A Little Fat Owl on the Moon

The Moon is one of my favourite sketching subjects.  It is always bright to make it an easy telescopic target from my home in Sydney.  Another aspect is the occurrence of alphanumeric along the terminator, caused by the shallow incidence of sunlight provoking shadows on the cratered surface that to our eyes resemble letters and numbers.  Another type of lunar apparition caused by incidental shadows is the appearance of other recognisable shapes and even animals.

My latest lunar sketch is one such shadow apparition.

I don't often have a particular target in mind.  I typically start by scanning the length of the terminator looking for features that catch my attention as a sketching subject.  The "terminator" is the junction line between the lit and dark edge of the lunar surface.  On this occasion, a lovely set of flooded crater shadows forming the shape of 'A Little Fat Owl'.

The crater Fra Mauro forms the body, Parry the right eye, and Bonpland the left eye.  The contours of the flooded Fra Mauro give the effect of plumage to the body.

Later while researching this area, I came to find out that the Apollo 14 landing site happens to be just below where the owl's feet would be.

Object:  "A Little Fat Owl", craters Fra Mauro, Paddy and Bonpland

Telescope:  1980's Orange Tube Celestron C8, 8" SCT

Gear:  5mm Baader Hyperion, 400X

Date:  8th May, 2014

Location:  Sydney, Australia

Media:  White and grey soft pastel, charcoal and white ink on A5 size black paper

Duration:  approx. 2hrs.