23 September 2009

The moon, and a sketch

Check it out!
As part of his/our Amazon haul, J bought himself a how-to of astronomical sketching. Drawing is something he's been interested in for a while, but never had the chance? opportunity? impetus? to get seriously into. The moon in particular seemed like a good target, so today he went and faithfully bought everything recommended. After a will-she, won't-she kind of day this evening turned out cold and cloud-free, so we had another awesome moon viewing (illumination 24.5%, 4.9 days old). It was very cool to see how the terminator had moved from last night (I didn't think it moved that much between my two viewings - had to watch Spicks and Specks - but J said it moved noticeably while he sketched). I'm so glad our first moon viewing was really at the start of the lunar cycle, because I will get a very good sense of lunar geography (lunography?) - seeing Mare Crisium totally in the sun was a good reference point. I particularly liked the craters Atlas and Hercules, north of Crisium (not in the sketch); and the very southern section of the moon, near the terminator, is just rife with craters - not a good area to start sketching, hence the concentration on the north.

Once again I indulged in a little Jupiter viewing to finish the night; two bands, Io very close in. The other three moons were spaced out fairly regularly.

No comments:

Post a Comment