|
17 |
th Report:
The CMO/OAA Observations made during a fortnight period
from
16 October 2003 (280°Ls)
to
31 October 2003 (290°Ls)
An OAA Mars Section article to be published in
CMO #282 (10 November 2003 issue)
Masatsugu MINAMI, Director of the OAA Mars
Section
|
D |
uring this period, the Martian season,
passing the southern summer solstice, proceeded from λ=280°Ls to 290°Ls: The
southern hemisphere on Mars became more apparent since the central latitude
went up from φ=22°S to 24°S and the spc has totally been still evident
though shown much shrunk. The apparent diameter went down from
δ=17.8" (on 16 October) to δ=15.1". The phase angle ι
increased from 33° to 38°.
|
T |
he number of the observers has quite
decreased, but such Japanese observers as MURAKAMI (Mk), KUMAMORI (Km),
AKUTSU (Ak) were increasing the pace
of their work; MORITA (Mo) also
recovered. Abroad Don PARKER (DPk) in
AKUTSU, Tomio (Ak)
13 Sets of CCD Images (16,~19, 24, 29, 31
October 2003)
f/33×32cm spec with a Bitran BJ-41L
BENAVIDES, Rafael (RBn) Córdova, España
2 CCD Images (23 October 2003) 24cm SCT with a ToUcam
BIVER, Nicolas (NBv)
1 Colour Drawing (21 October 2003) 510×26cm speculum
HERNANDEZ, Carlos E (CHr)
1 Colour Drawing (30
October 2003)
250, 290, 340×23cm Maksutov-Cassegrain
IWASAKI, Tohru
(Iw)
20 Drawings (16, 18, 19, 21, 30
October 2003)
400×21cm speculum
KOWOLLIK, Silvia (SKw)
3 CCD Images (16, 24 October 2003)
18cm Starfire Refraktor with a ToUcam Pro
KUMAMORI, Teruaki
(Km)
31 CCD Images (16, 17#, 18,~20, 22#, 24#, 26, 27, 29#, 30#
October 2003)
f/70, 84×20cm Dall-Kirkham & f/30, 40×60cm Cass# with a ToUcam
#
LAU, Patrick (PLa) Hong-Kong
1 Drawing (20 October 2003) 200, 240, 300×25cm Dobsonian
MELILLO, Frank J (FMl)
4 Red CCD Images
(21, 25, 31 October 2003)
20cm SCT with a Starlight Xpress
MX5
MINAMI, Masatsugu (Mn) Fukui,
76 Drawings (16, ~20, 22, 24, 26, 27, 30 October 2003)
480, 400×20cm F/12 ED Goto
refractor*
*
MORITA, Yukio (Mo)
Hatsuka-ichi,
1 Set of CCD Images (25 October 2003)
f/50×25cm spec equipped with an ST-5C
MURAKAMI, Masami (Mk)
47 Drawings (16, 19,
20, 24, 27, 29, 30 October 2003)
320,
400×20cm speculum
NAKAJIMA, Takashi (Nj) Fukui,
12
Drawings (22, 25, 26, 27 October 2003)
480, 400×20cm F/12 ED Goto refractor*
*
NARITA, Hiroshi (Nr)
26
Drawings (16, 19, 20, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30 October 2003)
400×20cm refractor
PARKER, Donald C (DPk)
20 Sets of CCD Images (16, 18/19, 21, 23, 28 October 2003)
f/55, 59×41cm F/6 spec equipped with an ST-9XE or ToUcam
PARKER, Timothy J (TPk) LA, CA,
3 CCD Images (18 October 2003)
15cm
Jägers
Achromat with a ToUcam
PEACH, Damian A (DPc)
Buckinghamshire,
10
Sets of CCD Images (16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 24, 27 October 2003)
f/31×28cm
SCT with a ToUcam
PELLIER, Christophe
(CPl) Bruz,
9 Sets of CCD Images (17, 22, 27 October 2003)
18cm spec with a modified B&W ToUcam Pro
ROEL SCHREURS, Eric (ERl)
1 CCD Image (30 October 2003)
f/50×25cm TEC
Mak/MX70 with a ToUcam
SIEGEL, Elisabeth (ESg) Malling, Danmark
5 Drawings (18, 20, 22, 24, 26 October 2003) 270×20cm F/10 SCT
TEICHERT, Gérard (GTc)
3 Drawings (17, 25, 27 October 2003)
330×28cm SCT
VALIMBERTI, Maurice P (MVl)
4 CCD Images (17, 22, 29 October 2003)
f/34×35cm SCT with a ToUcam Pro
Van Der VELDEN, Erwin (EVl)
3 CCD Images (19, 22 October 2003)
f/31×20cm SCT with a Vesta
Pro modified
WARELL, Johan (JWr)
1 Drawing (25
October 2003) 260×25cm SCT (LX200)
9 Sets of CCD Images (17, ~21, 23, 25, 31 October 2003)
f/24×25cm SCT with a ToUcam
WILLIAMSON, Thomas E (TWs)
1 Set of CCD Images (23 October 2003)
f/50×20cm spec with a Philips ToUcam
This Fortnight: From
Observations of the
Present Writer (Mn) from 16 Oct (λ=281°Ls) ~ 20 Oct (λ=283°Ls): The seeing was not particularly good
