30 September 2016

A sketch of Hevelius Crater

On 14th september i made another lunar sketch using white pencil on black paper, just to make experience with this new tecnique. I chose the Hevelius crater, a very interesting formation that is visible just a couple of days before the full moon. 


The grazing sunlight created many beautiful shadows, highlighting the central peak and the narrow rilles that were crossing the crater floor.

Hope you enjoyed this sketch!

12 September 2016

Sinus Iridum

This is my first attempt at drawing on black paper with white pencil. I chose the majestic Sinus Iridum as first subject, my favourite lunar formation: as you could see from my older sketches, I drew it many times.


The peaks illuminated by the first sunlight of the lunar day are just beautiful, and the curvature of our satellite is well visible as the basalt floor gradually fades into darkness.

Hope you have enjoyed the sketch, if you liked it follow this blog for more, or visit the italian version for lots of sketches!

7 September 2016

My lunar sketches

Here's my best moon sketches, classified by year and optical instrument.





This was one of my first moon sketches, made with my 50mm refractor.







Some works made in 2012 with my 114mm newton.





Moon terminator.

 




 Alphonsus, Arzachel and Ptolemaeus.



 Atlas and Hercules.



Teophylus, Cyrillus and Catharina.


Gassendi crater and something dark that passed in front of it, probably a bird, but that evening i tought it was a satellite.







Copernicus crater








Some months later my tecnique was slightly better, as I started experimenting with different types of pencils.




Hercules and Atlas.







Barrow crater and a beam of light crossing its dark floor.







Dawn over Hipparcus and Albetregnius.







 Clavius and its many secondary craters.









Aristarchus and surroundings. 










Cassini crater.










Copernicus crater: much better than the first sketch i made of it! 







In 2014 I finally got my new telescope, and moon showed many more interesting details.






 Gassendi crater again: there are so many lava channels!


 Sinus Iridum is one of my favourite moon formations, it's simply breathtaking.


 




The magnificent Copernicus crater with a 8'' SC and a good seeing.










Recently I tried full disk sketches, drawing the whole moon as I saw it in the eyepiece: it's really hard to sketch all those details, but I love the results!



If you enjoyed those sketches keep following this blog!
 

Why astronomy sketching?

The main topic of this blog is astronomy sketching. I started sketching many years ago, taking sketches of Moon, Planets and some deep-sky objects. 

But why sketching when I could obtain better results with a camera? 

I started sketching simply because I had no money to buy a decent camera for astrophotography, expecially deep-sky astrophotography. Later I really enjoyed this tecnique, and it started to become my main activity. I quickly understood the real power of astronomy sketching: sharing with other what I see with my eyes. When i sketch, I fix on sheet of paper my impressions and emotions. I think astronomy sketching is also useful for who just wants to know what can be seen with a certain telescope.

Hope you'll enjoy my observations!