Astronomical Cybersketching: Observational Drawing with PDAs and Tablet PCs

226 Pages·2009·7.514 MB·English

by  Peter Grego (auth.)

Patrick Moore’s Practical Astronomy Series
Forothertitlespublishedintheseries,goto
http://www.springer.com/series/3192
Astronomical
Cybersketching
Observational Drawing with PDAs
and Tablet PCs
Peter Grego
1 3
PeterGrego
ISSN1431-9756
ISBN978-0-387-85350-5 e-ISBN978-0-387-85351-2
DOI10.1007/978-0-387-85351-2
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009920356
#SpringerScienceþBusinessMedia,LLC2009
Allrightsreserved.Thisworkmaynotbetranslatedorcopiedinwholeorinpartwithoutthewritten
permissionofthepublisher(SpringerScienceþBusinessMedia,LLC,233SpringStreet,NewYork,NY
10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in
connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer
software,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdevelopedisforbidden.
Theuseinthispublicationoftradenames,trademarks,servicemarks,andsimilarterms,evenifthey
arenotidentifiedassuch,isnottobetakenasanexpressionofopinionastowhetherornottheyare
subjecttoproprietaryrights.
Printedonacid-freepaper
springer.com
To Mike James, teacher of art.
Acknowledgements
MythankstoJohnWatson,whoenthusiasticallysupportedthisprojectfromthe
outset.AmongallthehardworkingfolkatSpringerwhohelpedthisbookalongthe
way,specialthankstoHarryBlomandMaurySolomonfortheirhelpandpatience.
IwouldalsoliketothankmyfriendsDavidAHardyandDaleHoltfortheirhelp
andinput.
vii
Contents
Acknowledgements ............................................. vii
AbouttheAuthor............................................... xi
Introduction................................................... xiii
PartI: Hardware:Past,Present,andFuture........................ 1
Chapter One– FromCarefullyTooledGearstoTotallyCoolGear...... 3
Chapter Two–ComputersGetPersonal............................ 25
Chapter Three–ThePowerofthePortable......................... 71
Chapter Four–HandheldCyberware.............................. 85
Chapter Five–PortableDataStorage.............................. 97
PartII: SoftwareandHowtoUseIt .............................. 109
Chapter Six–ElectronicSkies.................................... 111
Chapter Seven–InGraphicRealms ............................... 135
Chapter Eight–CybersketchingChallenges......................... 167
Glossary ...................................................... 205
Index......................................................... 211
ix
About the Author
Peter Grego has been a regular watcher of the night skies since 1976 and began
studyingtheMoonin1982.HeobservesfromhisgardeninSt.Dennis,Cornwall,
UK,usingavarietyofinstruments,rangingfroma100mmrefractortoa300mm
Newtonian, but his favorite is his 200 mm SCT. Grego’s primary interests are
observing the Moon and bright planets, but he occasionally likes to ‘go deep’
duringthedarkoftheMoon.
Grego has directed the Lunar Section of Britain’s Society for Popular Astron-
omysince1984andhasbeentheLunarTopographicalCoordinatoroftheBritish
AstronomicalAssociationsince2006.Heeditsfourastronomypublications:Luna
(Journal of the SPA Lunar Section), The New Moon (topographic journal of the
BAALunarSection),theSPANewsCircular,andPopularAstronomymagazine.He
isalsothelayouteditorfortheSocietyfortheHistoryofAstronomy’sNewsletter.
HehaswrittenandillustratedthemonthlyMoonWatchcolumninAstronomy
Now magazine since 1997 and is the observing Q&A writer for Sky at Night
magazine. Grego maintains his own web site at www.lunarobservers.com and is
webmasteroftheBAALunarSectionwebsiteatwww.baalunarsection.org.uk.
Gregoisalsotheauthorof15books,includingTheMoonandHowtoObserveIt
(Springer,2005),VenusandMercuryandHowtoObserveThem(Springer,2007),
MoonObserver’sGuide(Philips/Firefly,2004),NeedtoKnow?Stargazing(Collins,
