Some Lunar Craters and other stuff!

[MalcolmM]

Sometimes I feel like sketching and sometimes I just want to enjoy the view. Here's my latest attempts! I struggle to decide what amount of detail to try and capture. And there is always extra texture you suddenly see, or an extra tiny craterlet or piece of subtle (or not so subtle) shading. The eyepiece view is so much more detailed. Anyhow, as @mikeDnight has explained, sketching really does help to concentrate the mind on what you are seeing and helps you see more. I enjoy correlating my sketches with a Lunar Atlas the next day. 

My sketch of Venus needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. It's so bright (even with a Neodymium filter) and sparkles and dances so much, I'm not sure whether I was seeing genuine dark areas or just aberrations. 

Markarian's Chain (my first time) was really just to draw roughly what I saw in order to correlate it with a star atlas. It was what I could see through a 180 Mewlon and it allowed me to compare the views with a 100DC the next night. The DC did not see as much, unfortunately I did not record which ones were visible!

Thanks for looking,

Malcolm 

[Mr Spock]

Nice sketches. For Venus I'd recommend a variable polarising filter, it really does cut down the glare and bring out subtle detail.

[JeremyS]

Great stuff Malcolm 👍🏻

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Good work. The scrubbed out shopping list really adds a down to earth touch. 👍

If you haven't already, try observing Venus during daylight. There's very little glare so polarising filters are not required.

[mikeDnight]

Nice sketches Malcolm.  I like your Venus, it does seem you've caught the dusky equatorial cloud, but if it was 20.00 UT you may have been struggling with a thick turbulent atmosphere, and brilliance of the planet against a darkening sky. Also, there may have been some fast moving air interfering with the image.  I really am taken with your sketch of Petavius. You seem to have caught the bright ridge that's on the oppisite side of the central mountain peak to the rille. You even sketched the slight bow in the dark rille as it nears the terrace wall. Excellent!

[MalcolmM]

Thanks for all the tips, advice and comments. I'll definitely try daylight viewing for Venus and a variable polarising filter sounds like a useful buy!

6 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

bright ridge that's on the oppisite side of the central mountain peak to the rille

I wish I could say that was definitely a bright ridge rather than an accident of shading but I suspect it is the latter! I can say the bow on the Rill is genuine though 🙂

Malcolm 

[mikeDnight]

22 hours ago, MalcolmM said:

Thanks for all the tips, advice and comments. I'll definitely try daylight viewing for Venus and a variable polarising filter sounds like a useful buy!

I wish I could say that was definitely a bright ridge rather than an accident of shading but I suspect it is the latter! I can say the bow on the Rill is genuine though 🙂

Malcolm 

Hi Malcom.

 I love your honesty!  I've attached a pic taken with my phone hand held at the eyepiece of my 4".  I've enlarged the image so as to make the bright ridge opposite the dark rille easier to see, but the sky was a bit milky with thin cloud. I hope you can see that it really does exist, although not immediately obvious. The original magnification was 128X and its a prism view.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by mikeDnight

[MalcolmM]

3 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Hi Malcom.

 I love your honesty!  I've attached a pic taken with my phone hand held at the eyepiece of my 4".  I've enlarged the image so as to make the bright ridge opposite the dark rille easier to see, but the sky was a bit milky with thin cloud. I hope you can see that it really does exist, although not immediately obvious. The original magnification was 128X and its a prism view.

 

 

I can definitely see the bright ridge on the pic, I'll look out for it next time. Great detail too for handheld eyepiece shots!

Malcolm 

[Mr Spock]

Here's one I took the same night with the 100mm and x2 Barlow. Shot at ISO1600 so a bit noisy (I'm just learning this imaging malarky). Hope it shows the same feature.

[MalcolmM]

Great tip @ScouseSpaceCadet thanks. Observing when the sky is brighter showed definite albedo markings.

Great image @Mr Spock, it's much more detailed than anything I have managed so far.

Malcolm 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

34 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

Great tip @ScouseSpaceCadet thanks. Observing when the sky is brighter showed definite albedo markings.

Great image @Mr Spock, it's much more detailed than anything I have managed so far.

Malcolm 

I'm not here just for the comedy... 🙄😀😉

Seriously I pinched the daylight tip from S@N contributor and B.A.A. Venus section Dir. Dr Paul G. Abel. I rarely bother with Venus once dark arrives. Visual observations when the planet is well placed are much easier and reveal more detail in twilight before the sun sets.

Edited May 1, 2023 by ScouseSpaceCadet