2001 Mars Observation Reports -- #23--
OAA MARS SECTION
CMO Mars Observations
in the Second Half of April 2002 and the First Half of May 2002
from 16 April 2002 (359°Ls) to 15 May 2002 (013°Ls)
based on the article published in CMO #260 (25 May 2002)
Masatsugu MINAMI, Director of the OAA Mars Section
NOW the season of the 2001 Mars
has been brought to a close. We deal with the following period here, but the
results remained no more fruitful:
On 16 April, the apparent diameter was only 4.2" while it went further
down to 3.9" on 15 May. The planet is now near the Sun, and looks very low
in contrast even at sunset. The Martian season passed the northern spring
equinox. The central latitudeφvaried from 10ﾟS to 1ﾟS. MURAKAMI watched on 28
April and on 2 May all of the five planets in the evening sky, but he reports
Mars was the smallest in diameter.
WE just received the following
made during the period concerned:
MINAMI, Masatsugu (Mn)
Fukui
9 Drawings
(18, 22, 26 April;
480, 400×20cm ED Goto refractor*
MORITA, Yukio
(Mo) Hatsuka-ichi,
2 Sets of
CCD Images (
f/50x25cm speculum equipped
with an ST-5C
MURAKAMI, Masami
(Mk)
2 Drawings (28 April;
370×20cm peculum
*
THE Martian season attained 000ﾟLs on 18 April 2002: The present writer (Mn) watched on the day at LCM=220ﾟW - 230ﾟW where a dark band was seen though
a shadowy area in the NH was not identified. The spr
is light, and the morning limb to the npr
was misty or cloudy. The central latitude=10ﾟS. On 22 April(002ﾟLs) Mn watched at LCM=170ﾟW - 190ﾟW: Similar results with the band darker at the morning
side. 20ﾟC. On 26 April (004ﾟLs) at LCM=140ﾟW - 150ﾟW, the light area of the spr was rather small, and adjacent to the nph a shadowy marking was seen. On 28 April (005ﾟLs), MURAKAMI (Mk) observed at 10:00 GMT at LCM=130ﾟW: The dark band including M
Sirenum and the light area both at np and sp regions. The angular diameter＝4.0". After the
observation, he caught the planet Mercury. Mk also observed further on 2 May (007ﾟLs) at LCM=091ﾟW to look around Solis L but it was not distinct though
shadowy. The npr is largely
light. The sky was clear, and he could saw all of five planets by naked eyes.
On 11 May (011ﾟLs) MORITA (Mo) shot at LCM=011ﾟW - 018ﾟW; however there is made no difference on R, G, and B; just
IR images show a stable shadowy area near a limb. On 13 May (012ﾟLs) at around LCM=340ﾟW, Mn made his last observations this season: The
observations no more produced plausible assertions: the dark markings were very
obscure and the npc suspected was also not well certain. The limb area near
WE suppose MURAKAMI (Mk) also closed his observations
on 2 May: He started from 4 January 2001 whenδ=5.4" and made
observations 277 times, out which he sent us a total of 234 observations. He
was active as a Webmaster of the CMO-Internet that has proved very successful
especially this season. MORITA (Mo) was also active and very helpful to us as a ccd contributor of the trio composed with AKUTSU (Ak) and KUMAMORI (Km). We waited this time also for
the observations from ISHADOH (Id), but in vain. We suppose so his final drawing was made on
This Martian season proved incomparably
wonderful: Somebody simple-minded says the season was boring because of the
dust covering, but this was a golden opportunity of watching the beginning and
the ending of the marvelous global dust storm (for us, if not to say for the incompetent professionals). We are thankful to all who joined us to support our
project. We especially should like to express our sincere thanks to overseas
durable observers and supporters such as Dr Don PARKER and others for their
contributions and encouragements.
Back to CMO #260 Home Page
/ Back to Façade