Crude and basic pastel sketch

[CChelle (Michelle)]

This is the basic sketch I did of Jupiter the other night. It's terribly crude and basic but I'm just trying to figure out how to upload here. By the way, I found the biggest challenge of this is drawing a circle! Then I found it challenging to make it look like a ball rather than a flat disc without using the usual light and shadow bits you use with a ball here on earth.
I am going to get myself some drawing paper and pens etc soon, for this I just used the old ones I had at hand.

Question, are all these five dots (not including the {6th} dot for the "i"in "Juptier") moons or is one of them a star. If so, which is the star?

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by CChelle

This is the basic sketch I did of Jupiter the other night. It's terribly crude and basic but I'm just trying to figure out how to upload here. By the way, I found the biggest challenge of this is drawing a circle! Then I found it challenging to make it look like a ball rather than a flat disc without using the usual light and shadow bits you use with a ball here on earth.
I am going to get myself some drawing paper and pens etc soon, for this I just used the old ones I had at hand.

Question, are all these five dots (not including the {6th} dot for the "i"in "Juptier") moons or is one of them a star. If so, which is the star?

Hi Michelle, I was observing at the same time as you from here in Cambroon about 80kms from you in a straight line
What you have is the 4 Jovian moons plus one star.
All of Jupiters other 60 odd moons are to faint to be seen in most amateur telescopes
Keep up the good work
Cheers

[mozzie (Peter)]

great sketch michelle!!!! i was going to have a go at jupiter too the other night but did 2 small gc instead..you've captured jupiter and the moons very well..are you going to keep on sketching ????

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hey pretty good Michelle. I'd say judging by my viewing the other night that the star is single high dot. Most of the visible moons are aligned. had to check on Stellarium to confirm my observations on the night. Always a good idea.
Had a go at the sketching myself but I don't seem to have the patience so I'm throwing money at it with cameras and stuff. I'll produce something one day. I hope .....

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Thats as its seen , well done !
Did you draw this at the eyepiece? or from memory afterwards? either way it shows the 3D of jupiter and his moons well.

On the drawing dont try to draw a circle .
Jupiter is 120 000 km across and rotates in 10 hours , so he is an eclipse , eg ,egg shaped
shorter on his hight and wider on his gerth.

Thats probably why you had trouble getting the drawing just right ? He's not a circle .
Thats Jupiter .
Brian.

[CChelle (Michelle)]

Thanks, Brent and Brian. Yes, I do think the star is the high dot. You know, I never could draw circles but I'll go with the excuse that Jupiter is not a circle anyway. I did the pencil drawing at the eye peice and then shaded it from pencil lines and memory afterwards. As for throwing money at image capturing, well in my case, I must have thrown money at it and that must be where all my money went to... into outerspace!

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Lovely sketch Michelle. What's great about Jupiter as a target is that it's always changing and worth a revisit. And sketching it will help you see more and more. You've really caught the feel of it well. I ignore the slightly flattened shape of Jupiter and do a few compass circles beforehand if I'm going to sketch a planet. Looking forward to more.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Hi Michelle,

There is so much energy in your sketch! Brash, lively, intense, vibrating energy.

We sometimes can forget that sketching is an interpurative medium, not a photographic one, so a dynamic sketch like yours is a fantastic contirbution.

Why not fang out a sketch of half a dozen objects in under half an hour I say! Bang, Bang, Bang! There's energy to boot that way.

I'm another one to hope to see more of your work.

Alex.