frank5817
Postmaster
   
Reged: 06/13/06
Loc: Illinois
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Crater Petavius
#3133432 - 05/29/09 01:53 AM Attachment (57 downloads)
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I have waited more than 2 years for conditions to be just right for re-sketching this magnificent crater. I got set up to observe under what looked to be hopeless circumstances. Although we have been under heavy cloud cover all week, the weather service forecasted clearing and as an added bonus my nearest “Clear Sky Chart” predicted the best possible seeing conditions until midnight. Both of these came true! Alas, heaven on earth.
Petavius crater (180 km.) is one of the best known and remarkable impact features on the lunar surface. It is a walled plain and floor fractured crater with impressive multiple central peaks (1.7 km), beautiful wall terraces, mare patches, volcanic ash regions, a raised floor and remarkable looking ramparts. In addition there is a special feature of this crater called Rimae Petavius. All three parts of this rille system could be seen clearly under the excellent seeing conditions that persisted during the entire observation. Connected to Petavius to the west is crater Wrottesley (57 km). South of Wrottesley the double rim of crater Petavius can be seen. There was so much detail visible in this area I could not hope to capture but a fraction of it.
Although Petavius is 3.8 billion years old it looks younger, stately and better preserved.
Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper, (10" x 12") white and black Conte’
pastel pencils and a hard blending stump.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian with 6mm (241x) and 4 mm (362x) eyepieces
Date: 5-29-2009 1:20-3:15 UT
Temperature: 13°C (55°F)
Clear, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi mostly I, [ the collapsed lava tube down the center of Vallis Alps would have been easy under the seeing conditions of this night ]
Colongitude 329.5 degrees
Lunation 4.5 days
Illumination 28%
Moon was at Perigee just 3 days ago
Oak Forest, Illinois
Frank McCabe
Edited by frank5817 (05/29/09 01:08 PM)
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Uwe Pilz
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 05/16/08
Loc: Leipzig, Germany
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: frank5817]
#3133556 - 05/29/09 05:37 AM
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Great sketch of Petavius! Especially I like your way to sketch the terraced walls.
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CarlosEH
Postmaster
   
Reged: 01/19/05
Loc: Pembroke Pines, Broward County...
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: Uwe Pilz]
#3133650 - 05/29/09 07:41 AM
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Frank,
A fantastic observation of Petavius showing impressive detail. You have captured the central mountains, Rimae Petavius, and the steeped walls very nicely. This is also one of my favorite lunar features to observe. Thank you for sharing it with us all.
Carlos
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Tom Machtemes
super member
   
Reged: 06/09/08
Loc: Evergreen Park, Ill.
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: frank5817]
#3133906 - 05/29/09 10:20 AM
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Frank,
That"s a very nice sketch.

Tom
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cildarith
Carpal Tunnel
   
Reged: 08/26/04
Loc: San Diego, CA
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: Tom Machtemes]
#3133985 - 05/29/09 11:07 AM
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Wow! Another spectacular rendition, Frank!
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frank5817
Postmaster
   
Reged: 06/13/06
Loc: Illinois
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: cildarith]
#3134212 - 05/29/09 01:18 PM
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Uwe, Carlos, Tom and Eric
Thank you guys. The conditions for sketching were the best I have ever experienced. I dulled 10 very sharp white pastel pencils during this sketch.
Frank
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markseibold
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/19/08
Loc: Portland Oregon
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: frank5817]
#3134766 - 05/29/09 07:15 PM
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Frank
Beautiful rendering of the crater Petavius. I'm glad to hear the weather finally worked for you.
Yes, I appreciate the dulling of your white pastel pencils; again the pains that artists must suffer so that others can glean from. 
We had beautifully warm weather here in Portland last night. About 60 F at midnight. I wished I'd gone out to observe and sketch now, after seing your sketch; perhaps tonight again.
Mark
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kraterkid
Post Laureate
   
Reged: 03/07/05
Loc: Jacumba, California
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: frank5817]
#3134774 - 05/29/09 07:22 PM
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Frank, OMG you nailed it buddy! The beautiful almost intertwined or woven look of the ancient glacis is rendered with remarkable clarity and accuracy. Remarkable job capturing the rilles! Magnificent sketch!
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frank5817
Postmaster
   
