Solar & Planetary LtE Now for CMO/ISMO #41 (CMO #415)

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LtE#414

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¤·····Subject: Mars - 2013-September-27

Received; 29 Sept 2013 at 10:12 JST

Gentlemen,

This image was captured in average seeing. 

This is my first good color image of the season. 

There appears to be an afternoon cloud over Elysium.

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2013/130927/PGc27Sept13.jpg

Regards,

Peter GORCZYNSKI (Oxford, CT, the USA)

¤·····Subject: Mars 2013/09/28

Received; 29 Sept 2013 at 04:36 JST

Hello, here is a tiny Mars:

http://kardasis.weebly.com/mars-2013-14.html

Manos KARDASIS (Glyfada-Athens, GREECE)

¤·····Subject: Solar Inages 24-Sept-2013

Received; 29 Sept 2013 at 01:02 JST

Hi Guys, here are a few Images from the 24th.

The big filament I'm sure is, what was that large hedgerow prom' from several days ago.

best wishes

Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)

www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE

 ¤·····Subject: Mars

Received; 28 Sept 2013 at 15:18 JST

Hello Mr. Minami, I hope all is well, Here is my first submission from my latest session on September 24th, 09:41ut.

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2013/130924/EMr24Sept13.jpg

Clear Skies.

Efrain MORALES　(Peruto Rico)

¤·····Subject: Save Our Science: Success, Threats, & the New Planetary Coalition

Received; 26 Sept 2013 at 22:00 JST

Hi Fellow Advocate,

As the dust settles on a tumultuous fiscal year for planetary
exploration, we can take comfort that our successes in 2013 are
permanent and begin to focus on next year.

As one of our petition-signers, you've demonstrated
profound awareness of the threats to solar system exploration at NASA.
The Planetary Society maintains a year-round effort of political
advocacy in Washington, D.C., but we depend on your participation and
messages to Congress and the President for success. We need you to
stay involved as we move forward.

The opportunity presented to us here is rare. A well-organized and
active core of committed individuals like yourself have the potential
to exert great influence over the future of space exploration, but
only if we all stay involved.

To that end, it is imperative that we are well-informed. So this is
the first newsletter in a periodic series that will help keep you
up-to-date on the latest issues, challenges, and Society activities
relevant to the future of planetary exploration. This information will
help you be ready to act when the time is right.

I'm always eager to hear your thoughts about the future of space
exploration. And if you know a friend, family member, or colleague who
can help, make sure to invite them to contact Congress or the White House
and share their support for planetary exploration. We need all the
people we can muster.

We end this fiscal year with more funding for planetary exploration
than anyone expected. Next year looks tough, but we face it together
as part of a new planetary coalition.

Thank you for your help. Let's get out there.

Casey DREIER (Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator, The Planetary Society)

http://support.planetary.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=4501.0&dlv_id=9463

¤·····Subject: Jupiter images 23 september 2013

Received; 25 Sept 2013 at 04:35 JST

Hi all,
Some images taken under relatively poor seeing. As noted by John the WSZ
is indeed quite bright in CH4.

http://www.astrosurf.com/pellier/j2013-09-23_05-24_rgb_cp
http://www.astrosurf.com/pellier/j2013-09-23_04-46_ir_cp
http://www.astrosurf.com/pellier/j2013-09-23_05-07_ch4_cp

Best wishes,

Christophe PELLIER (Nantes, FRANCE)

¤·····Subject: Jupiter 2013.09.22

Received; 23 Sept 2013 at 05:33 JST

Dears,

This morning Jupiter was steady, but did not look really detailed on the acquisition screen hence my surprise about what I could make out of it, with a nice view of oval BA rising:

http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130922-04h23.0UT-MDe.jpg

ASI 120mm ran at 113 frames/second in R, G, B and even IR685 ... which is rather detailled:

http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130922i-04h12.5UT-MDe.jpg

It's also better in methane absorption band (300ms exposures) showing Io and oval BA bright:

http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130922c-04h36.4UT-MDe.jpg

Individual R, G & B layers:

http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130922r-04h23.0UT-MDe.jpg
http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130922g-04h22.6UT-MDe.jpg
http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130922b-04h23.4UT-MDe.jpg