2005),NeedtoKnow?Universe(Collins,2006),andSolarSystemObserver’sGuide
(Philips/Firefly, 2005). He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a
member of the SPA, SHA, and BAA. He has given many talks to astronomical
societiesaroundtheUKandhasbeenfeaturedonanumberofradioandtelevision
broadcasts.
xi
Introduction
Sketching the Skies
Suddenlyandwithoutwarning,anewstarappearedinthenightsky,andeveryone
in the community was alarmed. Nobody could remember having seen its like
before. Dazzling to look at, this unexpected intruder in the heavenly vault gave
off a light that almost rivaled that of the full Moon, drowning out the familiar
patternsofstarswithitsglare.Thenewstar’ssteadywhitelightpenetrateddeep
into the sacred cave, illuminating an age-old patchwork of intricately drawn
pictographs;someofthesedepictedterrestrialobjectsandevents,frommundane
sketchesofbisontovastandsweepingpanoramicimagesofwildgallopinghorses.
Other scenes showed celestial phenomena, such as the phases of the Moon and
prominentasterisms,orstarpatterns.
Thenextmorning,accompaniedbysolemnchantinginwhichtheentirecom-
munity participated, an elderly shaman entered the sacred cave by the light of a
fierybrandandselectedasuitableareauponwhichtodepictthenewstar.Oncethe
artworkwasfinished,theshamanreappearedatthecaveentrance;heheldouthis
armswidetotheslowlybrighteningmorningskiesandannouncedthatthepower-
fulmagicofthenewstarhadbeencapturedandcouldnowbeusedtoensurethe
continuingprosperityofhistribe.
About30,000yearslater,inthesamebeautifulpartofsouthwesternFrance,the
entrance to the famous world heritage-designated caves at Lascaux was illumi-
nated by another striking celestial spectacle – a piece of midsummer midnight
magicwhichwaseverybitascompellingtosketchasthatshamanofold.Across
the fertile plain of the Juranc¸on, and above the distant silhouetted peaks of the
PyreneesMountains,afullMoonsharedthesamesectionoflowsouthernskyas
theplanetJupiter.Unlikeourdistantancestor,atorchwasnotneededtoillumi-
nate the artwork. The backlit illuminated screen of a touchscreen handheld
computer gave the image a perfect and even illumination; nor was the palette of
xiii
xiv AstronomicalCybersketching
colorsfromwhichtochooselimited,ortherangeofeffectstoapplytotheartwork.
The only limiting factors were artistic competence and the amount of artistic
licensetotakewiththesketch(Figure2).
Figure1. Anyonefamiliarwiththeconstellationsmightbetemptedtothinkthatthisvividportrayal
ofthefrontofabull,takenfromadepictiononthecavewallsatLascaux,representstheconstellation
ofTaurustheBull,itsheadandhornsmarkedbytheHyadesopencluster.Itmightevenbeimagined
thatthesmallerPleiadesstarclusterisdepictedtoitsupperright;compareitwithapictureofthe
constellation(PeterGrego).
Ofcourse,thestoryabouttheancientshamanandtheunexpectedsupernovais
purelyaproductoftheimagination–atleast,itsdetailsare–butitistruethatour
remote ancestors sketched representations of a wide variety of terrestrial and
celestial phenomena on the walls of their cave homes and sacred places. The
appearance of bright supernovae – stars that explode as they reach the end of
their lives – must have been alarming to our superstitious ancestors, to say the
least. Some of the celestial depictions were of unexpected spectacles, like the
intense blaze of a supernova or the appearance of a brilliant sky-spanning
comet;othersightsweremorepredictable,‘routine’heavenlyevents,suchasthe
risingandsettingofthemidsummerormidwinterSun,thepatchworkofspotson
theMoon’sface,andthefamiliarconfigurationsofcertainstarpatterns.Archae-
oastronomershaveidentifiedallthesecelestialrepresentationsincavepaintings,
petroglyphs, and carvings from various sites around the world that date back
manytensofthousandsofyearstothedawnofhumanity.