Reged: 06/13/06
Loc: Illinois
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: kraterkid]
#3134959 - 05/29/09 09:32 PM Attachment (23 downloads)
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Mark and Rich,
Thank you both very much. I have been waiting about a week for the clouds to leave and the moon to appear in the West. I was toying with the idea of taking a new tact to starting a sketch. I tried this once before and gave up prematurely. Instead of applying Conte' crayon to the sketch area first and blending it. I decided to do the entire sketch with sharpened Conte' pencils. Instead of applying pressure I used the weight of pencils of different length to apply the features. To create a brighter feature I just used a longer (heavier) pencil, a not so bright feature a shorter (lighter) pencil. The direction of the pencil helps create the feature. A basket weave motion created the terraced walls in the sketch. I did do some blending and used some pressure to speed thing along but I think I could do an entire sketch this way. It seems to work well on 400 Artagain paper. Is this obvious and I am just slow to catch on? It was an Aha moment for me. Thanks again guys.
Frank
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Tommy5
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/28/04
Loc: Chicagoland
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: frank5817]
#3135113 - 05/30/09 12:04 AM
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Great sketch of this interesting lunar feature,glad to see you are still trying out different ways to sketch.
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Special Ed
Postmaster
   
Reged: 05/18/03
Loc: Greenbrier Co., WV 38N, 80W
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: Tommy5]
#3135391 - 05/30/09 07:27 AM
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Frank,
That's an incredible sketch--the best I've seen of Petavius since Carlos posted his.
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JimPie
sage
Reged: 11/10/07
Loc: S.E.Michigan
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: Special Ed]
#3135827 - 05/30/09 12:52 PM
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Another incredible luner sketch Frank.
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Sol
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 08/20/07
Loc: Powys, Wales, UK
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: JimPie]
#3136319 - 05/30/09 06:50 PM
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Thats an amazing and well observed sketch Frank, thanks for adding the sketch technique info. too, very useful to see other methods for shading features.
Mark
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frank5817
Postmaster
   
Reged: 06/13/06
Loc: Illinois
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: Sol]
#3136383 - 05/30/09 07:32 PM
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Tommy5, Michael, Jim and Sol,
Thank you all for your kind words. I will not soon forget what a perfect observing night it was.
Frank
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rolandlinda3
Post Laureate
   
Reged: 01/24/06
Loc: Crozet VA 22932
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: frank5817]
#3136725 - 05/30/09 11:49 PM
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Great sketch. As soon as I saw your title I went to the thread. It is such a wonderful lunar target and your work on it is really good. Care to post your first sketch beside this one? I really enjoy seeing two sketches at different times to see how they compare and what I may have emphasized on one or the other. Would love to see yours side by side. Roland
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frank5817
Postmaster
   
Reged: 06/13/06
Loc: Illinois
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: rolandlinda3]
#3137353 - 05/31/09 10:42 AM Attachment (24 downloads)
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Roland and Linda,
Thank you. Just for you folks. The sketch attached at the bottom is from the third week of March 2007. The lighting was similar on both days. Both are sunrise sketches.
Frank
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Tom Machtemes
super member
   
Reged: 06/09/08
Loc: Evergreen Park, Ill.
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: frank5817]
#3139933 - 06/01/09 02:39 PM
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Frank,
The both sketches look different to me, I think the top sketch looks, better.

Tom
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frank5817
Postmaster
   
Reged: 06/13/06
Loc: Illinois
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: Tom Machtemes]
#3140400 - 06/01/09 06:12 PM Attachment (22 downloads)
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Tom,
Thank you.  Yes there are differences. The lunar librations and shadows were different and the top sketch was made under much better seeing conditions. I also didn't rotate them to match orientations. So here you can compare them a little better below.
Frank
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rolandlinda3
Post Laureate
   
Reged: 01/24/06
Loc: Crozet VA 22932
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: frank5817]
#3140715 - 06/01/09 09:08 PM
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Excellent. thanks for the trouble of posting both. I find it fascinating to see the subtle differences due to moon position, time, weather, etc. Great work. Would make a real nice side by side frame or example for people you teach to sketch...a challenge to see differences in a target that is affected by various things. thanks
Roland
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frank5817
Postmaster
   
Reged: 06/13/06
Loc: Illinois
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Re: Crater Petavius
[Re: rolandlinda3]
#3141494 - 06/02/09 10:22 AM
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Roland,
Thanks again and for the suggestion to post them together.
Frank
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