The Art of Astronomical Sketching

My primary tools for creating rough sketches consist of ordinary typing paper, a clipboard, #2 pencils, and a light source of variable intensity. I also tend to keep an eraser handy.

One rather unique problem with sketching at night is the need to have enough, but not too much, light to see by. I sometimes use a red LED flashlight of adjustable brightness to illuminate the paper. That light works well for the brighter planets and other relatively bright objects.

For sketching faint objects my flashlight is too bright on even its dimmest setting. When one looks at too bright of an object (an illuminated piece of paper for example) and then glances back into a telescope's eyepiece at a particularly faint object, that faint object will be rendered temporarily invisible. A reasonable solution is to use a dimmer light. This motivated me to design and build a back-lit, adjustable brightness, illuminated clipboard.

The illuminated clipboard allows me to turn down the illumination until the paper is minimally illuminated. When I sketch faint objects I adjust the illumination until I can just barely see what I'm putting on paper.

For extremely faint objects the dimmest light sufficient to barely see by is too bright. For sketching such objects I use my non-telescope eye to look at the paper, keeping my telescope eye covered. The illuminated clipboard's illumination is turned down as low as I can still work by. I take every precaution to avoid any exposure of my telescope eye to light, no matter how dim that light might be.

The best piece of advice I can offer to those who would like to create their own sketches, but feel their skills are not up to the challenge, is to practice, practice, and practice some more. If you get an opportunity to study the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci you'll discover that the creator of the Mona Lisa resorted to every trick he could dream of. He used mathematical ratios for human body parts and resorted to screen-like grids for transferring a scene in front of him into a sketch on paper. There's no shame in making a difficult task easier.

When I plan ahead I sketch as much as possible ahead of time. For example, I'll sketch the outline of Jupiter's disk or the outline of Saturn and Saturn's ring system prior to filling in details at the telescope.

When I don't plan ahead I take a blank sheet of paper with me to the telescope. For Jupiter I would sketch the outline of the planet's disk and lightly sketch all the belts and zones visible in the planet's atmosphere. At the same time I would be looking for and mentally taking note of other details. Next I'll note the time and as quickly as possible fill in those details that move across Jupiter's disk as the planet rotates.

For star clusters I try to make a computer printout that matches my eyepiece's field of view as well as my telescope's limiting magnitude. I directly compare the printout with the view in the eyepiece. Each star on the printout that's verified at the telescope is circled. I put an "X" through those stars on the printout that are not seen with the telescope. For stars seen with the telescope but absent from the printout I place a pencil dot on the printout and circled it.

Different objects require different tricks when it comes time to make a rough sketch. Globular star clusters consist of too many stars to even attempt to show each individual star on a sketch. For these objects it helps to note any general patterns or irregularities visible in the cluster or any stars that are significantly brighter than the other stars, etc. With practice, practice, and more practice one eventually comes up with a way of handling each object. As time progresses and experience grows it's often possible to improve upon earlier methods. Astronomical sketching is an evolutionary process.

In addition to the actual sketch I include notes concerning color, intensities, shapes, and those things that showed up on the sketch as being too big, too small, too dark, too light, etc. For planetary sketches I often include notes relating to the seeing conditions. For deepsky sketches I may note the transparency of the sky. I don't use a standard observing form. I prefer to start with a blank sheet of paper and write down anything I consider to be of sufficient importance, putting it wherever there's room on the paper. I try to remember to include the telescope type, aperture, magnification, any filters used, and the date and time associated with each observation.

Solar Sketches-----------------------------------Lunar Sketches
Planetary Sketches-------------------------------Planetary Sketches - page 2
Jupiter-SL9 Sketches----------------------------Comet Sketches
Comet Hyakutake Sketches----------------------Comet Hale-Bopp Sketches
Deep Sky Sketches------------------------------Deep Sky Sketches - page 2
Rough Sketches----------------------------------Paintings

Why make sketches?-----------------------------The Art of Astronomical Sketching
Character Sketch---------------------------------Links to Other Websites
Home-made Binocular Mount-----------------Home