The early bird catches the lunar trio

[acr_astro]

Hi all,

yesterday afternoon, the satellite images showed just a small area of clear skies coming across my terrace. Unfortunately this gap was expected to leave already at about 5 o'clock. So I sat up my gear even before the sunset and started at quarter past four already. The early bird catches ... this time Theophilus, Catharina and Cyrillus. This famous lunar trio - a first class target for all lunar observers has been for quite some time on the list of my lunar sketching targets. Now finally I got it at magnification 125x.

Theophilus (about 100km in diameter and of Eratosthenian age) displayed its wonderful central peak. South of it, the floors of Cyrillus and Catharina, both of them about the same size as Theophilus but being Nectarian in age, were still widely covered by the shadows of the eastern crater rims. Today it was quite tricky to catch the details in these craters at this early point of time. East of it in Mare Nectaris, we have Beaumont and Mädler.

As expected, at 5 o'clock, the clouds covered the moon. With some more time I could have added some further details. So  I'd say the sketch is 90% ready. Here we go:

Telescope: Martini 10" f/5 truss tube Dobsonian
Eyepiece: Celestron X-cel 10mm
Date & Time: November 5th, 2016 1615-1700 CET
Location: home terrace, Dusseldorf region, Germany
Technique: chalk and charcoal on black sketching paper
Size: about 12" by 12"

Hope you enjoy it!

Achim

[rwilkey]

Hi Achim, a brilliant sketch, thanks for sharing!

[Jose Rodrigues]

Beautiful sketch, thank you for sharing!

[laudropb]

Very nice sketch Achim.

[N3ptune]

I like it too, that's a really inspiring drawing with great details and contrast. it cranks up my motivation! Thanks for sharing your art.

[mikeDnight]

Excellent sketch! 

Mike