Sincerely,

Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille, FRANCE)

http://astrosurf.com/delcroix

¤·····Subject: Tharsis Dawn Trailing Clouds

Received; 22 Sept 2013 at 19:43 JST

Dear Christophe,

Thanks for your Email the other day. I am looking forward to your note on the high altitude Martian clouds!
I am attaching here today, again other MEX VMC images in the midst of "the Tharsis Bright Morning Fog"season showing the morning trailing clouds from some of the Tharsis volcanoes (other than Arsia Mons for which we already know many similar examples). They seem to have been higher than the sea of dawn fog from which the heads of the huge volcanoes poked out. Trailing clouds of the Montes Ascraeus and Olympus seem to have originated at a certain altitude on the flank of each volcano (though I haven't checked the contour maps) rather than from each of the calderas. I guess they have some influence on the collective formation of the Tharsis Morning Bright Clouds.

    Best Regards,

Reiichi KONNAÏ (Fukushima, JAPAN)　

¤·····Subject: Mars images (September 20th.)

Received; 22 Sept 2013 at 02:17 JST

Hi all,

The red planet is now back in the skies before dawn. Despite the tiny angular diameter of 4.2" many familiar details can be seen such as Syrtis Major.

http://www.damianpeach.com/mars1314/2013_09_20rgb.jpg

Best Wishes

Damian PEACH (Selsey, West Sussex, the UK)

*************************************************

Web: http://www.damianpeach.com/

FB: http://www.facebook.com/peachastro

*************************************************

¤·····Subject: Jupiter 9/19

Received; 20 September 2013 at 21:32 JST

Fair conditions on the 19th; managed to catch oval BA as it was rotating off the disc, though seeing wasn't good enough to see if the little reddish spot was still in tow behind it.

Each RGB set was de-rotated in WinJUPOS.

Sean WALKER (Manchester, NH)

¤·····Subject: solar images 5-8Sept-2013

Received; 20 Sept 2013 at 08:53 JST

Hi Guys 

Here are some single stacked and double stacked images of the impressive AR 1836 tortuous fields 

best wishes

Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)

www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE

¤·····Subject: Re: High altitude cloud

Received; 20 Sept 2013 at 05:15 JST

Dear Reiichi,
Again thanks ! This confirms that the cloud is really high.
I should write a short ISMO note base on your last two e-mails...
Best wishes,

Christophe PELLIER (Nantes, FRANCE)

¤·····Subject: Bill SHEEHAN's FW of Peter Kuznick/Oliver Stone essay

Received; 16 Sept 2013 at 02:38 JST

We (STONE and KUZNICK) recently returned from a 12 day speaking tour in Japan that took us to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo, and Okinawa. Before we joined forces in Hiroshima prior to the August 6 commemorative events, Oliver lent support to the activists protesting the South Korean naval base under construction on Jeju, South Korea, less than 500 kilometers from Shanghai. Peter was in Kyoto with participants in American University's Nuclear Studies Institute's annual study-abroad class. Being in Hiroshima and Nagasaki around the anniversaries of the atomic bombings was a powerful experience for both of us and a vivid reminder of why whitewashing the past is so critical to perpetuating empire in the present -- a project in which the U.S. and Japan have collaborated for the past 68 years.

Both nations' elites have undoubtedly benefited from this symbiotic relationship. Until Japan was recently displaced by China, the U.S. and Japan were the world's two biggest economies. They are among the top five spenders on their militaries. Japan has been the fulcrum of U.S. policy in Asia since the end of World War II and remains so today.

Prior to our visit, our Untold History of the United States 10-part documentary film series had aired to widespread acclaim on NHK, Japan's public broadcasting network. The book, recently published in Japan, had already sold almost 50,000 copies there. We didn't appreciate how much interest our critique of the American empire and global security state had aroused until we arrived for a special private tour of the Atomic Bomb Museum in Hiroshima and were swarmed by well over 100 reporters and TV cameras.

It was fitting that we began in Hiroshima. Peter has been bringing students there every summer since 1995 in partnership with his colleagues at Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University. It was Oliver's first visit. Peter has been studying and writing about the atomic bombings for two decades. Oliver had immersed himself in the scholarly literature and visual images as part of the five years of research that went into creation of Untold History. No matter how well prepared one is though, visiting Hiroshima delivers an enormous emotional jolt.

