Telescope Reviews: Crater Clavius in clay

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Astrophotography and Sketching >> Sketching

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Jef De Wit
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 03/06/09

Loc: Hove, Belgium

Crater Clavius in clay
#4571227 - 05/09/11 11:33 AM Attachment (66 downloads)

Last week I organised a clay-workshop at my local astroclub. The idea for this evening came when I saw (some time ago) the beautiful model of Archimedes by Kraterkid (Richard Handy) here on CN.

I choose crater Tycho as target to model, because I found some very detailed pictures on the internet by the Japanese Selene-mission (Jaxa). Crater Clavius was the second choise (as reserve). While everybody started working on Tycho, I tried Clavius.

With only primitive material (clothes-peg and ballpoint) to work with, no experience with claymodeling (except somewhere in my childhood I guess) and 90 minutes of work, I never thaught to have a such nice result. You have to try it yourself!

I'm still collecting pictures from the the other craters. You will get them soon. Meanwhile, here's already my crater Clavius. Hope you like it.

Edited by Jef De Wit (05/09/11 11:36 AM)

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Greyhaven
scholastic sledgehammer

Reged: 05/11/04

Loc: Greater downtown Maine

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Jef De Wit]
#4571600 - 05/09/11 02:50 PM

Jef
Sure is nice to see how the subject of modeling the moon in clay is done. Your brief explanation of the technique is great. I hope to give it a go.
Be Well
Grey

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Rutilus
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 12/17/10

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Greyhaven]
#4571753 - 05/09/11 04:03 PM

Jef - Excellent work, reminds me of the work by Nasmyth and his plaster models of the lunar surface. Many of Nasmyth's models are located in the Science museum, Kensington, London.

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cpl43uk
sage

Reged: 02/09/08

Loc: Bristol, UK

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Rutilus]
#4571833 - 05/09/11 04:46 PM

Wow - really interesting technique and great for a club night. Have never thought about this and would appreciate more on the actual approach.

What do you do with the model after the club night?

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CarlosEH
Postmaster

Reged: 01/19/05

Loc: Pembroke Pines, Broward County...

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Rutilus]
#4572205 - 05/09/11 08:45 PM

Jef,

An outstanding reproduction of the crater Clavius. You have recreated this prominent lunar crater very nicely. Richard Handy has produced similar clay reproductions off lunar craters. Thank you for sharing your project with us all.

Carlos

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Wouter D'hoye
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 06/27/03

Loc: Belgium

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: CarlosEH]
#4572579 - 05/10/11 01:50 AM

very nice! I'ts fun to see a totally differnt apporach to astronomy

Wouter.

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frank5817
Postmaster

Reged: 06/13/06

Loc: Illinois

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Wouter D'hoye]
#4573020 - 05/10/11 10:16 AM

Jef,

Awesome! I have never tried this because it just looked like it might end in total frustration.
That is really great work.

Frank

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niteskystargazer
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 10/05/09

Loc: 41-43'-28" N 87-42'-39" W

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Jef De Wit]
#4573091 - 05/10/11 10:52 AM

Jef,

Very good model, of Clavius Carter

.

CS,KLU,

,

Tom

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Jef De Wit
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 03/06/09

Loc: Hove, Belgium

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Rutilus]
#4573475 - 05/10/11 02:30 PM

Thanks to you all! I'm glad it worked out well.

Quote:

Jef - Excellent work, reminds me of the work by Nasmyth and his plaster models of the lunar surface.

I didn't know of this lunarobserver. Roel send me two of his models on a Dutch sketching forum. Looks great!

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Jef De Wit
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 03/06/09

Loc: Hove, Belgium

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: cpl43uk]
#4573480 - 05/10/11 02:32 PM

Quote:

What do you do with the model after the club night?

Everybody took his model to home! It takes some time to dry.

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Jef De Wit
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 03/06/09

Loc: Hove, Belgium

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: frank5817]
#4573490 - 05/10/11 02:36 PM

Quote:

I have never tried this because it just looked like it might end in total frustration.

I'm sure it will be a masterpiece! In fact it's more easy to model a crater (from a photo) than to sketch a crater at the EP. In daylight the model doesn't look that fantastic, but if you take a photo with some light/shadow-play it looks really great.

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chrisrnuttall
Professor Emeritus

Reged: 12/29/10

Loc: York, England

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Jef De Wit]
#4573496 - 05/10/11 02:37 PM

I never thought of doing this, what a great idea, and an excellent result!

I have done some clay sculpting at work in the past and I found that my results were unexpectedly good, it is a very intuitive and natural thing to do, and you can keep refining the sculpt till you are happy with it.
I think that anyone who is interested in trying to sculpt in clay but assumes their efforts will not be pleasing should have a go. Everyone on this forum is at least a little artistically talented after all. All you need are a few basic tools (improvised is fine) and some good quality clay.

Edited by chrisrnuttall (05/10/11 02:38 PM)

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kraterkid
Post Laureate

Reged: 03/07/05

Loc: Jacumba, California

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: chrisrnuttall]
#4573668 - 05/10/11 04:21 PM

Hi Jef,

Fantastic work, it so good to see others trying this technique! I like your step by step tutorial, very nice detail.

I'm sculpting Mare Nectaris now. I'm using the LROC data as well as my own observations. The amount of detail is pretty daunting, but the end result should be interesting.

Erika Rix did a beautiful job on her clay model of Aristarchus and the Vallis Schoteri.

When your clay model is complete you can use it to simulate the way the craters change with a spotlight placed at various angles.

Jef a marvelous sculpture!

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Jef De Wit
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 03/06/09

Loc: Hove, Belgium

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: kraterkid]
#4575056 - 05/11/11 11:07 AM

Chris, thanks!

@ Rich: 100 x thanks, because your beautiful model made me begin with this "experiment". Before I never had thaught about it. Can't wait to see Mare Nectaris....

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Scopyfrank
999 Forever

Reged: 08/29/08

Loc: Luxembourg

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Jef De Wit]
#4575162 - 05/11/11 11:57 AM

Amazing job. And cool outreach activity for kids with easier ones: Copernicus, Gassendi i.e.

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Jef De Wit
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 03/06/09

Loc: Hove, Belgium

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Scopyfrank]
#4576739 - 05/12/11 06:47 AM

, Frank.

Edited by Jef De Wit (05/12/11 06:48 AM)

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Michael11
sage

Reged: 06/24/06

Loc: Israel

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Jef De Wit]
#4577211 - 05/12/11 11:51 AM

I like the result - very realistic impression

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Jef De Wit
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 03/06/09

Loc: Hove, Belgium

Re: Crater Clavius in clay new

[Re: Michael11]
#4578952 - 05/13/11 09:32 AM

Quote:

very realistic impression

Thanks! Ok, you can recognize Clavius without any problem, but much of the features are not at the exact location or are not at the exact scale. The same problem as with my moonsketches...

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