by Jean B.
April 7th 2011, Habana, Cuba. (lat. 23° 7' ; long. 82° 23' ) Clear sky, 23°C.
While in Cuba for vacation, I decided to sketch this part of the sky seen from our balcony (looking West). The small crescent moon and the giant Orion side by side was magnificient. Sketching in my notebook and armed with my 15 X 70 Bushnell binoculars (to grab some details of the moon and Orion's nebula) I tried to reproduce the sight. Back in Montreal, Canada, Orion sinks near the West horizon in the evening during Spring.
The final sketch was done on acid-free Carson paper with HB and 2B pencils and a blending stump for the moon. The sketch was scanned and improved with Photoshop CS3: inverting B&W, sharpening the stars and the moon and adding colors for Betelgeuse (643 light-years away), Aldebaran (left side of the moon. 65 light-years away) and Orion's Nebula (M42, +/-1300 light-years away).