Astronomy

66 ASTRONOMY • SEPTEMBER 2017

ASTROSKETCHING

BY ERIKA RIX

Sketching totality

T

he wait for the

Great American

Eclipse is nearly

over. Depending

on your observing

location within its path, total-

ity on August 21 will last up

to 2 minutes, 40 seconds — so

make each second count! Have

a solid plan for the type of

instrument you’ll use during

the observation, as well as the

sketch media and technique to

render it with.

Your drawing kit should be

minimal and consist of familiar

materials. I recommend watch-

ing videos of past solar eclipses

so that you can practice your

technique. It will help give you

a sense of the timing required

to sketch live on eclipse day.

I prefer a white pencil with

black paper for sketching the

Don’t let the brief span of totality deter you.

filamentary structure of the

corona against the dark back-

ground of the sky. But if you’re

more comfortable with graph-

ite, you can draw a negative

sketch onto white paper and

then later scan and invert it

with image-editing software.

Green is the opposite of red, so

if you use white paper, a green

pencil will do the trick for

prominences.

Prepare the paper ahead of

time by creating 2- to 4-inch

circle templates. You can fit

several on a single page if you

wish to sketch the partial

phases. But during totality,

remember that you’ll need

extra room to draw the outer-

most layer of the Sun’s

atmosphere.

During the partial phases,

you must fit the front end of

your telescope with a proper

solar filter to prevent eye dam-

age (or even blindness). With

each sketch as the Moon

advances in front of the Sun,

draw the curvature of its limb

within the circle template first,

and then note the time and ori-

entation before adding any solar

features you observe. These

might include sunspots if you’re

using a white-light filter or

prominences if you’re viewing

through a Hydrogen-alpha filter.

Moments before totality,

focus your attention on the

bright points of light known as

Baily’s beads, the last of which

will produce the well-known

diamond ring. Draw the beads

quickly, but wait to soften their

glow with a blending stump

until after the eclipse has ended.

Once the Sun is entirely hid-

den from view, you can safely

remove the solar filter. Try to

memorize every aspect of the

corona’s feathery extensions

during those few precious

moments so that you can later

visualize them on paper.

Reattach the filter before total-

ity ends, and then begin your

sketch.

You’ll need to use light pencil

pressure to render the ethereal

appearance of the Sun’s corona.

I suggest drawing the most

distinguishable streamers first

by recalling their shapes,

lengths, and positions around

the disk. Start near the edge of

the circle and ease the pencil

pressure as you work your way

near the diffuse tips of each

extension. To render the faint

glow surrounding them, hold

your pencil near the end with

the side of its tip lightly resting

on the paper. Soften the mark-

ings with a clean blending

stump to complete your sketch.

Above all, try to relax and

enjoy every moment. I’ll be

wishing you success! Questions

or comments? Contact me at

[email protected]

Seconds after totality, while the

filamentary details were still fresh in his

memory, the artist completed this sketch.

He used a 3.2-inch refractor without a

solar filter during the first 90 seconds

of totality, followed by 15 seconds of

observing through a non-filtered

16-inch reflector and a 22mm eyepiece.

The larger scope helped him capture

the structure within the inner corona.

He used HG graphite pencils, a green

colored pencil, and white paper with

a 4-inch circle template.

The total solar eclipse of November 13, 2012, provided the chance to sketch this

sequence of the partial phases leading to totality. The artist used a white-light filter and

2-inch circle templates. He observed the eclipse with his astronomy club, Magnitude 78,

on the path’s central line north of Cairns, Australia. The club chose that site based on

meteorological statistics to maximize their chances of success. ALL IMAGES: SERGE VIEILLARD

Image-editing software allowed

the artist to invert, colorize, and

combine his scanned drawings

into a captivating montage of

the event.

Erika Rix is co-author of

Sketching the Moon: An

Astronomical Artist’s Guide

(Springer-Verlag, 2011).