We both enjoy sketching views through our telescopes. Jane sketches from Southern California and Dee sketches from Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland. On occasion, we sketch the same things - we'll try to do more similar sketches in the future. Jane uses Faber-Castell graphites, often she just uses plain old #2 pencils to sketch on the back of an envelope. Deirdre uses Conte Crayons, and other techniques mentioned in her sketches. The crater Aristarchus is visible to the naked eye as an albedo (bright) feature when it is well illuminated. A system of rilles starts north of it, and extends to the north. Schroter's Valley (Vallis Schroteri) starts northward slightly north of crater Herodotus, then bends through nearly 180 degrees to the east before opening out onto Oceanus Procellarum.

Aristarchus region sketched by Deirdre Kelleghan. November 3rd 2006 18:00UT - 18:40 UT. Conte Crayons/ Conte Pastel Pencils/ Prismelo Water Colour Pencil B&W 300gm D R Paper. 200mm Reflector, 8mm TVP, f/6, 150X, Lunation 12.51 days. Bray, Co Wicklow Ireland Temp 2C - Seeing 2 - Average. This sketch was an experiment in pastel and conte greys on black paper. I felt it was a good approach as the media came in colours/grey tones very similar to the lunar surface as I saw it. I enjoy bringing light to a sketch, Aristarchus was glowing and its ray system shot out through the lunarscape announcing its presence. Drawing a 160 km U shaped valley with a pencil seems difficult but if you look closely enough you will delight at how little it appears from this Earth. This was such a satisfactory experiment; I decided it was worth developing further.

Aristarchus region sketched by Jane Houston Jones on March 28, 1999, a 12 day old waxing moon. Vallis Schroteri snakes north from the Crater Herodotus. Telescope: 12.5 inch f/5.75 reflector using a 9 Nagler for 202X. Strathmore recycled acid-free Series 400 3.5" x 5" spiral-bound sketchpad. Farber-Castell Castell 9000 blacklead pencils and smudge stump. Aristarchus is the larger crater to the right. (Rukl 18)

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