Jeff BEISH

in Yokohama

on 24 March 2002

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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