Come join the friendliest, most engaging and inclusive astronomy forum geared for beginners and advanced telescope users, astrophotography devotees, plus check out our "Astro" goods vendors.
Come join the friendliest, most engaging and inclusive astronomy forum geared for beginners and advanced telescope users, astrophotography devotees, plus check out our "Astro" goods vendors.
Forum rules
"We love seeing your work and welcome any and all sketches on this forum, but please note whether your sketch is a through-the-eyepiece sketch or your rendition from an existing image / painting."
Sketch of Mars.
October 17th 2020 about 1:30 AM.
I had no plans for viewing as the prognosis was very poor seeing...BUT...in an impulsive surge of energy at 11:30 PM on Friday night...I went out into my driveway.
I viewed Mars with a 10 Meade SCT coupled to a Baader 2" BBHS diagonal fitted with a Leica HC Plan S 10X25 microscope EP and a 2X TV barlow. I think I needed to tweet the collimation, but I did not take time to do this. I mounted everything on a hand driven Alt AZ mount.
Most of the view was unfortunately not crisp, but there were moments when the image snapped nicely. Just as quickly it melted. This cycle of seeing occurred many times while I was viewing and afforded me time and opportunity to quickly sketch and write a few detail notes to myself for later work on the sketch outlines.
Mars in this sky had a bit of a halo most of the time which I have attempted to illustrate.
The color may not be quite correct but this is the best my memory and imagination can do.
After rendering in pastel chalk I took this image into PS and tried to improve the outcome...not sure it helped. :-)
"I am more than a sum of molecules.
I am more than a sum of memories or events.
I do not one day suddenly cease to be.
I am, before memory.
I am, before event.
I am"
Great sketch John! All the key details are visible including the polar cap.
-Michael Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50 Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl Camera: ZWO ASI 120 Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs Latitude: 48.7229° N
Gordon
Scopes: Explore Scientific ED80CF, Skywatcher 200 Quattro Imaging Newt, SeeStar S50 for EAA.
Mounts: Orion Atlas EQ-g mount & Skywatcher EQ5 Pro.
ZWO mini guider.
Image cameras: ZWO ASI1600 MM Cool, ZWO ASI533mc-Pro, ZWO ASI174mm-C (for use with my Quark chromosphere), ZWO ASI120MC
Filters: LRGB, Ha 7nm, O-III 7nm, S-II 7nm
Eyepieces: a few.
Primary software: Cartes du Ciel, N.I.N.A, StarTools V1.4.
"I am more than a sum of molecules.
I am more than a sum of memories or events.
I do not one day suddenly cease to be.
I am, before memory.
I am, before event.
I am"
Hi John. A very nice sketch of Mars from you with the windows of good seeing constantly coming and going. The polar cap and dark surface markings are clearly visible in your artistic rendition. Thanks for sharing the view of your work with us John, and congratulations on winning the TSSAPOD Award today.
Marshall
Sky-Watcher 90mm f/13.8 Maksutov-Cassegrain on motorized Multimount
Orion Astroview 120ST f/5 Refractor on EQ3 mount
Celestron Comet Catcher 140mm f/3.64 Schmidt-Newtonian on alt-az mount
Celestron Omni XLT150R f/5 Refractor on CG4 mount with dual axis drives.
Orion 180mm f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain on CG5-GT Goto mount.
Orion XT12i 12" f/4.9 Dobsonian Intelliscope.
Kamakura 7x35 Binoculars and Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars. ZWO ASI 120MC camera.
>)))))*>
I have been observing Mars as often as possible in its opposition this month.
I have viewsd Mars with 4 inch and 6 inch refractor telescopes, and 8 inch and 10 inch Schmidt Cassigrain reflector telescopes.
This sketch was done yesterday after my last view in the series with the ten inch Schmidt Cassigrain.
It was begun with crude outlines of dark and light masses at the telescope. I spoke notes in a handheld recorder throught my session of approximate color and some of the fine detail which was fleeting but revealed over the course of my 1.5 hour viewing. Back in my studio the afternoon of the 17th I began the rendering on paper with soft lead pencil and chalk pastels. I used the lid of a cooking pot to make a nice circle within which to draw and used it again as a mask to surround Mars with a dark sky background. When I finish the preliminary chalk pastel I digitize this image and added some augmentation in my Photoshop program. The chalk and pencil work was too sharp and appeared more focused than it was at the EP. This unsatisfying "over focused" appearance I reduced in Photoshop and in doing so brought out the fine halo ring around Mars.
When one is in the doing it is easy to get lost in the thing. I normally would put it away for a day or two and return with a fresh eye, but in this case I posted when I finished.
Thank you again for honoring this sketch with this APOD.
"I am more than a sum of molecules.
I am more than a sum of memories or events.
I do not one day suddenly cease to be.
I am, before memory.
I am, before event.
I am"
-Michael Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50 Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl Camera: ZWO ASI 120 Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs Latitude: 48.7229° N
John Donne wrote: ↑Sun Oct 18, 2020 5:56 pm
I have been observing Mars as often as possible in its opposition this month.
I have viewsd Mars with 4 inch and 6 inch refractor telescopes, and 8 inch and 10 inch Schmidt Cassigrain reflector telescopes.
This sketch was done yesterday after my last view in the series with the ten inch Schmidt Cassigrain.
It was begun with crude outlines of dark and light masses at the telescope. I spoke notes in a handheld recorder throught my session of approximate color and some of the fine detail which was fleeting but revealed over the course of my 1.5 hour viewing. Back in my studio the afternoon of the 17th I began the rendering on paper with soft lead pencil and chalk pastels. I used the lid of a cooking pot to make a nice circle within which to draw and used it again as a mask to surround Mars with a dark sky background. When I finish the preliminary chalk pastel I digitize this image and added some augmentation in my Photoshop program. The chalk and pencil work was too sharp and appeared more focused than it was at the EP. This unsatisfying "over focused" appearance I reduced in Photoshop and in doing so brought out the fine halo ring around Mars.
When one is in the doing it is easy to get lost in the thing. I normally would put it away for a day or two and return with a fresh eye, but in this case I posted when I finished.
Thank you again for honoring this sketch with this APOD.
i/b]
John Donne wrote: ↑Sun Oct 18, 2020 5:56 pmI have been observing Mars as often as possible in its opposition this month.
I have viewsd Mars with 4 inch and 6 inch refractor telescopes, and 8 inch and 10 inch Schmidt Cassigrain reflector telescopes.
This sketch was done yesterday after my last view in the series with the ten inch Schmidt Cassigrain.
It was begun with crude outlines of dark and light masses at the telescope. I spoke notes in a handheld recorder throught my session of approximate color and some of the fine detail which was fleeting but revealed over the course of my 1.5 hour viewing. Back in my studio the afternoon of the 17th I began the rendering on paper with soft lead pencil and chalk pastels. I used the lid of a cooking pot to make a nice circle within which to draw and used it again as a mask to surround Mars with a dark sky background. When I finish the preliminary chalk pastel I digitize this image and added some augmentation in my Photoshop program. The chalk and pencil work was too sharp and appeared more focused than it was at the EP. This unsatisfying "over focused" appearance I reduced in Photoshop and in doing so brought out the fine halo ring around Mars.
When one is in the doing it is easy to get lost in the thing. I normally would put it away for a day or two and return with a fresh eye, but in this case I posted when I finished.
Thank you again for honoring this sketch with this APOD.
Hi I very much enjoyed your description of the artistic process of the image you created,inspirational as I would like to get into AP,however funds are tight but this could be just as rewarding.Thanks for the share.