[astro_south (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by CoombellKid

Excellent scetches mate! well done!
regards,CS

Originally Posted by gaa_ian

Hi Andrew
Great to see your excellent sketches gracing these pages again.
Looks like some good seeing, If I could get views that good with our 18" I would be happy !

Originally Posted by dhumpie

Nice work Andrew!!!!! Wish I could have stayed another night...oh well we had a good night on Fri too. Did the winds stay up on Sat?

Thanks Guys. Where are your sketches from Friday night Darren?

Originally Posted by omnivorr

..may I ask ..if you are "near sighted" at all? ( I'm the opposite.. more of a 'mural painter' ..and 'impressionistic' at that, ) ...the shift from EP to refocus on page (whilst maintaining visual-memory of subject... and 'nudging'-Dobwise, between-times ) ..is all a bit of a "juggling act" with actually putting pencil -to- paper!! ...nevermind returning a decipherable end-product ..I suspect much experience, and much familiarity , ..as well as those "tricks of the trade" you've cited, inform your "portraiture" of the Celestial host magically revealed by the silicate/ceramic-related "metal" wrought of the geologic 'body' born of the star-processes that , likewise the light , ...there also long ago born, ..now through your optics, nerves, flesh and bone , and 'spirit/intellect', ..you also capture...

....pencil and paper.... human eye and intellect... no Ha/IR gobbledygook..

....(tho' all of everything now mass-production possible too... neither do we grind our 30mm lenses nor make our own paper and pigments... )

...but still, ..p'haps some with their Hooey-tek , supermarket-plug'n'play off-the-TOP-shelf follow-the-checklist tick-the-boxes euphoria,

....might give their complacent self-satisfaction a lil' stimulation by trying the "primitive" ways of those who , "ergo inferior" , preceeded them ...?????
.....................let's have a Dob'n'draw "I'm better'n you" for a change?????

....mebe a "StarParty".. with only Arabic foods and technologies... say, 7th-8th century..

......and music!!!!!!!

Sorry Andrew... I've transgressed yet again... take small solace that I, ..nothing that I am, did revere your effort and achievements...

Omni

Thanks for the thoughts. If I have deciphered correctly, you have described a principle dear to my heart - Keep It Simple!!

I like the fact that I don't have to worry about batteries, don't have to worry about cables, don't have to worry about pointing accuracy, don't have to worry about PEC, don't have to worry about guiding ...you get the idea. Once the scope is put together (truss dob) it really gets out of the way. Being f6 it is a bit high at the zenith, but this is also the dob hole so not as critical. Most of my observing is with the dob at a comfortable eye height (for me) standing upright looking straight ahead. The 'tracking' through the nudge just happens automatically now without any particular thought process, so essentially the scope really does get out of the way. This leaves me to gaze at the view and contemplate the reality, the beauty, appreciate the time and distances involved.

Of course I do appreciate that it is each to his (or her) own, and that some are only truly happy when they are involved in the constant tinker and desire to improve their equipments performance and results, but this is just not me.

In terms of my eyes I don't need glasses for anything close so there is no issue going from the eyepiece to the sketch pad, sometimes I struggle with distant road signs and will probably eventually require glasses for driving.

I started sketching to document the view, but I have found it has helped me greatly over time to improve my ability to see and notice the details at the eyepiece.

Since you are local (well same city) we should tee up an observing session sometime and relive some simpler times without the buzz-whurl-click permeating the air.