during the week (rather better later on 22 October), but there were observed
several characteristics of this period. During the period the regions from the
morning Solis L to the evening declining Syrtis Mj faced to us, and made us
notice that the regions were covered by the white mist especially at the
morning side except for the areas where the chocolate- or wine-colour
prevailed, maybe implying the decreasing the global airborne dust. We had an
impression on 17 Oct (λ=281°Ls) at ω=357°W that, though the evening
side was still yellowish, the northern deserts showed a usual reddish tint (as
also noticed by MURAKAMI (Mk) on 16 Oct), the darkish markings from the CM to
the morning terminator looked basically dark-wine coloured while the morning
white mist was strong. The morning mist was so strong that the morning Solis L
was late to be definite. Another feature was that the higher latitude area
around the spc, especially its morning side looked very
decoloured, sometimes looked frosted (near the terminator), sometimes not so
whitish, sometimes light wine coloured, and sometimes dusty (though not so
strong as at the evening side). The markings around Bosporos
Gemmatus were frequently devoid of the covering mist
and looked bare showing the dark wine-colour ground: The area from this place
to Aonius S was sometimes the darkest out of whole
surface. M Oceanidum was also tinged with a dark
chocolate colour. The angular diameter was still 17.5”, so that we could catch Juventae Fons on 17 Oct at
ω=062°W and so on, and on 19 Oct (λ=282°Ls) at ω=357°W, 007°W we
were able to detect the light ruin of Novus Mons where no explicit snow
remained. Furthermore at ω=016°W, there was witnessed a short projection
blown out from the edge of the spc toward Noachis.
The spc looked as quite deformed on 19 Oct (λ=282°Ls) at ω=357°W, but
the details were beyond the 20cm refractor no longer. From 20 Oct
(λ=283°Ls), Hellas came into sight from the evening side: It was whitish
bright near the limb, while more inside it was rather dull except for the NW
corner. The NW corner was constantly bright in a reddish or crème tint, and it
was so until the end of the month. During the week, since M Acidalium was
facing to us, the nph looked strong.
Morning Mist at Amazonis: As has been reported from #14 (to the
preceding #16), the Canon LAU phenomenon has been one of topics: Don PARKER (DPk) chased it this time especially on
28 Oct (λ=288°Ls) at ω=143°W, 151°W where the de-concentrated
part was still witnessed: For instance, the B image made at 01:17 GMT
(ω=152°W) shows rather definitely the part where the mist was de-concentrated.
At 01:56 (ω=161°W) it is near the CM. On the day ι=37° so that it was
separated from the morning terminator by 53°, and hence about 3.5 hrs after the
sunrise. The following western Amazonis was still
thickly misted. The mist was explicitly shown on the B image by PEACH (DPc) on 16 Oct
(λ=281°Ls) at ω=159°W as well as on the B images of
PELLIER (CPl) on 17 Oct
(λ=281°Ls) at ω=159°W, and of DPc on B at ω=167°W. The morning mist remains to be
explicit more inside as seen on DPk’s
images on 23 Oct (λ=285°Ls); especially the series of
B images made from 00:35GMT (ω=189°W) to 01:24 (ω=201°W). Earlier, B
images by CPl on 22 Oct
(λ=285°Ls) at ω=111/112°W also show the mist at the
morning side (this images were taken by the use of Fuji Filter SP-4 sent kindly
from Kunihiko OKANO, Tokyo).
Morning Mist at Hellas:
The morning mist was strong not only at the NH but also in the southern
hemisphere: For instance, the mist at the morning
Morning Mist at Solis L: Solis L appeared from totally under the morning mist: This is quite a
different aspect seen at the area of Aonius S (see
the next item). Cf Km’s images on 17 Oct (λ=281°Ls) at ω=055°W, and on 19 Oct (λ=283°Ls) at ω=053°W. At ω=068°W Solis L looks out.
