Mars 28/4/16

[mikeDnight]

Mars this morning was the best I've seen it so far this apparition. The seeing was steady and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The disk is approximately  15" arc and rapidly increasing in size, so if the atmosphere allows, the albedo features can look impressive even in a small scope. The attached sketch was imaged in artificial light, sorry!

Mike 

 

[laudropb]

You have had a busy morning sketching Mike, but well worth it. Another lovely drawing.

[Moonshane]

Great work again Mike

Can you please recommend a particular brand of putty rubber?

[mikeDnight]

2 hours ago, Moonshane said:

Great work again Mike

Can you please recommend a particular brand of putty rubber?

I've got a couple on the go at the moment. The first is a Winsor & Newton medium kneadable putty rubber and the other is a kneadable putty eraser from WH Smith's. The Smiths version is a bit too soft for my liking. The Winsor & Newton rubber is firmer and needs a bit of manipulation to form the desired shape, but it holds it well.

Mike

[Moonshane]

Cheers Mike

I'll give it a go :0)

[johnfosteruk]

I've used Daler Rowney with the few sketches I've completed and it's also quite firm, takes a little manipulation and holds quite well so there's another option if that's what you're looking for.

[Piero]

That is very close to what I saw 1 week ago with my Dob 200mm from Italy at about 300x. Really beautiful!  

Thanks for posting it!

Piero

[Dave In Vermont]

Very cool impression! Thanks!

The astro-press over here is jumping onto the 'Here Comes Mars!' gear. I'll be tossing some articles from same on here as they become available.

More sketches, please?

Thanks!

Dave

[mikeDnight]

I've just been playing with the sketch by darkening the sky background, the planet has remained untouched. I think by doing this the drawing looks less incipid. (Both versions attached for comparison).

Mike 

[Moonshane]

Even better Mike!

[t0nedude]

Excellent stuff Mike.