solar sketch

[Paddy]

Here is a sketch of the full solar disc from this afternoon at about 4.30. Some fantastic prominences and some interesting filaments and textures on the disc but no sun spots. A very large flock of swallows or martins was hunting at a reasonable altitude in my line of sight, so I saw constant orange birds flitting around the disc and becoming silhouettes as they crossed it. Very beautiful.

Instrument was ED80 on CG5 mount with Lunt 50 mm Ha filter at 0.7 angstroms.

[mental4astro]

What a beautiful experience you've had there, Paddy. The Father of life on Earth with its playful childern in your eyepiece.

Lovely sketch too. I am always impressed with these.

Mental.

[orestis]

Wow Paddy lovely sketch,

I've always wanted to look at the sun in H alpha,hopefully it will be soon.

cheers Orestis:thumbsup:

[Paddy]

Thanks Orestis and Alex. Hope to get some more done soon and, Alex, I'll try to follow up your suggestion to Alexandra about using coloured pencils on black paper. What kind of pencils would you recommend?

BTW looking forward to your article, Alex.

[mental4astro]

For sketching the Sun, I'd first suggest trying the colouring pencils you may have at hand. I've found that cheap pencils tend to be too hard, hence don't make much of a mark with light pressure. Much better quality pencils tend to be softer, making laying fine details easier, and more intense colouring needing less pressure to lay down, avoiding damaging the paper texture too much.

If you can't find a soft enough colouring pencil set, use a 'white charcoal pencil'. The stuff is as soft as chalk. You can do your sketch with this, then on the computer, you can change the colour of the white to what ever you like. This following ASOD sketch is a fine example:

http://www.asod.info/?p=2563

You can also use crayons to work on the white paper. Have a look at this following clever sketch. The solar details where laid down using a green crayon on white, and then the sketch was scanned and the colours inverted!

http://www.asod.info/?p=2868

[Paddy]

Thanks Alex, I'll have a play. They are great sketches, especially the first on of the prominence. Something to aim for.