We placed the August 1945 atomic bombings at the center of our analysis of the postwar U.S. empire. The atomic monopoly gave the U.S. the confidence to impose its will on the rest of the world. Following the bombings, U.S. officials moved to quickly propound a narrative that justified these barbaric acts -- a narrative that bore little resemblance to the truth. So the public was told that the bombs were mercifully dropped on the fanatic Japanese to end the war as rapidly as possible, avoiding an invasion that would have, according to Truman, cost a half million American lives. The U.S. had no choice. The act was not only justified, it was humane. Just think of all those Japanese who would have also died in an invasion.

This version of history left out a few inconvenient facts. Japan was already on its last legs and had been searching for an acceptable surrender formula since May. General Douglas MacArthur, who joined Generals Eisenhower and Arnold and Admirals Leahy King, and Nimitz in disavowing the bombings, later insisted that the Japanese would have surrendered in May if the U.S. had offered guarantees about preserving the emperor. Intercepted Japanese cables affirmed this fact. Truman described the July 18 cable as "the telegram from the Jap emperor asking for peace." Truman also knew that the Soviet Union was about to come into the war and that the Soviet invasion was what the Japanese most dreaded. In May, Japan's Supreme War Council declared, "Soviet entry into the war will deal a death blow to the Empire." At Potsdam, Truman got confirmation that the Soviets were about to enter the Pacific War and wrote, "Fini Japs when that comes about." He told his wife that the war would end a year sooner now. On July 6, 1945, the Combined Intelligence Committee reported, "An entry of the Soviet Union into the war would finally convince the Japanese of the inevitability of complete defeat."

The August 9 Soviet invasion of Japanese-occupied Manchuria spelled the beginning of a very rapid end to the war. Later that day, the U.S. destroyed Nagasaki. To the Japanese leaders, this callous and terrifying act did not represent something fundamentally new. The U.S. had been firebombing and destroying Japanese cities since March -- over 100 in total. Hiroshima and Nagasaki added two more to the list. But it was the Soviet invasion that convinced Prime Minister Suzuki and others that they had better surrender to the Americans while they still had the chance rather than to the Soviets. The atomic bombings were an attempt by the U.S. to get the war over with before the Soviets invaded and received the spoils the Allies had promised them at Yalta and, even more consequential to human history, they were an attempt to demonstrate to the Soviets, who were well aware of Japanese desperation to end the war, that the U.S. could be completely ruthless in defending its "interests."

It took extraordinary dexterity, a lapdog media, and an unquestioning educational establishment to turn this tale of viciousness into one of American benevolence, but Truman and his defenders managed to pull it off, leaving untrammeled the sanctification of WWII as a "good" war (it was certainly a necessary one) and the myth of American exceptionalism – the story of freedom-loving America's unique goodness and altruistic willingness to sacrifice for others.

The second fundamental myth about WWII is that the U.S. gallantly won the war in Europe when, in reality, it was, as Churchill acknowledged, the Soviets who "tore the guts out of the German military machine." The Soviets faced 200 German divisions throughout most of the war, while the U.S. and Britain together faced 10. In fact, Generals Marshall and Eisenhower were furious that the U.S. was "periphery pecking" and shoring up British imperial interests in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and later Burma instead of confronting the Germans head on until Normandy, when the U.S. narrative typically and misleadingly begins, long after the Soviets had turned the tide of the war.

And the third myth about the war was that the Cold War was a product of Soviet territorial aggrandizement and hostility toward the capitalist West. Actually, it took Truman less than two weeks in office before he had fundamentally undermined Roosevelt's vision of a multipolar world of collaboration and shared leadership between the U.S. and Soviet Union and initiated a policy of mistrust and hostility.

So we argue that almost everything Americans learn about the war is just the opposite of what actually occurred. Amazingly, the version of WWII history taught to Japanese students is equally mendacious and dishonest. In Japan today, there is some knowledge about and debate over the Nanjing massacre and the sexual enslavement Korean women, but there is almost no discussion of the brutality and wanton killing associated with Japan's wartime imperial onslaught in the rest of Asia. Few know that well over one million Vietnamese perished during Japan's brief rule or the atrocities committed in Indonesia, Malaya, the Philippines, Taiwan, Burma, and elsewhere throughout the region to men and women alike. And the surrender itself has been cloaked in nonsense about a compassionate emperor's willingness to sacrifice himself in order to limit his people's suffering.

