Michael Rosolina, who has announced his retirement as of June, 2014, from teaching at White Sulphur Springs Elementary, has published an article on “Sketching the King of Planets” in the January, 2014, Sky and Telescope magazine which is now available on newsstands.
The Friar’s Hill resident describes the planet Jupiter in detail through a technique he has developed with his Celestron C14 telescope called “sketching.”
Rosolina counts astronomy as one of his many hobbies and has shared his talents in viewing the night sky through organizations such as the Greenbrier Valley Astronomy Club which has sponsored “sky viewing” parties in the past at various educational venues including New River Community and Technical College Greenbrier Valley Campus and the White Sulphur Springs Elementary School.
In the just-published article, Rosolina takes the reader through the process of concentrating on one small area of vision and sketching that area, thus allowing the mind’s eye to view that one area in more detail and thus, by sketching as you observe each part of the heavenly body the viewer gets a much more detailed vision.
He outlines the tools needed and the different types of sketching that he has used to capture in great detail the vision of Jupiter, despite the limited time the viewer has, noting the rotation of Jupiter is just every 9.9 hours to complete a day.
The four-page article is illustrated by eight sketches Rosolina and others have completed over the past few years. “December through February are the best months for viewing Jupiter,” he noted.
For the article, Rosolina does credit his assistant who is also his wife, Monroe County native Judy Stennett who is an associate professor of English at New River Community and Technical College Greenbrier Valley Campus and his “astronomy” friends for support and assistance.