Telescope Reviews: Moon Rendering- Abstract Impression- In One Hour

The moon rendered in pastel in one hour:

I had posted this in the sketching forum earlier as I did it entirely from the eyepiece- I hope it is OK
to post in another forum as I believe this piece qualifies for art more than scientific technical sketching. Will someone inform me? *

A first quarter moon just 7 days old since new is a stunning sight in any telescope; or even to the naked eye. Last night I began to observe it in daylight just before sunset through a Nexstar 5i Cassegrain with a 32mm Plossl. I switched to a 12mm Plossl for a short time to further check the terminator line details. I began to sketch with pastels at around 8:30 PM. As Erika has said before while sketching the sun through an h-alpha she will look at details many times before touching the pastel chalk to the paper. I had the similar problem last night. How to get every crater and detail and where to start was my thought as I pondered the lunar surface. I thought, one could spend a lifetime at this. I have never spent so much time taking such a serious long hard look at the moon and attempting to make an accurate sketch. Then the terminator line began to change slightly after say, a half hour as the sun rose on the lunar surface- mountains and craters filled with light and something changed in time and space. The Heisenberg principle put to test.

So this may serve as a brief tutorial in sketching the moon, as it is a first for me and on Strathmore Artagain paper in only 9” X 12”, although I have done a very rough impression in pastels once before on heavily toothed blue Mi Tientes paper (see gallery); this was an experimental effort and could be considered as unfinished as after one hour or so, by 9:45 PM my minds eyes were full of craters. As I made dire efforts to record most of the details near the terminator line, I realized that it was difficult with the sketched image as the lunar disc at only 7 7/8ths inches diameter and entirely done from the eyepiece finishing in dark cannot alow to fit in all of the details. I called it done due to darkness. I realized that there is simply too much surface image to cover if only just over half of the moon lit to sketch last night but in this rather small format; I would suggest that you work in a larger format image if you want to allow for the finer details; but then you have more paper to cover and thus a dichotomy- Can you do it all in the hour or so before the image changes? Can you cover it all before your eyes are tired? Can you count all the craters you literally see and sketch them all in accurate detail?

The earthshine-lit side was easy. I just dragged a cobalt blue chalk stick on its side; then overlaid with a burnt umber in areas where the mare is barely visible. I finally finished by rubbing with cotton swabs to blend and soften the earthshine. I would have added more detail in the terminator but decided to leave this work as an “impression” of the experience of observing rather than recording every last fine detail. The actual image was bright white overall as the sky darkened at 10 PM, owever I left potions as bare black paper in some of the maria (seas). It may appear as more an abstract or impression and unfinished. I hope it qualifies for the sketching forum. . . or is it just art? That is the question.

Explanation of the blue in the earthshine:
An astronomy student of mine from a few years ago wanted to visit John Dobson as he was staying nearby and recuperating from a recent stroke. She had only seen him in the Astronomers Part 1 that I played for the class and she acquired a copy of the 35th Anniversary edition of Smithsonian Magazine with the condensed short version article from the full article in the April ’89 issue. As we talked to Dobson for maybe three hours, then viewed the moon though a 14 inch f/7 Dobsonian that Carl Zambuto made the mirror for and presented to Dobson as a gift last year, Dobson commented that the earthshine actually looks slightly blue as most of the earth light is reflected by the blue oceans. I may have rendered this a little too blue but thought as an impression that it balanced well with the other colors.

I will look forward to any questions, comments and criticisms,

-Mark

The added hand today Jul 12, 2008 >

Edited by markseibold (07/13/08 02:10 PM)