The subterfuge continued after the war. At the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, no charges were brought against Japanese leaders for the aerial slaughter of Chinese and other civilians in order to ensure that no parallels were drawn to U.S. firebombing of Japanese civilians or the even deeper war crime of the atomic bombings. Referring to the former, Secretary of War Stimson confessed to Truman that he didn't want the United States to get "the reputation of outdoing Hitler in atrocities." And referring to the latter, Truman's personal chief of staff, Admiral William Leahy, declared, "The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender," and told Truman biographer Jonathan Daniels in 1949 that U.S. leaders claimed they were going to hit military targets but "went ahead and killed as many women and children as they could which was just what they wanted all the time." The U.S. actually pardoned or simply released dozens of class A war criminals, many of whom went on to do America's postwar bidding. Among them were Matsutaro Shoriki, founder of Nippon TV and president of the Yomiuri Shimbun, now Japan's largest newspaper, who worked closely with the CIA and USIA to bring nuclear power to Japan as part of Eisenhower's effort to sell the benefits of the peaceful atom in order to justify use of nuclear weapons. It was Eisenhower whose massive nuclear buildup – from approximately 1,000 nuclear weapons when he took office to 30,000 when his budgeting cycle was completed -- turned Truman's threat of potential omnicide into a reality that has plagued mankind ever since.

Another of the pardoned war criminals was Nobusuke Kishi, who went on to become Japan's prime minister in 1957 and helped spawn a family dynasty of historical prevaricators. Kishi forced passage of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, widely known as AMPO, which sanctioned retention of U.S. military bases in Japan. Popular opposition was so fierce that Kishi was forced to resign. Kishi had already angered the public by insisting that Japan's Constitution did not ban the development of nuclear weapons. This was heresy to a nation that overwhelmingly embraced the antimilitarist Article 9 of its U.S.-authored Peace Constitution, which stated, "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation" and "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained." Since the Korean War, U.S. leaders had been pressuring Japan to revoke Article 9 and play a larger role in regional defense. Kishi's government had deceived the public by concluding a "secret agreement" giving U.S. military vessels carrying nuclear weapons carte blanche to enter Japanese ports.

Kishi's younger brother Eisaku Sato became prime minister in 1964 and privately supported Japan starting its own nuclear weapons program. In 1967, he endorsed the "Three Non-Nuclear Principles," renouncing Japan's manufacture, possession, or introduction of nuclear weapons, a commitment that Sato later described to the U.S. ambassador as "nonsense" and persisted in violating. In 1971, his government concluded the treaty that allowed Okinawa to revert to Japan, but stipulated that the U.S. would retain its military bases on the island. In 1969, he had signed a secret protocol allowing the U.S. to reintroduce nuclear weapons into Okinawa, under emergency circumstances, following Okinawa's 1972 reversion to Japan. His receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974, coming on the heels of Henry Kissinger's receiving the award the previous year, made further mockery of efforts to find peaceful solutions to global crises.

The lies and deceptions came full circle with the election of rightwinger Shinzo Abe, Kishi's grandson, in December 2012. Abe had previously served for one year before resigning in disgrace. He is a notorious denier of history, having questioned the veracity of Japanese atrocities toward China and threatened to rescind Japan's apology to women forced into prostitution to service Japanese troops.

Abe's LDP returned to power following three years of failed Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) rule. The defeat of the DPJ was a tragic blow to the reform hopes of the Japanese people. The DPJ's Yukio Hatoyama had been elected prime minister in September 2009, ending decades of almost uninterrupted LDP rule. He had promised to block the planned relocation of the large U.S. marine base within Okinawa from Futenma to Henoko and move it entirely outside Japan. Futenma and the other U.S. bases, which have been so important to American imperial efforts, are profoundly unpopular with the people of Okinawa, the small prefecture that houses 74 percent of the U.S. bases in Japan. Hatoyama's resistance was crushed by Nobel Laureate Barack Obama, precipitating the collapse of his government. When we met with Hatoyama, who has written enthusiastically about Untold History, we encountered a man who had tried to resist the ever-encroaching U.S. empire of bases and had been destroyed in the process. Obama, like all of his postwar predecessors, with the exception of John Kennedy, and, all-too-briefly, Jimmy Carter, made clear that maintaining the American empire took precedence over human decency and social justice and the will of the Okinawan people, who have struggled mightily against construction of a new marine base and the use of their island as a launching pad for all U.S Asia wars, beginning with Korea. Okinawa is now being readied to play a similar role in Obama's Asia "pivot," the U.S. plan to "contain" China in what is gearing up to be, if not a new cold war, an excuse for continued bloated levels of "defense" spending by the U.S. and its allies.

