Tom CAVE #217
Letters to the Editor
From
Tom CAVE
in CMO #217
@ . . . . . I wish to thank you first for all the excellent OAA Mars Section Communications that you have sent me.
Late last autumn I had a cataract removed on my left eye and a new artificial lens placed inside the cornea. A few days prior to the operation I was sent to my primary physician for a heart EKG. The eye operation has been a complete success and my left eye (telescope eye) is now 20/10. The EKG turned out to require a stress EKG by one of the best cardiologists here. This brought on an open heart operaton and a quadruple bipass. This operaton went well after a hospital stay of one week. Weeks later my leg developed considerable swelling resulting in another operation. This year my body began taking on much water; so back in the Hospital for ten days. My weight had gone from 150 lbs to nearly 200 lbs. After 10 days stay I had overcome the water gain and I now weigh 140lbs. All this health problem has left me weak but now I am gaining strength.
Our Weather has been bad. Almost all nights by midnight it becomes cloudy from the Marine layer (High Fog) so the Mars observations have not been as good as even last apparition. I am enclosing copies of all my observations and hope our local "seeing" get back to normal.
I expect to participate quite a bit this apparition. Since the last Mars apparition, I acquired a Russian built 8" F/20 Maksutov and a fine clock- drived mounting which performs very well when good seeing comes - This will allow me to continue Mars observation in the west part of the sky.
Most cordially yours.
(27 Apr 1999)
Thomas R CAVE (CA, USA)