Yesterday evening, a glorious late, late summer night, and I was out with seven of my buddies and their telescopes, looking at the Moon. I’m leading a Lunar Observing Group which is part of the RASC. The aim of my group is to earn the Isabel K Williamson Lunar Observing Certificate, a fairly challenging observing certificate awarded by the RASC’s national office, requiring the documentation of a whopping 135 lunar features – craters, mountains, rilles, valleys, scarps, dorsa,… it’s quite a list.
It’s a lot easier to stick to a project if you’re in a group, so I get the “Lunies” together about once a month or so for an observing session and for a peek at everyone’s logbooks.
Most of the members clamp a digital camera to their telescope and start snapping away. Some of their results are quite stunning, but I’m a strong advocate for sketching at the eyepiece. During the winter months, when it’s too cold to go out observing, I get everyone together for a series of Lunar Sketching Workshops. Everyone gets printouts of lunar craters, some drawing paper, and a selection of HB, 2B and 6B pencils, and off you go! It’s all a question of practise, really. Of course, you’ll have an easier time sketching if you have a bit of artistic talent, but my efforts to get my “Lunies” to sketch isn’t driven by artistic enthusiasm. The reason an observer should sketch rather than photograph is that sketching forces you to observe much more closely, and you’re more likely to retain the image in your memory if you’re forced to make marks on paper.
My lunar sketches: Pythagoras, Grimaldi, Bailly
It’s not easy to make converts. Most amateur astronomers find it difficult to sketch at the eyepiece: it may be windy and cold, you can’t see really well (a flashlight which could illuminate your sketchbook would ruin your night vision), and you’re likely to be croutching at your scope or balancing on a stool with the sketchbook on your knees. However, I think the rewards of sketching outweigh these small obstacles.
One of the “Lunies” members has taken a new approach to sketching lunar craters. He takes out his Moon Atlas and draws close-ups of craters and other lunar features in the comfort of his library. This helps him to familiarize himself with Lunar topography. Then he takes out his telescope and tries to rediscover the objects he’s just drawn at the eyepiece.
Whether you sketch ahead of time or while observing, nothing helps you discover and memorize the myriad of bumps and squiggles on the Moon like the low-tech method of taking pencil to paper.
Talking of low-tech, just before I packed it in for the night I took out my cheapo digital camera and held it up to the eyepiece of my 8″ Dob. No adaptors, with the lens still attached I snapped a few pictures. Nothing that’ll get me into the back pages of Astronomy Magazine but the images have some interesting artistic value.
Mysterious Moon photos
You know what – I think I’ll stick to my 3B pencil…
(Note: If you enjoy our Earth’s Moon, how about all those other moons in the solar system? Here’s a link to my Moon Series gallery, featuring the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune:
www.bettinaforget.com/MoonSeries1)
