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
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,