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Astronomical Cybersketching

Observational Drawing with PDAs and Tablet PCs

  • Book
  • © 2009

Overview

Authors:
  1. Peter Grego
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  • Reviews of software and hardware suitable for digital drawing at the telescope eyepiece
  • Introduces a complete suite of fresh, modern techniques involved in making digital astronomical drawings
  • Simply, clearly explained and illustrated by a practitioner
  • Encourages new observers as well as providing established observers with new techniques
  • Unlike ‘pencil’ drawings, enhancement techniques can easily be used for digital sketches: this book explains how this is done using a desk-top PC
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series (PATRICKMOORE)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Part I Hardware Past Present, and Future

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. From Carefully Tooled Gears to Totally Cool Gear

      • Peter Grego
      Pages 3-24

    3. Computers Get Personal

      • Peter Grego
      Pages 25-69

    4. The Power of the Portable

      • Peter Grego
      Pages 71-84

    5. Handheld Cyberware

      • Peter Grego
      Pages 85-95

    6. Portable Data Storage

      • Peter Grego
      Pages 97-107

  3. Part II Software and How to Use It

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 109-109
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    2. Electronic Skies

      • Peter Grego
      Pages 111-133

    3. In Graphic Realms

      • Peter Grego
      Pages 135-166

    4. Cybersketching Challenges

      • Peter Grego
      Pages 167-203

  4. Back Matter

    Pages 205-219
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Keywords

About this book

SketchingtheSkies Suddenly and without warning, a new star appeared in the night sky, and everyone 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 patterns of stars with its glare. The new star’s steady white light penetrated deep into the sacred cave, illuminating an age-old patchwork of intricately drawn pictographs; some of these depicted terrestrial objects and events, from mundane sketches of bison to vast and sweeping panoramic images of wild galloping horses. Other scenes showed celestial phenomena, such as the phases of the Moon and prominent asterisms, or star patterns. The next morning, accompanied by solemn chanting in which the entire c- munity participated, an elderly shaman entered the sacred cave by the light of a fiery brand and selected a suitable area upon which to depict the new star. Once the artwork was finished, the shaman reappeared at the cave entrance; he held out his arms wide to the slowly brightening morning skies and announced that the pow- ful magic of the new star had been captured and could now be used to ensure the continuing prosperity of his tribe.

Reviews

From the reviews:

"Peter Grego … introducing observers to this fertile territory in his richly illustrated book. … The topic is covered in great detail, from a historic overview of computing itself, to the inner-workings of all the key components of desktop and portable computers. The author makes a well-documented case for computers being used to generate, assist, and enhance the sketching process." (Jeremy Perez, Astronomy Now, December, 2009)

About the author

Peter Grego has recently written The Moon and How to Observe it for Springer. He has eight other published astronomy books to his credit. And is working on Mercury and Venus and How to Observe Them for Springer. Living in the UK, he is a well-known writer and practical amateur astronomer. He has contributed to many other books, and has more than 100 published articles to his credit. He is the Lunar Topographic Co-ordinator and Editor of the BAA Lunar Section journal, The New Moon.

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