Telescope Reviews: Oct09 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!

We are very pleased and proud to present the October 2009 Sketching Semi-Finalists in the Imaging/Sketching Contest.

nunciusaustralis:

cpl43uk:

M31 and M32 observed with Nexstar 8SE and 40mm eyepiece plus hyperion zoom for some fainter detailing; sketched and then photoshoped.

Michael11:

M42 (the Orion Nebula) sketch.
The drawig was made in Negev desert, in Israel, at 16 oct.
Instrument: Orion's 8" Sky View Pro newtonian, 12.5mm plossl.
Sketched with graphite pencil on a white paper, scanned and processed in Photoshop.

frank5817:

The Great Lunar Peninsula
On this cold early morning I chose for sketching the lunar highland region that is pointed directly to Earth, namely the Great Peninsula and the adjacent Mare Nubium. It would be much fun to draw the entire visible part of the Peninsula in just one sketching session at the eyepiece but that is just a dream with the terminator features changing so quickly. I focused on just what I could handle inside my self-imposed two hour limit. The seeing was good and that alone means ignoring some visible detail within the allotted time.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Canson paper 9”x 13”, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils , and Conte’ crayons, a blending stump, plastic eraser.
Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian with 6mm (241x) eyepiece
Date: 10-11-2009 9:30-11:30 UT
Temperature: -3°C (27°F)
Clear becoming mostly cloudy, calm
Seeing: Antoniadi II and briefly I
Co longitude 182°
Lunation 22.7 days
Illumination 49.4%
Oak Forest, Illinois
Frank McCabe

markseibold:

*Lunar pastel sketch produced on June 2 2009-

As it was a beautifully balmy evening with clearing and the gibbous moon showing many interesting features, no less the magnificent terminator, I set up my 10.1" Newtonian reflector to sit out for several hours and decide which features I would render in pastel. As I began to observe without sketching for the first half hour with approximately 68 F temperatures, light wind degraded seeing. Then still air followed by 10 PM and seeing was steady for some time.

I began observing about 9:45 PM PDT and finished about 1 AM. I focused on Sinus Iridum again with Plato, Copernicus for the first time [left unfinished as I did not include its rays, only concentrating on the crater walls and rim], a roughed in Mare Crisium, also unfinished but included Proclus and its rays roughed in. It was amazing to see how the terminator changed over three hours. I had to leave some features as is in the original hour. This is an artistic license that tests ones observing abilities; the changing effects of what we assume is a static and unchanging moon. The light and dark moving at the terminator is actually quite dynamic!

The detail at middle left was at the terminator but I cannot identify it. What caught my eye was a light shaft that I only rendered roughly at the middle of the detail, as I originally intended to feature it as the main subject of this work. I could actually note over a few minutes time the light creeping across this craters floor! I instead became lost in so many other surface images, that I was overwhelmed and began to feel sorry for those who raced by in their cars in the street next to me. They don't know what they are missing! I see my charts at possibly somewhere between Epimenides, Elger and Palus. Will someone confirm this? Again after about three hours I was fatigued at 1AM as seeing degraded and the moon was low in the atmosphere. I continued inside with the whole moon image [at 10" diameter] as seen conventional by the unaided eye earlier, only roughed in from low power at the telescope by finishing with use of photos I took through the telescope eyepiece for reference. *(Note Sinus Iridum detail at bottom in inverted reverse as sketched through eyepiece.) The foreground lunar landscape was done last, finishing at 4 AM this morning June 3, entirely from imagination. It could be a rille or walled plain not necessarily related to any of the observed features. Perhaps I imagined standing on the surface with that shaft of light approaching.

Various pastels on 20" X 32” coal black 100% cold pressed cotton fiber Stonehenge paper. The art work has since been framed behind glass and rephotographed on October 26th 2009-*Some reflections through the glass may be present but efforts to avoid them were exercised.

Please note that voting will conclude on November 8th at Midnight EST.

Many thanks to all who took part in the contest!

*

Which Sketch goes to the Finals?
Users may choose only one (25 total votes)

nunciusaustralis:

2 08%

cpl43uk:

6 24%

Michael11:

10 40%

frank5817:

5 20%

markseibold:

2 08%

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"He's dead, Jim - I'll get his wallet, you get his tricorder." - Leonard "Bones" McCoy

Weston CSC: