Elisabeth SIEGEL #216

Letters to the Editor

from Elisabeth SIEGEL in CMO #216

@. . . . . Finally I managed to make my very first Mars observation during this apparition. Weather conditions have been terrible in Denmark for most of 1999 until a couple of days ago. The winter wasn't too cold, but we have had a lot of rain, and even when it did not rain, the sky has been covered in clouds for months. I spoke to a fellow amateur astronomer the other day; he said that during his 40 years in amateur astronomy, there has never been a late winter and early spring with such abominable sky conditions as has been the case these last three months.

As a consequence of my lack of practice, my first Mars obsevation this season is not worth much, I'm afraid. Moreover, I did not have the best possible conditions for observing; as we have already switched to Daylight Saving Time (I hate it!), the observation took place from about 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM(on DST, we're two hours ahead of UT here in Denmark), and with Mars so low in the sky, I had to look at it while it was playing hide-and-seek between the barren branches of our neighbour's very tall birches. It wasn't free of the birches until about 3:00 AM, when I stopped observing. So I probably will have to wait until later in the season before I can expect to have really nice views of the planet.

I hope you and your family are well. Thank you for continuing to send me the excellent CMO's! I shall get back to you as soon as I have more observations.

(4 Apr 1999)

Elisabeth SIEGEL ( Malling, DENMARK )