by Michael Portuesi
We've had a clear sky opportunity the second weekend in a row. So we set up the TV-102 refractor on the back deck, went to bed, and woke up at 5 am for another view of Mars transiting the meridian.
The view this time was of Mare Cimmerium and Mare Tyrrhenum. Unfortunately, seeing was poor, which made it a challenge to observe. But I nevertheless made this sketch of what I saw. All of the particulars are on the sketch itself:
http://astro.jotabout.com/sketches/Mars/tn/mars_20050905.jpeg.html
My sketching technique for Mars this apparition is decidedly different than last, when I was just gettting started with sketching. I'm still going through an experimentation stage with Mars rendering, this time getting the hang of the blending stump. I'm hoping that as I practice and my skills improve, I'll acquire a style for sketching that looks nice and accurately renders what I see.
But I can definitely say that sketching has made it possible for me to notice details I would otherwise have missed when viewing through the eyepiece. I'm not sure I would have acquired those skills with a webcam, which now seems to utterly dominate the world of Mars observations.
Posted on shallow-sky Sep 05, 2005 17:05:16 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 10, 2006 22:10:31 PT
