{"id":465,"date":"2009-04-20T18:01:46","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T18:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2009\/04\/20\/april_2009_upda\/"},"modified":"2009-04-20T18:01:46","modified_gmt":"2009-04-20T18:01:46","slug":"april_2009_upda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2009\/04\/20\/april_2009_upda\/","title":{"rendered":"April 2009 Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

The May 2009 issue of Astronomy Now<\/i> is out. The Drawn to the Universe column in this issue features a graphite sketch of M3<\/a> which focuses on using stippling technique to convey granularity.<\/p>\n

While preparing for upcoming issues, I’ve been working with a wider selection of materials and techniques so I can present readers with a variety of approaches. I rely a lot on digital tools to convert my graphite drawings from negative to positive, to add color, and perform cleanup. It’s fast, efficient, and I’m really comfortable with Photoshop’s interface. However, using a computer to manage sketches is not for everyone. So I want to cover methods for producing positive drawings and include color where appropriate without the need for a computer, scanner, software, and all the techno-training that goes with it. So keep your eyes peeled for the June issue–I hope you have as much fun with it as I did.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean I’m giving up my digital process though. In fact, I’ve been batting around some revisions to my double star method. I’m growing a little tired of the choices I made to convey magnitudes. The brighter stars are just too big, and I think it detracts from the appearance of tightness on the closer pairs. This weekend, I finally finished charting and testing a new magnitude structure for the main field-stop portion of the drawing. I’m cutting the maximum star size by about a half, and conveying brilliance by moving that light into the surrounding glare. I played a lot with noise settings in the halo to be sure the artificial-looking stair-step effect was reduced as much as possible. Looking at my new scale, stars from -1 to +12 mag show a lot more difference in brightness. One of the nicer benefits is that pairs with a significant magnitude difference appear more difficult to resolve in the final drawing, which is truer to the eyepiece view.<\/p>\n

I also reworked my airy-disc detail setup. Somewhere along the line, I started scaling the diffraction pattern detail images smaller, so it’s harder to see them. I’ll be boosting those larger, and have made some improvements to the diffraction pattern template I’m using.<\/p>\n

I’ve got a backlog of double star sketches that I’ve been holding up until I could get all that finished. So, hopefully I’ll start kicking those out soon.<\/p>\n

…and I sense a new Coronado PST getting loaded on a cross-country delivery truck any moment now. What better time to step into H-Alpha Solar observing than when the sun is in the midst of a significant minimum!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The May 2009 issue of Astronomy Now is out. The Drawn to the Universe column in this issue features a graphite sketch of M3 which focuses on using stippling technique to convey granularity. While preparing for upcoming issues, I’ve been working with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":492,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2009\/10\/01\/drawn_to_the_un_6\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":0},"title":"Drawn to the UniverseOCT 2009 – NGC 7662","author":"jperez1690","date":"October 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The October issue of Astronomy Now focuses on NGC 7662, the Blue Snowball nebula. Two methods are covered in this column: 1) Using an isophote (contour) field sketch as a basis for a final shaded drawing, and 2) using Photoshop to add subtle color to the scanned drawing. Subject:NGC 7662\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":539,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2010\/08\/12\/drawntotheunive_1\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":1},"title":"Drawn to the UniverseAUGUST 2010 – C\/2009 R1 (McNaught)","author":"jperez1690","date":"August 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Positive Sketch of C\/2009 R1 (McNaught)Click image to view larger version. Original Negative Sketch of C\/2009 R1 (McNaught)Click image to view larger version. Bright comet C\/2009 R1 (McNaught) is the subject of this month's column. We look at graphite techniques for sketching a comet, and optional digital colorizing of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":479,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2009\/07\/02\/drawn_to_the_un_4\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":2},"title":"Drawn to the UniverseAUG 2009 – NGC 6940","author":"jperez1690","date":"July 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The August issue of Astronomy Now is available. The rich, open cluster NGC 6940 is featured in this column where we take a look at basic methods for scanning and inverting your black on white sketches to convert them to white on black positives. Subject:NGC 6940 Issue:August 2009 Astronomy Now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":475,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2009\/05\/21\/drawn_to_the_un_2\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":3},"title":"Drawn to the UniverseJUNE 2009 – Struve 2259","author":"jperez1690","date":"May 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"200906","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":491,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2009\/09\/30\/drawn_to_the_un_5\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":4},"title":"Drawn to the UniverseSEP 2009 – Jupiter","author":"jperez1690","date":"September 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The September issue of Astronomy Now features Jupiter and the impact region that appeared in July 2009. The column describes methods that can be used to create a graphite sketch of the planet and its moons. Subject:Jupiter, Impact Scar, Callisto and Shadow Transit Issue:September 2009 Astronomy Now Basic Media:Graphite on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2004\/08\/01\/astronomical_sk\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":5},"title":"Astronomical Sketching Resources","author":"jperez1690","date":"August 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Astronomical Sketching Resources","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}