Jeff BEISH
in Yokohama
on 24 March 2002
Japanese here
Jeffrey D BEISH, ALPO Mars Section, visited Japan this March, and we
had a good opportunity to see him in Yokohama on 24 March. He kindly
gave us a highly interesting talk, and we had thus a fine chance to deepen our
friendship between the OAA/CMO and the ALPO. Jeff BEISH (JBs)
has long been known to us sometimes as a polemical writer or as a good partner
of Don PARKER (DPk). JBs has worked with DPk since around 1975, and they have been
Recorders of the ALPO Mars Section since 1986 (the
year the CMO was first published). BEISH was well-known with his work on
computing statistical work on the Martian meteorology around from 1981, and he
was also active as a Mars observer as we remember we received his excellent
colour emulsion images of Mars made by a 32 cm telescope in 1986, and we once
cited his drawings of the detailed inside of the 1988 south polar cap in an
issue of SKYWATCHER (a Japanese
astronomical journal published from August 1983 to September 2000): a copy of
the issue was given to him this occasion.
JBs is now 62 of age and retired from the US Naval Observatory last year. He
once in younger days stayed in Okinawa for about two years (from December 1960 to July 1962), and so he knows a lot of Japanese words (we suppose he was a good Japanese speaker 40 years
ago), and has also been
known as a Judo-ist. He this time visited Japan with his wife to spend their happy time for a
fortnight with the family of their son Don BEISH who stations at present at the
Atsugi US Naval Air Base; Atsugi being located quite near Tokyo and Yokohama. The present writer (Mn) would not like to miss this chance, and soon
consulted with Masami MURAKAMI (Mk) who lived in Fujisawa near Yokohama: We thought it then a good idea to ask Jeff BEISH
to give a talk on Mars in a small meeting though we have not enough time to
make the plan widely informed. We asked also Morimasa
NAKAJIMA (Nk) and Hitomi TSUNEMACHI (Ts) who live both in Yokohama for their cooperation; Nk
to look for a room to have a lecture, and Ts to reserve a Chinese restaurant
for a small evening banquet in the famous Yokohama China Town.
On the day (24 March) it was nice to be able to encounter with Jeff BEISH
and his wife as well as with Don BEISH, his wife and the youngest daughter
Audrey as exactly as planned at 1 o'clock PM at a T.G.I.F near the JR Yokohama Station. From the
CMO side, Tsutomu ISHIBASHI (Is) from Sagamihara and Akinori NISHITA (Ns) from Fukui joined in addition to Nk,
Ts, Mk and Mn. The TGIF was very crowded, and so we moved by taxi to Yokohama
"World Porters" where Nk reserved a
lecture room on the 6th floor and we first dropped in a California
Restaurant called L.A.S.T on the 5th floor where we chatted for about one hour
sitting around a big table. The old Yokohama is such a city with foreign names! Some dishes were
foreign to us, but according to Mrs BEISH they were
very common in America. Here Morimasa NAKAJIMA (Nk) introduced himself to Jeff BEISH by showing a copy
of J ALPO 32 (1988) p185 where JBs and DPk
wrote a 1984 ALPO Mars report (The 1983-85 Aphelic
Apparition of Mars - Report I) where Nk was cited as an ALPO
Mars Observer with 20 drawings in 1984 with an explicit citing of his drawing
on 6 June 1984 at LCM=153゚W (peeping into the page we find some other familiar
names as J BARNETT, R TATUM, D MOORE, C SHAMBECK and so on!). Jeff BEISH well remembered the issue because its
cover showed his bird-eye-view of the npr.
He himself secured a total of 136 visual observations, 3 photos and 44
micrometer measurements in 1984 (while DPk with 130v, 141p and 100m!).
Mk and Mn
then showed and gave him several colour prints of the 2001 Global Dust Cloud made by Tomio AKUTSU,
Yukio MORITA and Teruaki KUMAMORI who all wished to
come but could not. Why so the Japanese names are complicated and difficult to
pronounce! Jeff is rather accustomed to Japanese names, but even then A-KU-TSU
sounded not easy though MO-RI-TA was good. He also proved such names as
MIYAMOTO, IWASAKI, or MIYAZAKI were also not easy to
pronounce if we did not strain our ears. Ma-sa-tsu-gu,
MU-RA-KA-MI, or TSU-NE-MA-CHI should be said out of the question. Jeff also
felt difficult to understand our English pronunciation. He so often smiled by
saying "You can just read English better than I speak Japanese."
At 2 o'clock, we moved to a cosy
lecture room on the 6th floor, and we there had a chance to listen to Jeff
BEISH on the privileged characteristic of the 2003 opposition. He said it was a
long time since he had given a lecture last, while his present talk was very
astonishing and marvelous to us more than we expected.
One year and a half ago, A NISHITA (Ns) pointed out at the 2000 CMO Meeting in Yokohama
that the opposition list made by Jean MEEUS implied the coming opposition on
27 August 2003 should be the closest approach ever since the beginning of AD,
and we were at a loss how to explain the eccentricity. Jeff's talk was far
beyond the proposition, and he disclosed that the 2003 opposition could be the
greatest even if we go back about thirty-four thousand years farther to the
past, and thus such two thousand sounds rather beyond comparison. Ki-wo-tsu-ke!
We did know a coming approach that will be greater
than the 2003 apparition might occur in 2287, but according to Jeff's talk the
closest perihelic approach will repeat its renewal
increasingly until 25,695 years later when the apparent diameter of Mars will
attain 26.04 seconds of arc (while just 25.11 arcsecs
in 2003).
