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Astrosketchers Group

Information for page provided by Randall Rosenfeld

"I have only drawn what I have seen with certainty" - Edward Emerson Barnard, 1894, quoted by William Sheehan (1995)

"Responding to criticism that he preferred an artistic drawing to an accurate one, he replied, "I know no difference between the two"" - Richard Baum (2007) reporting the words of Nathaniel Everett Green (+1899)

 

Solar Sunpots

 Astronomical sketching is as old as stars on petroglyphs, and as new as Arp peculiar galaxies drawn on the web. Never static, its long practice is now in dialogue with the latest electronic-image processing; yet those who draw at the eyepiece can feel part of a chain stretching back through Messier and Herschel to Galileo. Its historical depth offers a broad array of graphic tools and techniques on which to draw, from chalk and the quill pen to modern polymers, which can be combined in ways which are yet new. Sketching still has a role in solar and planetary data collection; and drawings of all celestial objects and phenomena provide valuable data for the study of human perception; and sketching can play a role in the serious experimental archaeology of astronomy. The eyes of no two observers are the same, their equipment differs, they handle pencils differently. Astronomical sketching allows a very personal dimension into a scientific pursuit (an aspect which made some Victorian observers very uneasy, but which we can now embrace). There is more than one scientific and attractive way to draw a lunar rill, depict an occultation, and sketch a planetary nebula or a starburst galaxy. It is a perfect way to avoid the dead-end of an astronomical monoculture. It sharpens the observer, and provides a lifelong learning experience, as does ccd work at its best. The simplest of tools can be used to start, and no equipment beyond what the observer already owns is required, be it but the naked eye. No particular talent, predilection, or gifts are needed for success, for the talent grows with the practice. There is no active RASC observer who cannot begin to sketch, and learn to sketch well.
A sunspot drawing in watercolour done on 1890 Nov. 30, by Allan F. Miller, using the projection method with a 10.16cm Wrey long-focus achromatic refractor, probably from his observatory on Carlton Street, Toronto.  

Resources

Modern guides to astronomical sketching tools and techniques

  • R. Handy, D.B. Moody, J. Perez, E. Rix, and S. Robbins, Astronomical Sketching: a Step-by-Step Introduction, Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series, (New York: Springer 2007), ISBN: 978-0-387-26240-6: the fullest modern guide in English
  • R. Sampson, "Recording Your Observations", in T. Dickinson and A. Dyer, The Backyard Astronomer's Guide, 3rd edition, rev. and expanded (Richmond Hill: Firefly, 2008), ISBN-13: 978-1554073443, pp. 154-155: an encouraging introduction - note also that Dickinson and Dyer have used both drawings and ccd images throughout the book.
  • C.Roussell 2008, JRASC 102/3, 102-104: on sketching Mercury

http://www.perezmedia.net/beltofvenus/archives/000567.html  the best general astronomical sketching web resource.

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/deep_sky/deep_sky.htm

http://www.elisanet.fi/jere.kahanpaa/astro/HOWTO.html

http://lexikon.astronomie.info/beobachter/zeichnen/mondzeichnen.html

http://home.earthlink.net/~8-h-haggis/observing/astro-drawings.htm

 

General scientific-illustration techniques applicable to astronomical drawing

  • The Guild Handbook of Scientific Illustration, ed. E.R.S. Hodges, 2nd edition (New York: Wiley, 2003), ISBN-13: 978-0471360117: contains a chapter devoted to astronomical illustration
  • F.W. Zweifel, A Handbook of Biological Illustration, 2nd edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), ISBN-13: 978-0226997018
  • M. Stevens, The Art of Botanical Painting, Smithsonian and the Society of Botanical Artists (New York: Harper Collins, 2004), ISBN-13: 978-0007169887

Photography vs. sketching

  • Wittmann, A.D. 2000, in The Role of Visual Representations in Astronomy, ed. K. Hentschel and A. Wittmann (Thun and Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Harri Deutsch), 79-89
  • Bishop and Lane 2004, JRASC 98/2, 78-91; an important pair of articles, the second of which reports that "contrary to common wisdom" the most sensitive response in the dark-adapted eye (within the limit of its optical design and operational parameters) exceeds that of an astronomical CCD in 2004
  • http://www.asod.info/?p=969 comparison of Les Cowley's H-alpha drawings with Pete Lawrence's digital images of the same solar events on 2008 May 7. They are both excellent imagers, and the comparison repays careful study

Modern examples of astronomical sketching

M45 the Pleiades in white crayon on black paper, observed with a 8cm semi-apo refractor from Serpent Mounds on 2008 Sept.25, transparency poor, seeing below average (RA Rosenfeld).

  sketch of the Pleiades

 

Guides (historical) to astronomical sketching

 

Historical scientific-illustration tools and techniques applicable to astronomical drawing


Historical examples of astronomical sketching

For an intriguing project in the experimental archaeology of astronomical sketching, namely the use of techniques and instruments similar to those employed by E.E. Barnard for the 1894 opposition of Mars, see: http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/public/TwoWeeksOnMars/

For a good collection of digitalized versions of astronomical drawings published during the golden age of the practice, see: http://adswww.harvard.edu/  (n.b: the scans do not do justice to the originals)

Non-RASC Forums

 

Software

  • Les Cowley's excellent programme for determining the Sun's orientation, poles, equator, rotation direction, drift direction, and prominence position angles for any date, time and location http://www.atoptics.co.uk/tiltsun.htm  

 

 He has also written some very useful programmes for determining the solar coordinates of features on sketches: http://www.petermeadows.com/html/software.html

Supplies

Most moderate seized towns in Canada have at least several art-supply stores, or office goods suppliers. The best place to buy supplies for astronomical sketching is at the art stores attached to colleges (or universities) of art and design. They usually have the largest selection, best prices, and most knowledgeable staff. If there are no art-supply retail outlets near where you live, you could try internet suppliers. The RASC cannot endorse any commercial supplier above another, put ple-ase try to buy Canadian.

If you have any tips or tricks on sketching that you would like to share please send them to cdnspooky (at) persona (dot) ca  at we will put them on the website.

Please report any broken links to cdnspook:ony (at) persona (dot) ca and rosenfel (at) chass (dot) utoronto (dot) ca