Sketches

Web Team,

A recent discussion has arisen regarding sketching and the most appropriate place to post them on the site.

Can I suggest that the Astrophotography section be renamed "Astrophotography & Sketching"?

At present, some sketches are posted under Observing Reports while others are under Astrophotography. For consistency, it may be appropriate if they are all kept in the same place.

I have to say I disagree, sketches are not photographs no matter how good they are, they should be in a separate forum IMHO.
The astrophotography forum is enormous enough as it is.

Deirdre brought up a valid point in the other thread about the value of comparing solar (and lunar) sketches to the images. But I'll let her address that here if she wishes.

My deep sky reports usually include observational notes on 5 or 6 objects, and a sketch of 1 or 2 of them. As such, those seem better suited to the Observing Reports section. (There's also not much opportunity to compare deep sky sketches and images due to the eye's greater dynamic range but significantly lesser depth compared to a camera.)

But I'm on the fence for solar. It is nice to compare the images and sketches. And my reports are usually pretty long on graphics and pretty short on words. (I don't even record the PA anymore as Tilting Sun presents it so well.)

I suppose there's always the option of a separate Solar section. That way we could post images and sketches of solar stuff there without overloading the astrophotography section.

Dunno....

-- Jeff.

In my oppinion, astronomical sketches are profoundly observational reports.
Sketches of the Sun, galaxies nebulae, etc, are supposed to be representations of the visual observation of celestial objects.
In that sense, sketches have little or nothing to do with astrophotography.

I believe it's fair to collect them all in the "Observing Reports" section.

Especially for the Solar Hα or white light sketches, my understanding is that it will be a continous daily report of the solar activity, so it would be nice if everybody posted his/her sketches in a one and single topic, which, as the time passes, would become a "diary of the solar activity". Sun is entering a brand new 11-yr cycle, isn't it?
Such a solar diary could also serve as a reference source for solar astrophotographers and vice versa.

We could start by collecting all solar sketches of Deirdre's and jayjay's and all others' up to now, and making a new topic with an apropriate title, you name it.

Why not call the section "Pictures".

"What speech is more plain than this?"...William Skakespeare.

Astronomical sketching is not just about drawing pictures.
Astronomical sketching is about learning
Astronomical sketching is about observing very closely the subject at the far far end of your telescope. Sketching at the eyepiece is challenging but very rewarding. A person does not have to be really good at art to sketch a target.
A persons first sketches of the moon,sun or messiers are not going to be very accurate, but they will learn something from their efforts. A persons first sketches are their moon, or their sun, or their messier objects. Just like newbie astrophotographers.

Improvement comes with effort, trial and error.


However unlike astrophotography, the sketcher processes the dynamics of the subject in his or her head not in software or even hardware. The sketcher ceases the moment or the hours on the spot.

Just like in astrophotography, the encouragement and support of other sketchers along with effort brings you from something like this

Moon phases Dec 6th , 10th, 12th 2005 EXT 70
To something like this in time



Almost Full Moon
Lunation 12.75 days

January 30th/31st 2007
22:30 UT - 00:15 UT
200mm Sky Watcher
Focal Length 1,200mm
25mm Meade eyepiece
Seeing 2
Transparency average

Bit of a rant I know, having said that, I am happy to leave where sketches go to the web guys. Not sure there are enough sketchers to justify a sketching forum by itself.



Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical Society