Total Lunar Eclipse March 3rd 2007 Revisited
My mam says “yer mad “ when she sees me going outside at odd hours in miserable temperatures to sketch a rock in the sky 250,000 miles from Earth. As she say’s that to me she smiles as she knows how much I enjoy it and she knows how my moon interest started.
Everyone I know had to ask their ma to ask their da to be allowed to stay up late for whatever reason. I was no exception when I asked mammy to ask daddy to let me stay up to see the July 20th 1969 Moon landing. An unusual request for a twelve year old but the wish was granted and that is essentially what got me interested in all things Moon.
Later this year I will be the co author of a book on lunar sketching with four other wonderful Moon "mad " people .The book is in the Springer Patrick Moore practical astronomy series.
There is a dedication to mam in the book, she is very proud of my Moon drawing and now has more reasons to smile, even though she will still say “yer Mad “
Details on the Book available soon, estimated publication late October.
The total lunar eclipse was clouded out to many people last night but back in March 2007 I was lucky enough to see and sketch a lunar eclipse from my garden in Bray.
3/3/07
200mm dob/25mm eyepiece /Focal Length 1,200mm, 2XBarlow/96X
Lunation 14.23 Days
Illumination 100%
Soft Pastels, 300gm paper, pencils.
Seeing 1
Images rotated 180 degrees
Digital Photographs of both images
Danjon Scale L = 4
March 3rd 2007
I was delayed setting up for XYand Z reasons, in an ideal world I would have had the entire lunar disc sketched in with detail before the earthly shadow entered this drama.
The delay, actioned my sketching in defence of the advancing darkness
When I began to sketch at 21:40UT the ominous dark shadow was descending on the Tycho area. I decided quickly to sketch from the North ( bottom of the page) up (south is up for me)
I realised that my usual etching method with a wooden toothpick was going to be too slow for this sketch and decided on pencil over pastel for speed.
Firstly I detailed the Mares as much as I could give prominent bright craters like Proclus, Plinius and Kepler some white attention as I suspected they might be still visible under the shadowy blanket, despite whatever colour developed. I put a lot of detail into Plato as it was outstanding in shape and contrast.
21:50UT the shadow was heading to gobble up my Copernicus before I could sketch it.
22:24UT Proclus was in grave danger of being swallowed whole.
By 22:34UT a fabulous blue leading wave developed and swept up the curve of the moon to merge with the increasing raspberry tones developing toward the south.
At 22:34UT when the colour began to appear, I had to run inside for red pastels.
Earlier that day I was thinking how would I do this colour overlay? I laid down some grey and tried out brushing it over with some red tones but this was not so good.
Fingers were the only thing for it and I worked quickly in red tones until I saw to both my delight and excitement a blue wave appearing across the entire width of the lunar disc.
Fingers red, big wipe, fingers blue.
In my haste and excitement of blueing the moon I wiped out Plato as my blue fingers joined the shadow and began moving up with it, oh god !! Stop or there will be no moon left. I observed that the blue edges wrapped the moon in a curve to both sides, like a gas flame burning up my surface detail.
Meanwhile a yellow orange glow developed at the South East limb, big wipe, yellow fingers. Ended up with just Goldschmidt, Barrow, and I think Philolaus left at the Northern end of the moon, just about untouched at that moment. A criss cross ray ejecta feature was visible also.
The star 59 Leonis was also sketched in off the SE limb
Everyone I know had to ask their ma to ask their da to be allowed to stay up late for whatever reason. I was no exception when I asked mammy to ask daddy to let me stay up to see the July 20th 1969 Moon landing. An unusual request for a twelve year old but the wish was granted and that is essentially what got me interested in all things Moon.
Later this year I will be the co author of a book on lunar sketching with four other wonderful Moon "mad " people .The book is in the Springer Patrick Moore practical astronomy series.
There is a dedication to mam in the book, she is very proud of my Moon drawing and now has more reasons to smile, even though she will still say “yer Mad “
Details on the Book available soon, estimated publication late October.
The total lunar eclipse was clouded out to many people last night but back in March 2007 I was lucky enough to see and sketch a lunar eclipse from my garden in Bray.
3/3/07
200mm dob/25mm eyepiece /Focal Length 1,200mm, 2XBarlow/96X
Lunation 14.23 Days
Illumination 100%
Soft Pastels, 300gm paper, pencils.
Seeing 1
Images rotated 180 degrees
Digital Photographs of both images
Danjon Scale L = 4
March 3rd 2007
I was delayed setting up for XYand Z reasons, in an ideal world I would have had the entire lunar disc sketched in with detail before the earthly shadow entered this drama.
The delay, actioned my sketching in defence of the advancing darkness
When I began to sketch at 21:40UT the ominous dark shadow was descending on the Tycho area. I decided quickly to sketch from the North ( bottom of the page) up (south is up for me)
I realised that my usual etching method with a wooden toothpick was going to be too slow for this sketch and decided on pencil over pastel for speed.
