I thought it was worth trying sketching again considering the diabolical weather. This is done with white charcoal pencil on black cartridge paper (and so isn’t reversed in the scan). This I found actually much easier than sketching in pencil. It shows the craters Orontius, Saussure, Huggins, Nasireddin and Miller and is drawn from a photo taken at 21h15 on 28th April this year.

This morning gave a really excellent view of Jupiter in the Dobsonian. The sky was lightening constantly as I watched and the reduction in contrast against the sky I believe enhanced considerably the view and removed any diffraction spiking that might have intruded. Venus as a semi-crecent and Sirius were also prominent.

A sketch made from an image taken on 28th April 2023 when the Moon was eight days old. The last few weeks have been so cloudy and the Moon so low as to make direct observation impossible.

A sketch made over two evenings, taking about one hour in total. Sketching was made easier by being possible before nightfall and the sketch pad therefore being visible without a torch.