SAHEKI in 1954 and

FUKUI in 1958

 

Japanese here

I) SAHEKI: We cite here the front cover of the Sept-Oct 1954 issue of the OAA journal "The Heavens" (#355 since 1920) which shows Tsuneo SAHEKI and his F10 reflector having a 20 cm Kibé's excellent speculum. The cover photo looks slightly strange: the eyepiece part should be shot perpendicular to the gravitational direction (while 30 degrees declined?).

 

Tsuneo SAHEKI with his 20cm scope on the front cover of the Sept-Oct 1954 issue

of the OAA Journal, The Heavens, and the following page which first illustrated

the observation of Edom's flash detected by him on 1 July 1954.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The second page of the issue shows SAHEKI's drawings on 1 July 1954 at 22:17 JST (13:17 GMT) when he witnessed the Edom brightening. The main drawing was made at 330, 400 and 500x. The series of lower drawings show the brightening from 3 seconds 'before' to 5 seconds 'after': Edom was first faintly yellowish light 3 seconds before, then became whitish light, and at the moment very bright with a pure white tinge, lasting one second. Three seconds later it turned yellowish white, and 5 seconds later it was yellow whitish dull light. Ichiro TASAKA was observing at the same time with SAHEKI by chance, but could not meet with the brightening. According to MINAMI's note book, MINAMI started 20 minutes later, and observed from 13:35 GMT to 14:16GMT on the night on 1 July 1954, (observation time: 13:50 GMT).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II) FUKUI: What follows is concerned with our Interview with Mr Sanenobu FUKUI who observed a white one-minute flare near Solis Lacus on 10 November 1958 at 15:05 GMT. FUKUI's case is important because it suggests such a brightening is possibly due to a solar reflection on something like a mirror more plausibly than the case of SAHEKI in 1954.

 CMO Editors, MINAMI, MURAKAMI, NISHITA and TSUNEMACHI, visited him at Yokohama and listened to his recollection on 25 March 2002 on this brightening. S FUKUI originally lived and observed in Kobé, but at present he lives with his daughter's family in Yokohama. He was born in 1916 (and so SAHEKI and FUKUI should be of the same age) and is now 86 years old. Unfortunately all of his observation notes are left in Kobé so that we were not able to see the originals, but he talked clearly about his observation in 1958 as well as his impression about recent OAA and the Heavens compared with those in his younger days.

 

 Out of several points in his talk, we should like here to pick out a problem of the duration time: It was reported in J ALPO 16 (1962) 264 that he saw the white spot 'for only about 5 minutes', and DOBBINS and SHEEHAN in S&T May 2001 followed this description. But as FUKUI remembers 'five minutes' should be read 'one minute' (SAHEKI's Japanese book in 1967 employs 'one minute'). The phenomenon began slowly and became brighter in a whitish tint and about one minute later it gradually faded away, too gradual to tell the final time. As he remembers the area remained small roundish as shown in his sketch and did not sparkle. The observation was made at midnight, and so he phoned SAHEKI up next morning: SAHEKI asked him to send the sketch readily to him to announce it in the Heavens.

 

 One of photos here shows his 25 cm reflector used in 1958 (this was however taken later, and so the mounting is different from the one in 1958).

 

 

In 1994, Mr S FUKUI attended the OAA Annual Convention held in our Fukui City. The late Mr Toshihiko OSAWA is shot abreast with Mr FUKUI among many other attendants (including several CMO members). 

     (Mn, in 2002)

A window frame from a photo on the occasion of the OAA Annual Convention held at Fukui City in 1994:

 Front, left to right: The late Mr Toshihiko OSAWA, Mr Sanenobu Fukui, Mr Hiroshi NARITA.

Behind: left to right: A NISHITA, unknown, Y MORITA, T AKUTSU.

Note Added on 9 Feb 2009: Mr Sanenobu FUKUI passed away on 5 February 2009.

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