Mars sketches - 29 Sept 2020 onwards

[Pixies]

Hi,

Instead of clogging up the forum with lots of threads, I thought I'd have one thread where I'll put my sketches.

So tonight, I managed to catch an hour. The sky was transparent and the seeing better than Saturday night. I love seeing how Mars rotates just a bit each night. So 2 days after my last sketch, the view is quite different. Tonight, Syrtis Major and Syrtis Minor are the main features, with Hellas obvious too. Mare Serpentis and Sinus Sabaeus fade towards the morning limb, these being the forward features 2 days ago.

The polar cap is still bright and distinct, but very much smaller than 4 weeks ago. However, I'm still hoping that I'll observe a bright feature over the next few weeks, other than the cap and the northerly mists/hood.

 

[globular]

Very nice.
What materials are you using?

[Pixies]

1 minute ago, globular said:

Very nice.
What materials are you using?

Pencil, mainly. Have been touching-up digitally - the black surround and white highlights. I nicked a wee bit of my son's pastels to try something tonight. Not sure if it worked. Used some pink card as background, too.

I want to show the cold blue-grey of the albedo features that I see, but not having much luck. I think a visit to the art shop to get inspiration.

[globular]

Thought I could see some digital touches. (not a criticism). Whatever you did it is very effective.
I have some coloured pencils and some pastels too that I thought about blending - but I struggle with anything other than shades of grey at the eyepiece. 
Starting with a Mars coloured background and adding whites, oranges and browns might work.  If only I knew what I was doing lol.
 

Edited September 29, 2020 by globular

[BRADLEY 1953]

Very nice indeed.

[Ceramus]

• Great sketch.

[Pixies]

Well, I thought this single thread would save me posting lots of different ones for each sketch! It's been 4 weeks now, but at last a good night for observing! 

Mostly done at x150. It appeared calm but didn't really take much more magnification. Seeing wasn't too bad, with plenty of opportunity for fine detail - although it did appear to be degrading as time went on. Afterwards I tried a quick stacked video with my phone, but it wasn't great. 

 

[mikeDnight]

Fabulous!!!! 

Great idea to use only one thread for your sketches. Wish I'd done that!

Edited October 26, 2020 by mikeDnight

[dweller25]

Very good drawings 👍

[Pixies]

Completely lost track and forgot to add my final sketch. Here it is:
 

[Pixies]

And, drum roll....

[John]

Really excellent series of drawings

 

[NGC 1502]

Excellent and thanks for posting the sketches.

The first sketch from September 29th almost identically matches my own from the evening of November 3rd, confirmation of what could be seen at the eyepiece 👍

Ed.

[globular]

9 hours ago, Pixies said:

And, drum roll....

..... cymbal tisssh.

Fantastic 

[JeremyS]

Cracking drawings @Pixies

[Froeng]

Very nicely done! Particularly love the last one with all drawings combined.

 

[mikeDnight]

21 hours ago, Pixies said:

And, drum roll....

Top class drawings Pixies! I can hear the drums!!