the lunar crater J. Herschel (named after British astronomer John Herschel from 19th century, the son of William Herschel) which exposed a pretty convexed floor in the rising sun. The crater has a diameter of about 150 km and lies at the northern "coast" of Mare Frigoris. The sketch starts with Harpalus in the South, then you can see the 24 km crater Horrebow (named after a Danish astronomer from 17th century) just at the southern rim of J. Herschel. At the northern end of my sketch we have the 71 km crater Philolaus. The dominating crater J. Herschel (too be precisely a walled plain) has a quite rough surface which is said to be caused by ejecta from the impact that formed the Mare Imbrium. This rough structure and its convexed shape resulted in a nice three-dimensional appearance. Southeast of it, I sketched the secondary craters J. Herschel F and la Condamine B which are located in Mare Frigoris. So here's the sketch: Telescope: Celestron NexStar 127 SLT Eyepiece: Explore Scientific 14mm/82° (due to the poor seeing, I couldn't go for the 6.7mm/82°) Date & Time: January 6th, 2020 / 1845-1945 CET Location: Backyard, Dusseldorf Region, Germany Technique: Koh-i-Noor chalk, extra charcoal and whitecoal pens and pieces on Seawhite of Brighton black sketching paper Size: appr. 20x30cm And finally here's a photo of my observation place: Clear skies! Achim

Hi all, today I could just have some quick glances at our home star trough small gaps in the clouds. There was a nice prominence which was already lifted off from the solar "surface". So I gave it a try with a quick pastel sketch. Unfortunately the clouds won and I had to do the sketch in a bit of a hurry. Anyway, I'll sharing it here with you... Telescope: Lunt LS50 THa B600 PT Eyepiece: TS HR Planetary 5mm Date & TIme: March 6th, 2016 / 1200-1215 CET Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: orange pastel pen (Koh-i-Noor Gioconda) on black sketching paper Hope you like it! Achim

Dear all, this weekend turned out to be a wonderful solar sketching weekend for me. Today I had another great chance to do a pastel sketch - and in fact the selected prominence was even larger and more structured than the one yesterday. So here we go: Telescope: Lunt 50 THa PT B600 Eyepiece: TS HR Planetary 7mm Date/Time: March 13th, 2016 / 1520-1550 CET Location: Home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: reddish pastel pen and pastel on black sketching cardbox Clear skies and a good start into the coming week for all of you! Achim

Hi all, this afternoon the sun was shining so nice and bright that I picked the Lunt and put it quickly on the pipe mount. There were two wonderful, very detailed prominences. I picked the finer one and did a quick pastel sketch of it. Here you are: Telescope: Lunt 50 THa PT B600 Eyepiece: TS HR Planetary 7mm Date/Time: March 12th, 2016 / 1520-1545 CET Location: Home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: reddish pastel pen and pastel on black sketching cardbox Hope you like it! Achim

Dear all, yesterday evening, I set up my Celestron 5" MAK with Baader Maxbright Bino on the GoTo-Mount (Nexstar SLT) to have a look at our rocky companion in near space. First I just enjoyed the binocular view of the lunar surface: The trio Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel looked great but for sketching, the terminator had already gone a bit too far. The shadows were already pretty short, especially those of the large, flat crater Ptolemaeus. So I went north and was impressed by the wonderful view of eastrn Mare Imbrium. The famous triple Autolycus, Aristillus and Archimedes looked great and the mare ridges in the low lunar morning appeared very threedimensional. Further north the flat crater Cassini and the famous Vallis Alpes were prominent landmarks. But as usual I wasn't happy with just observing, so "Hhhmm, what should I sketch now?" The whole eastern arc of Mare Imbrium would have been a wonderul target but I didn't plan a longer session. I wanted to sketch just a single crater, so I picked the largest one in the area: Archimedes (which had been on my target list for some time already). Here's the result: Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT Eyepieces & Accessories: 10mm "Super", Baader Maxbright Binoviewer, TS diagonal Date & Time: March 16th, 2016 / 2030-2110 CET Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: chalk-, whitecoal- and charcoal pens on black sketching paper The flat, peakless interior reminded me of crater Plato but the volcanic material in Archimedes was a bit brighter. The shadow of the eastern crater rim covered almost half of the crater floor. The western rim shone bright in the sun. The hilly "peninsula" outside the southeastern crater rim and the northern parts of the Montes Archimedes looked pretty bright as well. The hilly area inbetween was showing a scattered mixture of brighter parts and dark shadowed areas. North of the crater, the western ridge of Sinus Lunicus was visible as dark ark in the low lunar morning sun. The small peak a the south of it produces a long triangular shadow. An hour later I had a peek on Jupiter with two moons and shadows on his clouds but the seeing wasn't good enough to see more than the GRF and Ganymede's shadow. Anyway, since Jupiter was not the main target of this evening, I wasn't too disappointed. Clear skies! Achim

ear all yesterday evening, I did a small chalk/charcoal sketch of the moon with the 3" MiniDob. I hope you like it. Telescope: Skywatcher Heritage 76/300 Eyepiece: Skywatcher UWA 5mm/58° Date & Time: April 29th, 2130-2200 CEST Location: home, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: chalk and charcoal pens on black sketching paper Size: 4" in diameter Clear skies! Achim

