Mars 16/12/2022 5”Refractor

[JAC51]

My attempts at sketching Mars last night between 9 and 10pm GMT in the UK.

My drawing skills still need an upgrade I have just learnt that there are other pencils in the world than HB.

Started with a Baader maxbright diagonal then worked through a Tak prism then back to the maxbright at the end.

 

[dweller25]

Great sketches,

Mars is quite a bit smaller than last visit and I am struggling to see any real detail beyond what you have drawn at the top of your page this time around.

[JeremyS]

Super sketches. 
Did you have a preference for the diagonal?

[RobertI]

Lovely sketches,  captures the main features very nicely. 

[JAC51]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Did you have a preference for the diagonal

 

 My preference was for the Tak Prism over the Baader Maxbright  by a narrow margin. Slightly less scatter slightly sharper edge to the Martian disk slightly sharper edges to surface details in those brief moments of good seeing.

[JeremyS]

49 minutes ago, JAC51 said:

 

 My preference was for the Tak Prism over the Baader Maxbright  by a narrow margin. Slightly less scatter slightly sharper edge to the Martian disk slightly sharper edges to surface details in those brief moments of good seeing.

The Tak prisms certainly perform well. Great value for money too 👍🏻

[josefk]

i like the way you have captured that as a time series. Super.

[Kon]

Great sketches and I really like the annotations.

[mikeDnight]

I love your sketches with plenty of detail seen and nicely recorded. 

[JAC51]

 There was more detail visible on the night than I currently have the skill to draw. Some detail was there which I wish now I had the courage to draw at the time. An example being that at times I could see a darker diagonal line cutting through the North polar cloud. On photographs I’ve now seen it was there but I thought I was imagining  it.

[Froeng]

Great work! What I really like is that these are actual “live sketches”, ie done at the eyepiece. They show character and have a personal note whilst recording what you saw. Very nice indeed!

[mikeDnight]

10 hours ago, JAC51 said:

 There was more detail visible on the night than I currently have the skill to draw. Some detail was there which I wish now I had the courage to draw at the time. An example being that at times I could see a darker diagonal line cutting through the North polar cloud. On photographs I’ve now seen it was there but I thought I was imagining  it.

 It's easy to begin doubting the detail you see, especially when its approaching the limit of your visual acuity. Your experience with detail at the polar region is a lesson you shouldnt be too quick to dismiss.  When I sketch, if over the time of the observation a feature at the limit of discernability keeps flitting in and out of view, I include it. You can always make a side note to indicate it was questionable or at the visual limit. Even if for a time it seems you may have made an error, in time you may find that what you recorded has been seen by others past or present. Sketching greatly improves your visual acuity, and you may have your observing skill questioned by others, especially by some who haven't yet experienced the benefits of putting pencil to paper as an observing aid.   As an example, some years back i began sketching a lunar crater named Werner. I chose it as it looked simple and I needed the practice with lunar drawing. I was using a 100mm refractor, but as the observation progressed my attention was drawn to a borderline visible fine rille, which extended from one of the two central peaks and travelled up the inner retracing and out onto the rough upland terrain. No photographs I looked at showed the rille, so I turned to some more experienced lunar observers. Doubt was cast over my rilles existence. So Werner became a pet project for me, and successive observations using my 100mm scope not only reveald the same rille, even during different lunations, they also revealed a number other fine rilles. Again, no NASA images I saw showed the rilles and no other observers acknowledged their existence yet I knew I was seeing them. Then a BAA member who had been intrigued by the problem, sent me an e-mail that included some images he had recently made. I was thrilled to see in those images the rilles I had seen visually. Experiences like this help to build confidence.

 When looking at your sketches, they immediately demanded more than a cursory glance. As eyepiece sketches they are excellent. Have you thought about making a cleaned up version in a separate sketch book? Doing so will give you a beautiful record of your observations that can enthuse you and others for years to come.

 

[JAC51]

Thank you for the reply Mike. I indeed started sketching after someone on CN recommended it as being one of the best ways to improve observing skills. At first I held back through simply lack of skill at drawing but then decided just to accept my drawing badly as something to accept and move on from. One thing it had taught me is the value of patience in observing.

I enjoyed your story of the rille that shows some persistence on your part on the face of all apprentice evidence to the contrary.

For my next step I am thinking of developing a colour palette for Mars using the wife’s colouring pencils and learning how to shade better than I do now.

Late hour for the reply here on a wet cloudy night because I’ve just let out our old Labrador who  is now wet and having to be dried off all at 2:30 in the morning.

She could at least have chosen a clear night to wake me up!

John