Friday, August 6, 2010

Astronomy Sketch of the Day

There is not a lot of observing going on this week as the monsoon weather pattern does its thing...which is fill the sky with dark clouds, blow around a lot of dust, and then sprinkle just enough that your car is a mess from the blown dust.  I did awake today to a nice astronomical surprise, however, in that my sketch of the sun in hydrogen alpha from July 31st was featured as the August 5th Astronomy Sketch of the Day! (Follow the link!)

The Astronomy Sketch of the Day website is in the same vein as the very famous Astronomy Picture of the Day website.  Amateur astronomers from around the world submit sketches that they have made while observing and each day one is selected as the sketch of the day.  Certainly in this age of astrophotography, there are many fewer individuals sketching at the eyepiece than taking photos.  Nevertheless, I was quite tickled that my sketch was featured.  As they say, every dog has his day!

The music is playing on this award ceremony, but before I am kicked off stage, I want to thank my good friend Jerry Farrar who is my mentor when it comes to sketching and observing the sun; truth be told, he is my mentor in quite a few aspects of visual amateur astronomy.

2 comments:

  1. Nice one, Alan! The ASOD site's got some good stuff on there. That's a lovely sketch and well deserving of being featured.
    Reading all the recent solar observing posts in various places makes me want to get a solar scope of some kind. Obviously, saving for my 20" comes first, but any spare money I have will go towards a Coronado or a Lunt scope (but the cheaper end of the market!).

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  2. Thanks Faith- I saw your sketch as well of NGC 4038/4039- looks great! I posted a comment on the ASOD website but for some reason two days later it still indicates to me that it is awaiting moderation-

    I am a BIG fan of the Lunt...

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