Obituary

Toshihiko OSAWA (1935 - 2001)

　To our regret, we should report we got a piece of information that Toshihiko OSAWA died at hospital in March 2001. As we remember, at the beginning of January 2001, we received a usual greeting card from him, but in March we suddenly felt difficult to communicate with him at hospital: Later we heard it was because he passed away. We don't yet know anyone who attended his funeral.

Toshihiko OSAWA was born in 1935, and so he died at the age of 66. He spent these days in a mental hospital for more than a decade, but he was very famous as a good planetary observer from his younger days: We remember we already did know who he was at those times when we (Mn & Nj) were boys both in a junior high. His observations of a cloudy motion at Neith in Nov 1951 (16 yrs old!) were cited in Tsuneo SAHEKI's book that was published around the time. Famous was also a set of Osawa's spots on Saturn's NEB that were found by him on 5 Feb 1952, and chased for two months.

OSAWA started observing Mars in 1950 by the use of an 8cm spec. He obtained a total of 30 drawings during the apparition, and was already a favourite pupil of T SAHEKI (34 of age!). In 1951, he began to communicate with W HAAS of the ALPO. In 1952, he used a 15cm spec, but in the 1954 and 1956 favourable apparitions he was scarcely able to observe because he was sick in bed. Up until 1969, his Mars work was not productive, but during the time he graduated from the Dept of Physics, Kobe University. The 1969, 1971 and 1973 apparitions were the fruitful periods when he got good results by the use of a 20cm spec some of which were published with other results in 1975 and 1978 in a book edited by Takeshi SATO et al (in 1981). At those times OSAWA also communicated with R McKIM in UK and J DRAGESCO in France. As to OSAWA's observations of a cloudy matter in Casius, HAAS wrote to him that it was a fine piece of work and praiseworthy.

When the 1986 and 1988 great apparitions came, he was already in a hospital, and could not observe fully.

We last met him in 1994 on the occasion of an OAA Assembly at Fukui when he was slightly recovered. He wrote to us from time to time, but he repeatedly lamented about the breakdown of his telescope (supposed on the rooftop of the hospital). We grieve over his death.

Memorial addresses are given in Japanese by Ichiro HASEGAWA and Takeshi SATO: Click here.

Masatsugu MINAMI and Takashi NAKAJIMA,

The OAA Mars Section