As the U.S. prepares for an attack on Syria, seizing the Assad government's alleged use of chemical weapons as a "red line" that cannot be crossed, it strikes some as odd that the U.S. takes such issue with the use of WMD at the same time its National Air and Space Museum proudly displays the Enola Gay, the plane that inaugurated the modern era of WMD with its atomic bombing of Hiroshima. There is an irony here that could only get lost on a nation whose history is unlearned -- a nation that self-righteously arrogates unto itself the role of global policeman despite having long been, in the words of Martin Luther King, "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world." So long as American leaders believe, as Woodrow Wilson put it almost a century ago, that "America [is] the savior of the world," they will continue to substitute force for diplomacy and cling to the conviction, driven home by the fact that the U.S. has avoided universal condemnation for the atomic bombings of 1945, that might makes right. As former Secretary of State Madeline Albright so audaciously declared, "If we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation."

To understand how the rest of the world looks at military action in Syria by the United States, one would be better served to turn to an unlikely source -- Samuel Huntington -- who wrote, "The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas, values or religion... but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do."

Peter KUZNICK & Oliver STONE

¤·····Subject: Re: Jupiter 14 September

Received; 18 September 2013 at 03:49 JST

Hi Don,

Thank you for those excellent images.

This bright, slightly reddish spot f. oval BA looked like a cyclonic oval (until now!), and the dark STB f. it seems to have become quiet, so I wonder if oval BA is now going to decelerate again. I look forward to the next JUPOS measurements!

best wishes,

John

----------------------------------------------------------

>On 2013-09-17 07:10, Donald Parker wrote:

> Hi All,

> I have attached some RGB and CH4 Jupiter images from 14 September. The small reddish spot following Oval BA appears to have divided into north and south components with a possible bridge extending from the south component into BA. This oval is not bright in methane.

> Best,

> Don

----------------------------------------------------------

John H. Rogers (the UK)

¤·····Subject: Solar images 28/31Aug & 4-Sept 2103

Received; 16 September 2013 at 16:55 JST

 Hi Guys here are a few images from end of Aug / beginning of Sept.

28th Aug a shot of AR 1835 and one of AR 1836 just on to the disc, double stacked to show the proms as well as the AR.

31 Aug A full disc shot with lots of filaments also a double stacked image. Low power as seeing was poor.

4th Sept we were treated to a beautiful and spectacular rapidly changing prominence , that also had a small set of coronal loops nearby.

best wishes

Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)

www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE

¤·····Subject: Jupiter images on 13 September 2013

Received; 16 September 2013 at 01:25 JST

Jupiter Image (J130913)

Tomio AKUTSU (Cebu, the PHILIPPINES)

¤·····Subject: Voyager: Through the Door, Into Eternity

Received; 13 September 2013 at 07:10 JST

September 12, 2013

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Today we learned that the Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched 36 years ago to
reconnoiter the planetary systems of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and
Neptune, slipped beyond the protective magnetic bubble created by our
Sun about a year ago, and is now finally sailing the high seas of
interstellar space.

Because it is an event of tremendous historical significance, I was
asked by the BBC to provide a personal perspective.  Here's what I had
to say: http://bbc.in/16nOUZj

Enjoy,

Carolyn PORCO (Boulder, CO)
Cassini Imaging Team leader
Director, CICLOPS

http://twitter.com/carolynporco
http://www.facebook.com/carolynporco
http://carolynporco.com

¤·····Subject: Big lift off 11 September 2013

Received; 12 September 2013 at 21:18 JST

Hi

I was lucky enough to capture this event with SM90 at 3.2m focal length with DMK51.

The sequence runs from 08:07 to 09:23UT with seeing ranging from grade 1 to grade 3. I was shooting 300 frame video sets every 2 minutes but only animated every 4 minutes here to keep the file size down.

Please click on it when it runs as this one is a screen filler!