Firstly I detailed the Mares as much as I could give prominent bright craters like Proclus, Plinius and Kepler some white attention as I suspected they might be still visible under the shadowy blanket, despite whatever colour developed. I put a lot of detail into Plato as it was outstanding in shape and contrast.
21:50UT the shadow was heading to gobble up my Copernicus before I could sketch it.
22:24UT Proclus was in grave danger of being swallowed whole.
By 22:34UT a fabulous blue leading wave developed and swept up the curve of the moon to merge with the increasing raspberry tones developing toward the south.
At 22:34UT when the colour began to appear, I had to run inside for red pastels.
Earlier that day I was thinking how would I do this colour overlay? I laid down some grey and tried out brushing it over with some red tones but this was not so good.
Fingers were the only thing for it and I worked quickly in red tones until I saw to both my delight and excitement a blue wave appearing across the entire width of the lunar disc.
Fingers red, big wipe, fingers blue.
In my haste and excitement of blueing the moon I wiped out Plato as my blue fingers joined the shadow and began moving up with it, oh god !! Stop or there will be no moon left. I observed that the blue edges wrapped the moon in a curve to both sides, like a gas flame burning up my surface detail.
Meanwhile a yellow orange glow developed at the South East limb, big wipe, yellow fingers. Ended up with just Goldschmidt, Barrow, and I think Philolaus left at the Northern end of the moon, just about untouched at that moment. A criss cross ray ejecta feature was visible also.
The star 59 Leonis was also sketched in off the SE limb
4/3/07
200mm dob/25mm eyepiece /Focal Length 1,200mm, 2XBarlow/96X
Lunation 14.32 Days
Illumination 100%
Soft Pastels, 300gm paper, pencils.
Seeing 2 / Hazy
Images rotated 180 degrees
Digital Photographs of both images
therfore a slight distortion
I waited to see what the emerging moon would look like and I started a second sketch at 00:10UT ending at 00:35UT due to a hazy atmosphere. Not much detail was available but I did observe that the retreating shadow had a distinctive green grey edge and reckoned that was worth noting.
200mm dob/25mm eyepiece /Focal Length 1,200mm, 2XBarlow/96X
Lunation 14.32 Days
Illumination 100%
Soft Pastels, 300gm paper, pencils.
Seeing 2 / Hazy
Images rotated 180 degrees
Digital Photographs of both images
therfore a slight distortion
I waited to see what the emerging moon would look like and I started a second sketch at 00:10UT ending at 00:35UT due to a hazy atmosphere. Not much detail was available but I did observe that the retreating shadow had a distinctive green grey edge and reckoned that was worth noting.
What's Up for June 2011 from Jane Houston Jones
Impact Crater Kepler
Sketched in 2006
19:10UT - 20:00 UT
02/11/06
Conte Crayons
Conte Pastel Pencils
Prismelo Water Colour Pencil Black
300gm Daler Rowney Paper
Sky Watcher 200mm
8mm TVP eyepiece
Bray Co Wicklow Ireland
Seeing 2
Kepler- The dark background of Oceanus Procellarum is a focus of bright rays radiating from two main centres - crater Kepler, which dominates this area and crater Copernicus in the east.
Named after Johannes Kepler a German astronomer and ingenious theoretician.
Marius - The western part of Oceanus Procellarum, poor in large craters, but very rich in lunar domes, especially near crater Marius- Named after Simon Mayer a German astronomer who independently discovered Jupiter's satellites. - from Concise Moon Mars and Venus by Rukl
I was so taken by trying to sketch the moon in lunar greys.
Kepler to Marius looked just great to me so mind made up I got started. Its was freezing that evening, but now and then the slight wobble between me and the moon settled and the clarity was wonderful. Deirdre being mad. :-)
Sketched in 2006
19:10UT - 20:00 UT
02/11/06
Conte Crayons
Conte Pastel Pencils
Prismelo Water Colour Pencil Black
300gm Daler Rowney Paper
Sky Watcher 200mm
8mm TVP eyepiece
Bray Co Wicklow Ireland
Seeing 2
Kepler- The dark background of Oceanus Procellarum is a focus of bright rays radiating from two main centres - crater Kepler, which dominates this area and crater Copernicus in the east.
Named after Johannes Kepler a German astronomer and ingenious theoretician.
Marius - The western part of Oceanus Procellarum, poor in large craters, but very rich in lunar domes, especially near crater Marius- Named after Simon Mayer a German astronomer who independently discovered Jupiter's satellites. - from Concise Moon Mars and Venus by Rukl
I was so taken by trying to sketch the moon in lunar greys.
Kepler to Marius looked just great to me so mind made up I got started. Its was freezing that evening, but now and then the slight wobble between me and the moon settled and the clarity was wonderful. Deirdre being mad. :-)
