February 22, 2014

Texas Moon

drawing by Erika Rix, Texas, USA I've been doing a study on lunar phases and this is my latest sketch. It's a photo of the sketch from last night after wrapping up my observing session. No adjustments have been made to the sketch other than cropping the lower blank portion of the paper. My phase sketches used to take close to two hours at the eyepiece to complete. I've been building up my endurance to 3-4 hours for a single sketch to include more detail. Obviously, the terminator is drawn first to "freeze" the time stamp on the phase. Then I work my way across the disk at a more leisurely pace, moving my observing chair and stool gradually as the session progresses. Total eyepiece/sketch time is just over four hours on this one. Erika Rix Admission by CAW: I did adjust Erika's submission by making the sky uniformly dark (it had a cross-image tonal variation due to the photographic copying), and I flipped it so it has north up and east to the right, as we see it in the sky but not not how Erika sketched it - artists show exactly what they see; I removed the effects of the telescope optics. Technical Details I used a 102mm f/9.8 refractor on an LXD75 mount, 20mm eyepiece setting on my Hyperion zoom, and a 13% T Moon filter to help with contrast. The media is black Strathmore Artagain paper (60 lb., 160 g/m2), white charcoal pencil, black charcoal pencil, white Conte' crayon, white Conte' pastel pencil, black Conte' color pencil,and a blending stump for the maria. I used a circular 6-inch protractor to outline the lunar disk. Related Links Erika's website (showing many more phase drawings - including a blink with a photo) Yesterday's LPOD: Moon Over Madrid Tomorrow's LPOD: Interworld Comparison COMMENTS? Register, Log in, and join in the comments.