This week I decided to try out sketching some moon craters, but I wanted to do some practice before sitting at the eyepiece, so I pulled up an old photo I took. It wasn't the best photo in the world, and it was lacking in some detail, but it was the best I had. I also figured if I was going to sketch from a photo inside may as well make it difficult. Well, it was quite the project. I'm sure my lack of skill in sketching moon craters is partly to blame, but this sketch took me around 1.5 hours to do. The image I used was a picture I took with my phone held up to an eyepiece. So can't expect the best quality from an image like that.
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| Craters Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, and Arzachel |
I recently purchased a new black notebook that I wanted to designate specifically to moon sketches. The notepad is an Arteza black paper, acid-free, spiral bound, 5.5x8.5 inch, 90lb paper. I then used my white charcoal pencil, black charcoal pencil, white chalk pencil, kneaded eraser, eraser, blending stumps, and q-tips for the sketch. Even before this practice run I did a quick test just to get the feel of doing a drawing in this kind of detail. This is a whole different artistic perspective on sketching astronomical objects. Stars are dots, and nebula and galaxies are smudges. That isn't overwhelming, but the detail on the moon can be quite intimidating. I recommend a practice sketch before you go out to the eyepiece. If you do decide to try it for the first time at the eyepiece be prepared to be there for a while, and mark your shadows early on because they will move over time.
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| Sketch of Ptolemaeus, Aphonsus, and Arachel |
And of course I created a video as I do with all my sketches. I even record a section in the video where I show all the drawing materials I had out next to me, so if you'd like to see that, and the time lapse of me sketching these craters check out the video below:
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