Bessel Ray and A Wrinkle Ridge

[Mike JW]

Last nights target was the Bessel Ray, in Mare Serenitatis. Actually quite difficult to pick up.  Some folk say that this mysterious ray could be ejecta from Tycho, others say its source is unknown. I enjoyed teasing out its presence. Amazing that it passes straight through Crater Bessel, which came first the ray or the crater? I could not decide. Crater Bessel lacks a central peak and is about 15/16 Km across.

Although my target was the ray I could not help noticing the amazing "dark snake" lying close to the terminator - really quite spooky. The low lighting really highlighted this sizeable wrinkle ridge.

Also of interest was the strip of larva plain close to the edge was a definite lighter colour. Reading around apparently near the edges of Serenitatis there is a different type of rock so maybe I was picking this up?

Mike

 

[Rob Sellent]

Gorgeous drawing, Mike. You've really captured the Moon's desolute beauty. I just have a couple of questions:

• What scope, mount, eyepiece are you using?
• Are these pencil sketches?
• How long would you say an average lunar drawing takes?
• Do you draw on your lap or use some kind of board etc?

Edited October 19, 2019 by Rob Sellent

[Mike JW]

Hi Rob,

I either use a 7" Mak Cas (on an Ioptron Minitower pro) or the C11 (on a iEQ45 Pro).  Your 102 Vixen is fine for lunar sketching.

EPs  - various but mainly Televue Delite. I use magnification between x100 to x250. Sometimes I will go higher to check out details.

Sketch time - at the EP 30 to 60 mins to get the basic outline, mark in the black shadows, make any notes. I often have the laptop near by with the current moon view to ID features.

Back indoors finishing sketch can take from 1 to 2 hrs. (my posted "dotty technique" took 5 or 6 hrs to do)

Mainly Pencil (various grades and makes). To get black for small areas I will use black felt (0.1 to 0.5 width, and normal chunky felts for big areas). To get the smooth look I go over the shading with blending stumps. To get bright white I use a white gel pen.

Scan the sketch which frequently does not look as good as the real sketch, so I will then darken it in Photoshop, sometimes scanning give a speckled effect to the black areas so I either blacken then lightly and/or use the blur facility in Photoshop. Sometimes I will improve the white mountain, crater rims with white in Photoshop.

Paper - photocopy type paper in a sketch pad.

My general advice - give it go, make lots of mistakes, look at what others do, give it a go, make more mistakes, get cross, break a few pencil leads but stick with it...........

I am not artistic - I was thrown out of art at school. The technique I use I developed through dogged persistence. Ask me to draw a house and it would be like a child's picture.......

Mike

[Rob Sellent]

Thanks a lot for that, Mike. When the Moon returns for viewing next month, I'll give it a go and post up my dodgy results

[Marvin Jenkins]

I’m not kidding, I thought for a minute someone had posted a photo in sketching. Blows my mind. Can’t comprehend how you observe then record, the two things seems separate in my brain.

[Mike JW]

Marvin, that is kind of you expressing your appreciation. Mike