January 2009 - markseibold

January 2009 Winner - Sketching Forum's Finalist - markseibold
Moonrise with Saturn - Pastel Sketch on 19" X 25" format-
Tuesday night January 13th in very still air at 33 degrees F, yet poor seeing conditions, I decided to observe the moons spectacular terminator line with my 10.1" f/4.5 Newtonian and render this impressionistic and somewhat accurate pastel of the moons terminator line and as it was low and ‘warmed in color’ by the atmosphere. A 32mm Plossl was used for the general whole moon and a 12mm and 9.7mm for medium close-up details although the bad seeing (5/10 ?)did not allow much magnification.
A spectacular phase it was! I spent about an hour from Jan 13th 11:45 PM PDT till 1 AM Jan 14th roughing in the terminator and other key details, then retreated to indoors with use of a several digital photos I took through the eyepiece with a 9.7mm Plossl for close-up and 32mm for wide field for reference to recheck positions of and fill in the mare and other general surface features.
As Saturn was a few degrees above left of the moon I decided to add it in here, albeit a little out of distance scale from the moon yet showing the poor seeing conditions, I could barely make out Titan to the planets left, it is to accurate scale in apparent size to the live observation of the moon with a 32mm plossl at low power.
The paper was not what I would have preferred, a 19" X 25" Strathmore in rich blue with embossed ridge, my last available sheet. An undesired ridge-line shows through the surface. The moon was sketched at 15 inches diameter with various pastel chalks and mostly kept in the warm golden range of colors due to the appearance of it rising low in the atmosphere. I photographed the pastel image today in daylight for accurate pastel color representation.