Jupiter Majestic
Observing blank, blending stump and pencils at the ready. “the camera could not replace the human eye” Étienne Léopold Trouvelot Jupiter is now well placed in the night sky, it's time to gather my pencils and observing blanks . For the next few months I will be collecting as many Jovian sketches as I can. The Schmidt telescope has been on form recently, so as long as the sky gods cooperate I shall have a fair collection of observational drawings by the end of this apparition . These past few days I have been sifting through my 2011-2015 Jupiter drawings. Each drawing brings back memories of standing at the telescope eyepiece, teasing out the faintest planetary detail, and looking for any colour and contrast variations. With each sketch I am reminded of the varying yearly Pembrokeshire weather patterns. One day it would be T shirt weather, another I was dressed like an eskimo, frantically trying to warm my fingers to allow quick sketches. One late