Hi all, tonight, the clouds vanished for some hours so I set up the Dobsonian on the terrace and did a lunar sketch again. Telescope: Martini 10" f/5 Truss tube Dobsonian Eyepiece: Skywatcher 5mm UWA 58° Date & Time: Feb 3rd, 1800-1900 CET Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: chalk and charcoal pens on black sketching paper Size: 11"x11" Literature: Craters of the Nearside Moon, Features of the Nearside Moon (both by John Moore) Right in the center of the 200km Rima Hyginus, there's Hyginus itself which - as per Moore -- is assumed to be a volcanic caldera instead of an impact crater. Southwest of it there is the crater Hyginus A. Further to the west and south, Rimae Triesnecker lead to the crater Triesnecker whose northwestern rim wasn't illuminated yet. Clear skies! Achim

Hi all, yesterday evening I got cold fingers at -3°C when sitting behind my 5" MAK doing a sketch of lunar crater Eratosthenes. Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT Eyepiece: Skywatcher 5mm UWA 58° Date & Time: Jan 6th, 2017 / 1740-1840 CET Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: natural charcoal and chalk on black sketching paper Size: 11"x11" Image is mirror-reversed. Eratosthenes is about 58km in diameter and is located at the western end of the Apennines. On the sketch you can see as well the western rim of the low crater Stadius (SE of Eratosthenes) and the craters Eratosthenes C and Wolff B. Clear skies! Achim

Hi all, here we go with yet another charcoal/chalk sketch of the moon - again done with the small MiniDob. Telescope: Skywatcher Heritage 76/300 Eyepiece: Skywatcher Planetary 5mm Date & Time: Dec 15th, 2015; 1705 -1740 CET Place: Home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: Charcoal and chalk pens on black sketching cardboard I hope you enjoy it! Clear skies! Achim

Hi all, after the clouds vanished later in the evening, I set up the 10" Dobsonian in the courtyard and went for a lunar sketch. This time I had to start with 10mm eyepiece since the seeing wasn't proper in the beginning. Later on I could change to 5mm giving 250x. So here's my sketch of Mare Nectaris region: Telescope: Martini 10" f/5 Dobsonian Eyepieces: 10mm Celestron X-cel and 5mm Skywatcher Planetary Date & Time: Dec 30th, 2015 / 0015-0130 CET Place: home courtyard, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: Koh-i-noor chalk and charcoal pencils on black Daler Rowney Ebony sketching paper Lunar age: 19 days Hope you enjoy it! Clear skies! Achim

Hi all, today I sketched the wonderful sunspot AR2529 in both H alpha and in "white" light. In fact, in order to have a quick comparison of the two spectral ranges without swapping scope and eyepiece, I simply detuned the pressure tuner of the Lunt completely. It worked sufficiently well: When being fully detuned, the Lunt just shows a red sun with sunspots as if they would have appeared on a white sun with normal telescope and solar filter. Here's my sketch: Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Skywatcher Planetary 5mm Date & Time: April 15th, 2016 / 1730-1815 CEST Location: Home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: orange and white pastels and pastel pens, charcoal pen on black sketching paper. Hope you enjoy it! Achim

Hi all, today, Sunday lived up its name, so I spent it having a look at the sun with the Lunt 50. Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm Date&Time: May 1st, 2016 / 1545-1645 CEST Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: Koh-i-Noor pastels and pastel pens on Daler Rowney Ebony black sketching paper Clear skies! Achim

Hi all, after weeks of "astronomical absence", I set up the Lunt LS50 on the terrace this afternoon and did a small pastel sketch of the wonderful prominence at the northeastern limb. Telescope: Lunt LS50 THaB600PT Eyepiece: Skywatcher UWA 5mm/58° Date & Time: July 3rd, 2016 / 1440-1510 CEST Location: Home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: orange pastel pens on black sketching paper I hope you enjoy it Clear skies! Achim

Hi all, as written in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, we're moving around a small unregarded yellow sun. In fact today at first glance there was really nothing extraordinary visible on our home star: It was fully blank in white light and even in H alpha there was no spectacular eye-catcher. Nevertheless I did a pastel sketch - I had prepared the solar disc already before anyway . So here we go: Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm Date & Time: March 16th, 2017 / 1100-1145 CET Location: Home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: reddish pastels and pastel pens on black sketching paper Diameter: 8" Clear skies! Achim

Hi all, this afternoon we had a wonderful sky with some small white clouds and a lot of sunshine. So I set up the Lunt LS50 on the terrace and did a pastel sketch of the full solar disc in H alpha. Sun spot AR2565 was nicely visible on the solar disc and some nice prominence were visible at the limb. Telescope: Lunt LS50THaB600PT Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm Date & Time: July 14th, 2016 / 1630-1700 CEST Technique: Pastels and pastel pens on black sketching paper I hope you like it. Clear and sunny skies! Achim

Hi all, after the solar observations and sketches of the past weeks, I became a little bit moonstruck Since there wasn't enough time tonight to set up the large equipment on the terrace and the lunar position wasn't favorable for the houses and trees in the neighborhood as well, I decided to just do a quick sketch with the mini Dobsonian - just through the window. As usual I took the telescope cap for setting the diameter of the sketch. Here we go ... Telescope: Skywatcher Heritage 76/300 Eyepiece: Skywatcher UWA Planetary 5mm Date & Time: April 19th, 2016 / 2030-2100 CEST Location: home, Dusseldorf region, Germany Technique: white coal, chalk and charcoal pens on black sketching paper Hope you enjoy it! Achim