Sinus Meridiani 5/6/16

[mikeDnight]

The seeing conditions were excellent though a little windy at ground level, and Mars was just gorgeous in a steady sky. Sinus Meridiani (Dawes Fork Bay) was almost on the central meridian and even revealed its forked outline. The arm of Sinus Sabaeus was dark and thin with a bright patch on its northern edge alongside meridiani, possibly due to mist in the crater Schiaparlli. Though Margaritifer was well placed it was not as prominent as Acidalia whose dark complex dominated the northern hemisphere.

100mm refractor @ X148. (mirror image)

Mike 

[colin2007]

Loving your drawings Mike. I was too tired last night but the forecast is clear today, so hopefully I can get out and draw Mars tonight.

Out of interest you don`t seem to use any drawing blanks , so how do you get around drawing Saturn and Jupiter?

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice sketch. I should set up the scope in a location with clearer horizons than my garden to finally see Mars properly this week

[mikeDnight]

45 minutes ago, colin2007 said:

Loving your drawings Mike. I was too tired last night but the forecast is clear today, so hopefully I can get out and draw Mars tonight.

Out of interest you don`t seem to use any drawing blanks , so how do you get around drawing Saturn and Jupiter?

 

I'm always a bit worried that people will get fed up with a continual barrage of Mars drawings, so it's reassuring to know that some like yourself do enjoy them. 

With regard to drawing blanks, its all very technical. For Mars and Venus I will often use a glass tumbler to draw round. If I'm making a quick sketch of Jupiter I tend to compress a roll of selotape into a ellipse and draw around the inside of the roll to get a rough outline. For Saturn however, I do actually use official templates giving the correct angle of the rings. I should really use a proper template for Jupiter too. For the next apparition of Jupiter I will discard the selotape and make an accurate template. I had a set of planetary templates that I made a number of years ago but somehow they've disappeared. I will have to talk my wife into buying new Tupperware as the ones we have at present no longer have lids. ✂

Mike

[colin2007]

3 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

I'm always a bit worried that people will get fed up with a continual barrage of Mars drawings, so it's reassuring to know that some like yourself do enjoy them. 

With regard to drawing blanks, its all very technical. For Mars and Venus I will often use a glass tumbler to draw round. If I'm making a quick sketch of Jupiter I tend to compress a roll of selotape into a ellipse and draw around the inside of the roll to get a rough outline. For Saturn however, I do actually use official templates giving the correct angle of the rings. I should really use a proper template for Jupiter too. For the next apparition of Jupiter I will discard the selotape and make an accurate template. I had a set of planetary templates that I made a number of years ago but somehow they've disappeared. I will have to talk my wife into buying new Tupperware as the ones we have at present no longer have lids. ✂

Mike

Thank you for the reply Mike. I prefer visual observing over imaging anyday. So I would never get bored at looking at your sketches. I come from the the Patrick Moore and Paul Abel school of observing. 

As for the blanks , it sounds rather technical to me!! lol Never thought of squashing a sellotape roll before!! I got a jupiter blank from one of Patrick's books,  "The Practical Amateur Astronomer", and I trace that for my sketches.

The Sky At Night magazine used to give an excellent blank for Saturn but since then they have stopped doing them and now that all my issues and cd-roms have been passed on I got no excess to them .

Anyway never stop posting your sketches and when I got the confidence I will do the same. If I get out tonight and draw Mars I may post it on here tomorrow.

  

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, colin2007 said:

Thank you for the reply Mike. I prefer visual observing over imaging anyday. So I would never get bored at looking at your sketches. I come from the the Patrick Moore and Paul Abel school of observing. 

As for the blanks , it sounds rather technical to me!! lol Never thought of squashing a sellotape roll before!! I got a jupiter blank from one of Patrick's books,  "The Practical Amateur Astronomer", and I trace that for my sketches.

The Sky At Night magazine used to give an excellent blank for Saturn but since then they have stopped doing them and now that all my issues and cd-roms have been passed on I got no excess to them .

Anyway never stop posting your sketches and when I got the confidence I will do the same. If I get out tonight and draw Mars I may post it on here tomorrow.

  

That would be great if you manage a sketch and post it! 

Off the Mars theme by quite a few miles, you may find these useful. If you can print these images out on A4 you'll have templates for future Saturn observations. 

Mike

[colin2007]

Bless you Mike, thanks for the Saturn blanks. That was really kind of you.

 I`ve downloaded them and when I get time will print them out for future Saturn observations

[Pete Presland]

Love the detail in all your Mars images, most impressive.

[mikeDnight]

9 hours ago, bunnygod1 said:

Love the detail in all your Mars images, most impressive.

Thankyou Pete. 

[Pete Presland]

1 minute ago, mikeDnight said:

Thankyou Pete. 

as somebody who has always been pretty appalling at any kind of drawing I really admire those can produce these records of viewing sessions. I do a lot of imaging, but I think there is something more personal and individual about sketching

[mikeDnight]

2 minutes ago, bunnygod1 said:

as somebody who has always been pretty appalling at any kind of drawing I really admire those can produce these records of viewing sessions. I do a lot of imaging, but I think there is something more personal and individual about sketching

Hi Pete,

I would be the first to admit that today's imagers produce some truly amazing and scientifically valuable images. Sketching is no longer of much scientific value in comparison to a quality image. Being tactile creatures though, we love to touch the things we see, as it seems to give us greater affinity with the object. Mars of course can't be touched but I think sketching the detail that jumps out of the turbulent image is the next best thing. I suppose it can be likened to stacking the image. And it does provide a nice, easy to read record of what was seen visually through the eyepiece. I used to make copious notes but now I generally keep records by sketching an object. A picture speaks a thousand words! 

Mike

 

[Richard Hather]

Beautiful sketch Mike, even though I'm engrossed in my DSO sketching I would never rule out one day sketching planetary objects really nice detail very pleasant to look at ☺️