Posted on Thursday, April 28, 2016
For the past few years I've been doing quite a bit of solar observations and photography, yet since the telescope that I mostly use has been damaged and is a rather moody bit of equipment, then I've kept thinking about sketching the Sun instead of taking pictures - it seems as if it could bring out more details and give better quality end result.
This book is all about sketching the Sun, and it is marvelous. It is a great resource even if you're not planning on sketching the Sun, but rather just observing it- you get a better idea of what to look for, different methods that could be used for observing the Sun and even some activities that would be fun to do with children.
Considering the nearness of the Mercury transit, I found it quite humorous how there's a lot of examples of Venus transit sketches, that is rarer, than of transits of Mercury that are more common, but of course not as easily observed.
All the different mediums used are explained in a step-by-step tutorial style, that are very easy to follow and there are hundreds of examples of sketches of the Sun, and not all of those are of impressive active regions or giant prominences, so it's a bit more motivational especially when while you're reading the book, there might not be any great features visible on the Sun, but you'd still want to sketch it.
Labels: book review