Director: K. Horikawa, Secretary: Y. Iga
The solar conjunction with Jupiter will come on Sep. 21. This month, we have received observations listed below. Extraordinary volume were reported for the last stage of the apparition, making observations during a short time after sunset, since we had a long spell of clear skies with heat this summer.
| Observer | Location | Telescope | Images/Drawings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akutsu, Tomio | (Tochigi, Japan) | 32cm Refl. | 3 | images |
| Fukui, Hideto | (Kyoto, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 5 | images |
| Horikawa, Kuniaki | (Yokohama, Japan) | 16cm Refl. | 1 | drawing |
| Miyazaki, Isao | (Okinawa, Japan) | 40cm Refl. | 4 | images |
| Yunoki, Kenkichi | (Osaka, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 11 | images |
Most of observations were made under poor condition, so details state of Jupiter were no longer unknown. Every image showed that NEB was as broad as SEB or even broader, indicating that broadening had already completed. There was no sign of barges and small white spots on northern edge or reddening of the belt as the next stage of NEB activity. SEB was also dark and broad belt, except for the sectors preceding RS and around II:200 deg., where irregularities in darkness were seen in northern half of the belt, indicating that EZs/SEBn disturbance was still active. EZ was active between I:0 deg. and 80 deg. with big festoons.
Miyazaki's image on Aug. 7 and Yunoki's image on Aug. 12 showed RS region. RS had diffuse outline but clearly reddish in Miyazaki's image, and light area preceding RS in the same image was probably BA which had been passing RS in July.
North of NEB, no prominent feature could be seen, indicating that NTBs jetstream outbreak (NT Current-C) attracting observer's attention had not taken place yet.
The last observation of this apparition was made by Miyazaki on Aug. 15. It will be mid-October that Jupiter reappears in the east sky before sunrise. We hope that no significant changes will occur until then.
(September 7, K. Horikawa)