The calculation was performed by a supercomputer (work by Jeff BEISH and Jim DeYOUNG,
both from the US Naval Observatory) based on Jeff's programme.
He took account of all of the possible perturbations cause by all of the
planets and the Moon; Mercury might be ineffective, but Saturn and Uranus were
comparably effective in addition to the most powerful Jupiter. Usually we speak
about a 79 (shichi-jyu-kyu) year recurrence or a 205 year one, but they found a
very big wave having a period of about one hundred thousand years! Truly they
started the supercomputer from Jeff's Birthday in 2001 (17 October, 2452200.5JD) to go back one hundred thousand years (counted in Julian Days) into the past as well as the same period into the
future picking out
all the closest approaches. So they can tell that the
previous approach which is comparable with the 2003 one occurred 57,537 years
before, and hence, roughly estimating, the 2003 apparition must be the greatest
approach in these fifty thousand years. The greatest approach which fell in his
range is the one that occurred 79,241 years ago (or before) when the apparent diameter must have read 26.16 arcsecs. Even if we shall meet an error of ten or twenty
thousand years as to the minute figures, we feel that this tendency will remain
true, and so these results are very interesting. Jeff printed out every
apparition when the apparent angular diameter exceed 25 arcsecs
during 284 (=205+79) years before and after 2003. As far as we know the list shows quite the
same results as the list given by J MEEUS. A small difference appears at the
fifth decimal place in distance (AU). For example:
AU (22 Aug 1924) AU (27 Aug 2003)
MEEUS 0.37285 0.37272
JBs 0.37284 0.37271
Another point that should be noted: Going back about 34 thousand years ± alpha into the past, the planet must have repeated the perihelic apparitions every 15 years or 79 years as usual,
but the apparent diameter did never exceed 24 arcsecs
for about a long period of 22 thousand years! We should say we should be
greatly relieved since we were not born in that period.
While we were
being stuck in dumb surprise at the above amazing outputs, Jeff had already
gone on to make a short remark about the ALPO activity on the 2001 Mars
Apparition with several numerical figures, but unfortunately few remained in
our memory since we were still absorbed in the foregoing lecture. When we
recovered, JBs made affectionate mention of such big
figures as C CAPEN, D PARKER, Tom CAVE, W HAAS and others of the ALPO: Jeff as well as Mrs BEISH often mentioned respectfully the name of Don
PARKER. We heard first about the time and place when he first met with DPk. We
also felt Chick CAPEN was truly held in deep respect by Jeff (as well as by DPk as we suppose) and Jeff talked about him somewhat in detail
especially at the time when he died in 1986 (on 28 May) at the age of 60. I well remember the time I
learned of his death at Taipei in 1986, and I thought he had passed away with
Halley's Comet. I think I murmured so before him, but Jeff perhaps did not
understand me because my pronunciation of HALLEY must have been queer. So I
stopped adding "just like SCHIAPARELLI" because my Italian
pronunciation should be much worse. In the case of SCHIAPARELLI, he came to
this world with Halley's Comet (in 1835, and went away in 1910). JBs as well as DPk are
now over 60.
After JBs's lecture, we
all went at 4 o'clock to the Kanagawa Prefecture Youth Centre (KYC) to see Yoji HIROSE,
thanks to the arrangements made by ISHIBASHI (Is): HIROSE is now well known as the super(hyper)-nova seeker. As time did not pass so long since he
had discovered a supernova (2002ap) in M74 on 29 January and another (2002bo) in NGC3190 on 9 March, we as well as Jeff BEISH
heard HIROSE's talk how he found them and what
characteristics they showed. The KYC has an observatory on the rooftop with a 20cm
refractor. HIROSE uses the telescope to observe the Sunspots, but seek the
supernovae by the use of a 25cm SCT at home at Chigasaki
near Yokohama. The KYC is the same place where we had the CMO
Meeting in 2000 (see CMO #235).
Finally we moved to the China Town. The restaurant reserved by Ts is called HAKU-RAKU-TEN
(after the name of a
Chinese poet, Bai Le Tian
in the Tang Dynasty). We all there sat around a big round table and we enjoyed Chinese dishes
and conversations. Jeff BEISH also tasted Shao
Xing Jiu (Chinese Sake). The conversation between JBs
and Nk was lively because both have been practicing
Judo. Nk is 63 years old, just one year difference and so it was supposed
they had started their careers nearly at the same time (we hear JBs is 4th Dan,
and Nk 3rd Dan; 10th Dan highest). Nk presented a booklet
made by him with several astro-photos to the
families; a picture of the Hale-Bopp comet shining
above Mt Fuji was well received. We all were given JBs's
famous "Mars Observer's Handbook"
and (later by mails) the emblems of the ALPO. We all enjoyed the dinner,
though Audrey became sleepy.
Outside it was already dark, but the China Town illuminated was busy. It was warm and the unusual
Cherry blossoms near the Yokohama Stadium were lit up and beautiful in full
bloom. We shook hands with all of the BEISHs and said
good-bye at the nearest station. ISHIBASHI lives near the Atsugi Base, and so
he could show them the way home.
We all felt the
night we had spent an exciting and pleasant day. It was also good for us to see
Don BEISH's handsome family. After Jeff and Mrs BEISH returned home at Lake Placid, Florida, we all received from Mrs
BEISH the following words "How can we ever say 'Thank you' for a great
afternoon and dinner in Yokohama. We shall treasure these memories
always."
(Mn)
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