Sketching - what a joke, hmmm well i am going to start!!

[davidpretorius]

After being severely reprimanded by Dave47tuc, i am going to make a serious effort to start sketching what i see.

I will be very embarassed if next time i see him, if i have not drawn something.

Reflection: Early days, haa haa haa to sketching, the toucam will take a picture and i'll post that.

Reality: I need to train my eye, I need to observe, I need to sketch & most importantly, I need to put the toilet seat down when i am the only male in a house of females!!!

[rmcpb (Rob)]

I try to say I will do sketches of the things I see and I should but the results are sooooo bad that I give up too easily.

There is always tomorrow to start

[Stu]

I try to get my wife to leave the toliet seat up, but so far it's not working. I don't understand why she wont do it, I hang out the washing...

Anyway ,I think that sketching is a good idea.

[Striker (Tony)]

Sketching is an art.

I myself would be absolutely useless at it.

Take up the challenge and good luck David.

[ving (David)]

hey stu, cheryl says you need to iron and put the clothes away too before she'll leave the seat up.

[h0ughy (David)]

Well Dave,

I think you need to sketch it with a Pentax *istDS or a Canon 350D!! When you get more serious and don't wish to fingerpaint much more then you can move on up to the watercolours of the 20Da and the Derwent masters pencils!

As for ythe Dunny Seat mate, your on a loosing battle there, who cooks, who cleans, who observes!!!!

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by davidpretorius

After being severely reprimanded by Dave47tuc, i am going to make a serious effort to start sketching what i see.

Ive never seen or heard of him sketching anything

Seriously I can see sketching a good exercise in studying and seeking detail in an object.

[Wombat_In_Space (Darren)]

Originally Posted by davidpretorius

Reality: I need to train my eye, I need to observe, I need to sketch & most importantly, I need to put the toilet seat down when i am the only male in a house of females!!!

Know that feeling Dave being the same only male in the house, good to see you are broading your imaging technique . I have tought of this to but I cant draw for quids.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Why do you all worry about how well you can draw! It's not a contest. Just lightly sketch what you see. Don't use a heavy hand and don't use a HB pencil. 2B is sufficient for good results.

You will suprise yourself at how good they come out when drawn lightly and then inverted in Photoshop. You can do the Stars dark as the darker the pencilled star the brighter they will be on the inverted version. Give it a few goes and you will soon see what works and what doesn't. It is fun!

p.s. Me & my boys always leave the seat up!!!! We outnumber the Chicky-Babes in the house

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Get into it Dave

I'm a recent convert and I think it has definitely improved my observing skills. Remember the sketch at the end is only part of the outcome. Your "seeing" skills will improve in general and for the specific objects you try to sketch you will notice much more. For example prior to skecthing it, I never noticed that the bright star associated with the Pavo glob was a double, and this is one of my favourite and most visited globs.

My advise - don't try and draw the object "all at once" - break it up into common shapes. We should all be able to draw dots and smudges

[davidpretorius]

I do believe I will be convert:

I actually went to start last night as i was setting up for some mars imaging, but as i looked at the sky, the stars were twinking out of control!!

The primary mirror had cooled to within the 1/2 degree of ambient, but when I looked at mars at 200x, it looked like someone had a hair dryer shooting hot air from left to right across the planet.

I had a quick squiz at M41 from the challenges with my 12mm (way too much mag), and it was shimmering like the moon on 5/10 seeinig nights.

No imaging last night obviously!!

Instead of being upset, I was very happy as i had learnt something. I always stand there and let my eyes adjust and then try and estimate the seeing based upon the twinkle. This was the worst seeing night I have had = 1/10 and to see it for the first time and to be able to identify it having fixed all other causes ie cooling, collimation etc as great

As long as it does not stay that way!!!

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Yep, twinkling is a bother!

Even so, I can still see Orion Neb as clear as a bell when everything else is bubbling and boiling and distorting. Worth a try still even in terrible seeing conditions as long as the transparency is good.

[acropolite (Phil)]

I looked that night as well DP, noticed the same. Thinking it was the OTA not cooled enough I left it out, intent on rising in the wee hours of the morning, but alas by then it had clouded over. I wonder if it's more of a problem here due to our cooler nights. The one thing we have to look forward to is the months of hot dry weather when it's unsafe to burn off, the skies will be much clearer and the nights not so cold (and of course it's not sticky here, eat ya hearts out banana benders.)

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Originally Posted by Starkler

Ive never seen or heard of him sketching anything

Seriously I can see sketching a good exercise in studying and seeking detail in an object.

Some things I still keep to myself. I have done over 100 sketches and drawings. Most on scrap paper. Some are lost, kids have now drawn on them.
I still have a few in my folders.
I stopped when I got the Dob. I will do more now I have tracking again

I will show you next time.
My favorites are my Mars pics, also Hale Bopp a few day's after discovery.

Get into sketching DP it will make you a better Observer.