Mars, just after opposition.

[The Warthog]

I got out on a decent night, and did a little sketching last month:

This was done by watching carefully through my 4.5" reflector, and drawing in anything that consistently appeared on the face of Mars during the brief moments of clarity. It was gratifying to see that it matched up pretty well with the published maps of what Mars was showing at the time.

It's also kinda neat that if you wait, and put together all that you see, you get a pretty good picture of what's there.

[Ant]

Nice one mate! Sketching must be very rewarding, and very difficult. It's something that I've never attempted to do.

Also the fact that that was sketched at -13 is just awe inspiring.

Ant

[The Warthog]

Thank you! Actually, this was done on November 12th, and the temperature was +13. Much nicer!

[OXO]

Nice Sketch and you managed to observe some nice fine details from what i can see in your drawing.

Well Done!

James

[CELESCOPE]

Yes thats darn good Wart, and as Ant says must be very hard as the seeing has to be very good to get as much detail to paper

good stuff mate ,and also something different to look at .

Rog

[spudicus]

Wicked pic Mr W.

That really is very cool - I think I'm going to have a go at sketching.

Spud

[Jamie]

Great sketch mate keep them coming.

Well done.

[The Warthog]

I must say that I am quite blown away by the responses to my sketches. Thank you all very much. The Mars sketch was done over about 20 minutes of watching for things to appear on what was, most of the time, a featureless disk. I copied down anything that was repeatedly appearing on the surface, and was totally surprised by what I got. I can't wait to try Jupiter.

I am still looking for the website I read a while ago, that gave some good basic advice on sketching. If I do find it, I'll post it. There is a very brief description of the process of drawing a crater in Ian Ridpath's book "The Pocket Guide to Astronomy." It may have been produced for the Canadian bookstore chain, Chapters, though, so I don't know if it would be available in the UK. There are probably many sources for this, anyway.

Thanks again,