From Thomas A DOBBINS
@. . .
. . . You recently wrote:
"Anyway
we sincerely hope the US observers will be successful soon again, and we would
like at this moment to congratulate Tom DOBBINS and W SHEEHAN on their wise
prediction and a successful organization of the powerful team including Don to
the Florida Keys." Thank you for
your kind and flattering remarks. On this occasion I would be remiss if I did
note make a note of the fact that the reports of "flares" by Saheki, Tasaka, et
al have long been regarded with undue skepticism in many quarters and all too
often relegated to the fringe. It must be very gratifying that any lingering
doubts about the validity of the observations by your countrymen must now be
abandoned. As you will soon see when sequences of still images are extracted
from our videotapes, Saheki's drawings of the July 1, 1954 flare at Edom are
strikingly similar to the event that we have just witnessed. It can now be said
that the accuracy of his depictions of the phenomenon is truly uncanny and
worthy of the highest praise. Notable in this regard is the fact that Saheki
recorded a transitory elliptical indentation in the southern edge of Sabaeus
Sinus accompanying the anomalous brightening; moreover, his depiction of the
1954 flare at the instant of maximum brilliance mimics our impression that Sinus
Meridiani appeared momentarily detached from Sabaeus
Sinus.
With warmest regards,
(8 June
2001 email)
@
.The
following NASA image may be of interest and worthy of reproduction in
CMO:
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/5_24_98_glint_release/index.html
(9 June
2001 email)
Tom DOBBINS kindly showed us
some interesting passages that had not survived the final edition of The
Martian-Flares Mystery by T DOBBINS and W SHEEHAN (the May issue of the
S&T).
The
question of attempts by inhabitants of Mars to communicate with Earth by means
of mirrors aside, the possibility of observing natural reflections from Martian
seas was also considered.
..
On the basis of what was admittedly only circumstantial evidence, the
dark areas had been interpreted by most early astronomers as bodies of
water
..
This
had been Schiaparelli's view of the matter. Summarizing the conclusions he had
reached from his observations in 1877, the sage Italian astronomer had written:
"We can readily accept the supposition that the bright areas on Mars are its
continents, and the dark parts seas... During the course of my observations I
have noticed another fact, which tightens still more the knot of analogy between
Mars and the Earth. Studying the colors of the different seas of the planet, I
have found that, generally speaking, the color of the seas in the equatorial
part of the planet is darker than elsewhere, and becomes lighter with increasing
latitude. Now the same observation has been made by sailors on Earth, many of
whom are convinced of the difference of color between the Mediterranean and,
say, the Baltic or the North Sea."
However, Schiaparelli also noted that
some regions on Mars have the muted intensity of halftones, and he suggested
that they were probably swamps or marshes rather than proper seas. Moreover,
indisputable hanges in both the size and intensity of many of the dark areas had
been recorded over the years, suggesting that the Martian seas must be shallow
and their shorelines very flat. Eventually Schiaparelli found it necessary to
caution against too literal an acceptance of his naming of Martian features after "seas, lands, rivers,
canals, gulfs and lakes."
If
there really were seas on Mars, as was then generally believed, one predictable
consequence flowed from it.
Whenever the observing geometry was just right, bodies of water on Mars ought to
produce brilliant specular reflections of the Sun. As early as 1863, the British
geologist John Phillips had suggested that the failure of astronomers to observe
such reflections could only mean that the dark areas must be something other
than seas.
Schiaparelli himself calculated that the
subsolar reflection ought to rival a star of the third magnitude star in
brilliance. Eventually the failure to observe such reflections was reconciled to
theory by simply abandoning the maritime view of the planet. During the 1890s,
the once dominant view of the dark areas as seas lost ground - or rather lost
water - and they came to be widely regarded as tracts of vegetation. As Percival
Lowell summed up in his influential book Mars and Its Canals:
"
.
Specular reflection of the sort was
early suggested in the case of Mars, and physical ephemerides of the planet
registered for many years the precise spot where the starlike image should be
sought. But it was never seen.
." Lowell's words testify to what would become
the non-expectation by astronomers of seeing specular reflections on Mars. In
fact, the failure of such phenomena to appear seemed to argue not only against
the existence of seas on Mars, but against the existence of any bodies of
standing water of any significance. Refining Schiaparelli's calculations, the
Russian astronomer Vasili G. Fesenkov would later estimate that any open expanse
of water more than 300 meters across should make its presence known in this way.
And not only liquid water, but ice as well, for a smooth surface of ice is no
less capable of serving as a mirror.
.
Tom DOBBINS (OH, USA)