Director: K. Horikawa, Secretary: Y. Iga
Though Jupiter has just passed solar conjunction on Sep. 21, Saturn can already be seen in the morning sky, starting 2004-05 apparition. This month, we have received observations listed below.
| Observer | Location | Telescope | Images/Drawings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akutsu, Tomio | (Tochigi, Japan) | 32cm Refl. | 4 | images |
| Fukui, Hideto | (Kyoto, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 2 | images |
| Hatanaka, Akitoshi | (Mie, Japan) | 40cm Refl. | 3 | images |
| Kazemoto, Akira | (Kyoto, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 1 | image |
An emergence of white spot on Saturn was observed in spite of earliest stage of the apparition. Akutsu's image taken on Sep. 15 showed a distinct white spot in STrZ, located on III:300 deg. in longitude and -42 deg. in latitude. This spot was also seen in Fukui's image taken on Sep. 11 as a little lighter portion of the zone. According to Peach, BAA Saturn Section, the spot can be identical to one observed in the last apparition. It can be expected to track for a while, because it had higher contrast for Saturnian feature. But the spot could not be seen in Akutsu's image taken on Sep. 19 showing the same sector due to poorer condition.
General aspect of Saturnian surface almost remained unchanged as late stage of the last apparition, except for the spot described above. SEB was dark in northern half, while south component was faint. Other conspicuous belt was only STB, but two clear boundary of darkness change could be seen south of it. Polar region had greenish color, showing outstanding contrast against warm color of SEB-STB.
(October 8, K. Horikawa)