LtE in CMO #279

From Elisabeth SIEGEL


 

 ® . . . . . . . .Date: Tue, 16 Sept 2003 11:11:34 +0200

Subject: New drawings in the mail

 

Dear Masatsugu,

 

Again just a note to say that I shall be sending you some more drawings (from the period September 1~15) tomorrow. Unfortunately, a few of them show some very interesting fine Martian detail close to the morning limb, which is however not part of the original drawings, but the shadow of some dirt that was lying on the glass plate of the photocopying machine! I have written this (with blue ball-pen) below the "observing notes" on the first one of them where the problem really shows. Hopefully, once you're informed, it won't matter much. I didn't notice the problem until after I came home from the store that has the machine. There certainly are disadvantages when you use such a low-tech approach as I do...

 

How's the weather and observing conditions in Japan right now? Here, it changes from day to day, but in general we've certainly had much better conditions in September than I had dared to hope for. And finally, Mars has reached its lowest declination and is on its way up again - which is great. I had been afraid that at its lowest point, it would be hidden behind trees in my neighbour's neighbour's garden - but this turned out not to be the case.

 

During my Sept. 11~14 observations, there would always be a point during the observing session where the planet suddenly looked as if someone had put a very greasy finger right on the lens of the eyepiece; but it only lasted about half a minute or so. Looking through the finder scope, then, I realized that this happened when Mars was just skimming the very top of the tallest of those trees (really just a single twig!). All in all, I can hardly believe how lucky I've been with Mars this summer - good weather conditions, the neighbour who chopped down his big tree just in time for the greatest part of the apparition, and now this almost perfect alignment between Mars at its lowest declination and the treetops...!

 

I wish you all the best.

Sincerely yours,

 


Elisabeth SIEGEL (Malling, Denmark)

esiegel@ofir.dk


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