The solar explorer

I hope that you find it interesting

Regards

Andrew DEVEY　(West Yorkshire, the UK)

¤·····Subject: Re: Chamberlain's Guide to Japan

Received; 10 September 2013 at 21:19 JST

Dear Bill,
  I’m sorry I am slow in replying to your enquiry. I tried to remember but in vain how we settled the question about the reason why Percival Lowell had chosen the way to Harinoki Pass when he tried to go back. We supposed there were some guide books, but I think unfortunately I could not identify any of them. (I might have heard some references later, but unfortunately then I had lost completely interest in his trip.)
  What I remember a bit is about a possibility in which Percival might have heard the episode of Sassa-Narimasa's adventure as noted in
http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmomn3/LProads1.htm
(not readable by Internet Explorer 10. Please use an earlier version.)
  I did not know even how Chamberlain had any relation with the Percival trip to Noto. However, I just found, Walter Weston had written that, before Percival, several including Chamberlain had passed easily the route to Harinoki,(and a few years later than Percival, Weston himself must have passed the route,) and so the route must have already been quite famous and well-known.
  Weston's famous book: “Mountaineering and Exploration in the Japanese Alps” was published later in 1896 by John Murray in London and it is now readable on Internet, and as shown here (jpg image) the page of the book just implies Percival Lowell was merely unfortunate.
http://ia600809.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/11/items/olcovers585/olcovers585-L.zip&file=5856233-L.jpg

  Even then we may need to pin down the guide book Percival carried. I will write to you if I could come across any hint.

  By the way, we are waiting for your opening essay on something about the 2003 opposition for #414. We sincerely expect that it could reach us by 15 September.

  With best wishes,

Masatsugu MINAMI (Fukui, JAPAN)　

¤·····Subject: High altitude cloud

Received; 10 September 2013 at 15:57 JST

Dear Christophe,
Attached montage is from the 29 Aug. 2008 MEX VMC image showing the bright spot with its shadow cast, and the corresponding plots on the MOLA Elevation Map. Simple rough mental calculation suggested that the "Huge Ad-balloon" was about 180km across and 60km thick spheroidal, floating at an altitude of 80km, with the top reaching 110km height, and the bottom staying at 50km above the ground!

Best Wishes,

Reiichi KONNAÏ (Fukushima, JAPAN)　

¤·····Subject: Re: A Spherical Cloud floating high inthe Martian Sky?

Received; 10 September 2013 at 07:05 JST

Dear Reiichi,
Woh, these are great images that you found ! For me this is just the same as we observed in 2012 (and before).

The casted shadows and night presence would prove that this is a high altitude phenomena...
I will look if I can ask someone at EPSC...

Best wishes,

Christophe PELLIER (Nantes, FRANCE)

¤·····Subject: Solar Images 27-Aug-2013

Received; 10 September 2013 at 01:02 JST

Hi Guys I always go looking for larger faint proms that are lurking below normal imaging brightness.

They don't image too well but are often rewardingly weird.

best wishes

Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)

www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE

¤·····Subject: Jupiter images on 31 August; 1, 2, 3 September 2013

Received; 9 September 2013 at 08:07 JST

Jupiter Image (J130831)

Jupiter Images (J130901-1)

Jupiter Images (J130902)

Jupiter Images (J130903)

Tomio AKUTSU (Cebu, the PHILIPPINES)

¤·····Subject: Jupiter & 2013.09.03

Received; 7 September 2013 at 23:02 JST

Dears,

Jupiter and Io under average conditions with a nice view on  BA.

On the IR image Europa is visible transiting on the globe as a very bright point:

http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130903i-04h21.2UT-MDe.jpg

RGB: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130903-04h32.7UT-MDe.jpg

R: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130903r-04h32.9UT-MDe.jpg

V: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130903g-04h32.1UT-MDe.jpg

B: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/j20130903b-04h32.1UT-MDe.jpg

Sincerely,

Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille, FRANCE)

http://astrosurf.com/delcroix

¤·····Subject: Uranus images, 5th september 2013

Received; 7 September 2013 at 07:13 JST

Hi all,
A last excellent night on Uranus before the arrival of fall.
The R image (with no IR) stills shows a brightening on the north pole despite reversed orientation from my set taken on 31th august.

http://www.astrosurf.com/pellier/u2013-09-05_01-08_R_cp.jpg

The RG610 image shows the equatorial belt easily:
http://www.astrosurf.com/pellier/u2013-09-05_03-16_rir_cp

Nice observations everyone !

Christophe PELLIER (Nantes, FRANCE)

¤·····Subject: A Spherical Cloud floating high inthe Martian Sky?

Received; 6 September 2013 at 02:11 JST

Dear Christophe,
Thanks a lot for your comments on the Elysium Trailing Clouds the other day! ; I agree with you that they are not associated with the summertime Hadley cell. As far as I could have checked, they appear around λ=000゜Ls and 180゜Ls…both equinoxes. So that, I guess, they might be related to the equinox patterns of double Hadley circulation cells.