DPc’s images also provide the similar
angles on 27 Oct (λ=287°Ls) at ω=059°W. CPl’s images on the same day at ω=070°W show a thin mist over the Solis L
area. SIEGEL (ESg)
took a drawing on 26 Oct (λ=287°Ls) at ω=066°W where half of Solis L
was popped out of the morning mist while the following half was still under the
thick mist.
Wine-Coloured Areas: The area to the east of Solis L,
including the dark area of Bosporos Gemmatus looks bared out of the
morning white mist and shows a dark chocolate- or wine-coloured hue. This is
all apparent on the following images: The images on 16 Oct (λ=281°Ls) by Km at ω=055°W, 076°Ls, by Ak at ω=072°W, 084°W, and on 17 Oct (λ=281°Ls)
by VALIMBERTI (MVl) at ω=026°W, 078°W, by Km at ω=048°W, 055°W, 060°W, by Ak at ω=069°W, on 18 Oct (λ=282°Ls) by Km at ω=055°W, 073°W and so on. Any image on 17
Oct shows that M Oceanidum looks quite wine coloured.
The images of Van der VELDEN (EVl) on
19 Oct (λ=283°Ls) at ω=008°W, and 030°W show the
de-concentration of the morning mist as well as suggest its extension to the Noachis region. Km’s
image on 22 Oct (λ=184°Ls) at ω=314°W shows that it extends further to M Australe. On 26 Oct (λ=287°Ls) at ω=247°W, Mn saw Noachis
was rather wine coloured (though faded). Concerning the M Oceanidum
area, note that Ak’s
R and IR images on 16 Oct at ω=072°W show delicate details of the
ground markings.
Surroundings of the SPC: As already noted, Mk noticed on 16 Oct (λ=281°Ls) at ω=059°W~081°W that the
high-latitude morning area just outside the spc was decoloured rather to
whiter, and made a similar remark on 19 Oct also. On 24 Oct (λ=286°Ls) at ω=069°W, 078°W, KOWOLLIK (SKw)’s images show this clearly
suggesting a presence of a white condensate/frost mingled with off-white dust. CPl’s images on 27 Oct (λ=288°Ls)
at ω=070°W, 082°W convey a similar aspect
suggesting a prevailing of thin dust.
It was possible to consider there were still projections from the spc as
suggested by the images of Ak on 16 Oct (λ=281°Ls). The short projection
from the perimeter observed by Mn (as
noted) on 19 Oct, might be the same shown on the images of EVl on 19 Oct (λ=283°Ls) at ω=008°W, 030°W. Mn’s observation on 26 Oct (λ=287°Ls) at around ω=279°W
showed that the high-latitude area around the spc was totally decoloured or
faintly wine coloured.
Division of the SPC: The season when Hypernotius Mons is detached has
come. DPk’s images on 16 Oct
(λ=280°Ls) at ω=264°W ~ 278°W prove that the spc is
divided to two; one at this foreground side is brighter including Hypernotius
Mons, and the other the less bright part at the opposite side. DPc’s images 23 Oct (λ=285°Ls) at ω=101°W,
Iw visually checked the inside structure
of the spc on 30 Oct (λ=289°Ls) at ω=285°W; however did not see the
crack explicitly. In the forthcoming 2005 apparition, the season λ=280°Ls
will come at the beginning of September 2005 before the opposition and the
δ is mere about 14”, while at the Barnard season the δ will rise up
to 17” at the end of September.
Miscellany: We would like to acknowledge the useful and continual contribution
of Silvia KOWOLLIK (SKw) from
MORITA (Mo) was not able to
observe for a month because his equator was broken (and the maker had
bankrupted), but he came back though not yet in good shape.
KUMAMORI (Km) sometimes took
images at the Museum for which he works with a 60 cm Cassegrain,
and then he took by the use of his homemade 20cm Dallkirkham
back at home. It seems it took about two hours to leave his office and go back
to point again his homemade to the planet on the same night.
MURAKAMI (Mk) was very
productive this period: On 16 October, he took 8 drawings every 40 minutes from
8:30GMT to 13:20GMT, and on 30 October 7 drawings from 8:00 GMT to 12:00GMT (he
further observed twice until 13:30GMT, but due to the disproved seeing he did
not count them in). At
|
T |
he
next issue shall treat the observations made in the First half of November 2003
from 1 November (λ=290°Ls, δ=15.0") to 15 November 2003 (λ=299°Ls, δ=12.9").
Back to the CMO #282 /Back to 16th Report/Back to 15th Report
Back to the Façade /Back to the CMO Home Page