These days I have been enjoying browsing through ESA's VMC Mars Webcam's Flickr. I am attaching here a quite unusual image ; An extremely　bright spot with adjoining surprisingly dark well-defined patch was shown near the dawn terminator over the classical Electris. Roughly estimated position is 192゜W 45゜S, close to the 2003/2012 terminator projected clouds area…actually this image seems to show the sign of the terminator protrusion. The bright spot seems to have been around 180km in across. And the dark patch is clearly detached from the bright spot ; so that if it was the shadow of the glittering spot, the bright object should have had a spherical shape, and have been floating very high in the Martian sky. It's far beyond my understanding. If you had a chance at the coming EPSC in London, Christophe, could you ask some professional scientists what on Mars the phenomenon was?
Change of the object with the passing time is also very interesting :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/esa_marswebcam/sets/72157632224124774/

I am also attaching some 2008 VMC images of the 2003/2012 type(?) dawn terminator projection.

Best Wishes for your perfomance in London,

Reiichi KONNAÏ (Fukushima, JAPAN)　

¤·····Subject: Chamberlain's Guide to Japａｎ

Received; 5 September 2013 at 08:51 JST

Dear Masatsugu,
  I am working on a book proposal for a new Mars book (for U of Arizona Press), and am revising the chapter draft on Percival Lowell.  I am recalling our trip to Noto in 2004—it seems that Lowell had a guidebook, probably Murray’s, but it was not the 3rd edition by Basil Hall Chamberlain which appeared in 1891.  I am unable to find any references to the earlier editions (or the authors thereof).  Do you know this reference?
   It would be interesting sometime to read those old guide books to see what they had to say about Japan at the time, and to compare the accounts therein with what Lowell wrote in Noto and elsewhere.
   ***I should have some material for you on Mars 2003 from my notebooks in a few days—I have been rereading the notebooks and marking passages of interest.

   Meanwhile, my very best to you,

Bill SHEEHAN (Willmar, MN)

¤·····Subject: 5-hour prominence movie

Received; 4 September 2013 at 19:30 JST

Hi

We had a completely cloudless day yesterday so here is a look at a rotating prominence from 10:07 to 15:07UT seeing from grade to to grade 4 temperatures ranged from 25 into the low 30's Centigrade so quite an endurance test to sit out with head stuck in observing box. There was 5.2 degrees of field rotation from first to last frame that I corrected in Photoshop and so sorry for moving lower edge to this animation.

Shot at 3.2m focal length with SM90.

Hope you find it interesting.

Regards

Andrew DEVEY　(West Yorkshire, the UK)

The solar explorer

¤·····Subject: Re: Elysium Trailing Clouds

Received; 2 September 2013 at 06:23 JST

Dear Reiichi,
Thanks for the montage ! I don't know if these are really trailing clouds just like we saw last year - because the martians season is too early here. Trailing clouds are an effect of the summertime hadley cell ;)
Mars is still a bit far in my mind, although the next apparition is around the corner. On my side yes I'm about to attend again to EPSC in two weeks (in London) where I will give a talk about Venus. Only after I will be able to write for ISMO again (I will have some words to say about EPSC first, but I do not have ideas yet for Mars itself...)
Let's keep in touch, we must animate the ISMO for the 2014 Mars !
best wishes,

Christophe PELLIER (Nantes, FRANCE)

¤·····Subject: Jupiter images on 30 August 2013

Received; 1 September 2013 at 21:12 JST

Jupiter Images (J130830)

Tomio AKUTSU (Cebu, the PHILIPPINES)

¤·····Subject: Elysium Trailing Clouds

Received; 1 September 2013 at 12:33 JST

Dear Christophe,

I believe you are busy in preparing for the coming EPSC in London.
On our side, Reiko is quite well, still eager to conquer as many art museums as possible. I am preparing myself for the coming Mars, tuning up my visual observing system:telescope, binoviewer and eyepieces,  and also trying to tune up my brain, to immerse myself in information on Martian climate as well. Attached here is a montage from the recent MARCI MRO images showing the emergence of Elysium Trailing Clouds in this Martian year. The season is quite close to the past records of the similar events, so it can be a seasonal manifestation of the Martian water vapor activity?

   Best Regards,

Reiichi KONNAÏ (Fukushima, JAPAN)　

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