Director: K. Horikawa, Secretary: Y. Iga
Jupiter had passed solar conjunction on Oct. 22, and new apparition for Jupiter observation has come. Though observation conditions were quite poor and observers' major interest was Mars which just passed the opposition, we received observations from eager observers listed below.
| Observer | Location | Telescope | Images/Drawings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Einaga, Hideo | (Hyogo, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 36 | images, 2 maps |
| Fukui, Hideto | (Shizuoka, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 25 | images |
| Horikawa, Kuniaki | (Yokohama, Japan) | 16cm Refl. | 3 | drawings |
| Kazemoto, Akira | (Kyoto, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 3 | images |
| Miyazaki, Isao | (Okinawa, Japan) | 40cm Refl. | 1 | image |
| Yoneyama, Seiichi | (Yokohama, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 1 | image |
The first observation of new 2006 Apparition was made by Fukui on Nov. 4. On the next day, Nov. 5, Miyazaki took an image, followed by Horikawa on Nov. 8, Einaga on Nov. 16, and Kazemoto on Nov. 17. Only 13 days had passed since solar conjunction, when Fukui made first observation. It was still earlier than 14 days in the last apparition made by Miyazaki. Because Fukui's last image in previous apparition was on Oct.1 (21 days before solar conjunction), the gap in his observation was only 34 days.
Although it was worried that sudden change might took place in northern hemisphere during solar conjunction, every image shows uniformly bright zone north of NEB without any irregular dark markings. Therefore, it seems that North Temperate Current-C (NTBs jetstream outbreak) had not started yet. NTB was absent at all longitude, and only wide bright zone which consisted of NTrZ and NTZ can be seen. NNTB was also partly seen at southern edge of NPR, and thare was no prominent feature north of NEB.
NEB was still broad. It was very reddish, and it had irregular shadings inside in many images. Einaga's images on Nov. 30 showed three small white spots in NEBn edge following RS. These had been formed in last apparition, and as observed in former example, they will become more conspicuous. On NEBs edge, bluish dark plateaus and festoons could be seen. EZ was not very light, and EB was fragmentary.
RS was reddish, but somewhat faint with diffuse outline. Its aspect was almost the same as that in late stage of previous apparition. It retrograded a little to about II:107 deg. Following RS, SEB was active with irregular light band which extended to about II:190 deg. SEBZ active region (post-GRS disturbance) temporarily became active in Apr. 2005, but it declined after that, showing weak activity of white cloud within the range of only 20-30 deg. following RS. Therefore, it is conjectured that new activity had started during solar conjunction. Other SEB appeared as almost uniformly dark broad belt. The next remarkable belt in southern hemisphere was SSTB, which was broad and prominent as in last apparition, but with much irregularities in darkness. BA is estimated at about II:230 deg. in mid-November, but it is not found at present. Preceding and following RS, irregular dusky band, probably STBn, could be seen.
Saturn came to appear in the eastern sky before midnight, having passed western quadrature on Nov. 3 and stationary on Nov. 22. Though we had few night in good seeing because of winter monsoon which began to blow, it seemed that most observers tried to image Saturn following Mars. This month, we received observations listed below.
| Observer | Location | Telescope | Images/Drawings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akutsu, Hiroaki | (Hokkaido, Japan) | 28cm Refl. | 12 | images |
| Einaga, Hideo | (Hyogo, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 18 | images |
| Fukui, Hideto | (Shizuoka, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 1 | image |
| Ikemura, Toshihiko | (Nagoya, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 5 | images |
| Kazemoto, Akira | (Kyoto, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 15 | images |
| Morita, Mitsuji | (Shiga, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 1 | image |
| Nakai, Kenji | (Hiroshima, Japan) | 25cm MCT | 2 | images |
| Nakanishi, Hidekazu | (Aichi, Japan) | 30cm Refl. | 2 | images |
| Takimoto, Ikuo | (Kagawa, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 7 | images |
| Tatum, Randy | (USA) | 25cm Refl. | 1 | image |
| Vandebergh, Ralf | (Netherlands) | 25cm Refl. | 2 | images |
| Yoneyama, Seiichi | (Yokohama, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 3 | images |
| Yunoki, Kenkichi | (Osaka, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 7 | images |
It is a follow-up on white spot and dark spot-like marking which was seen on Vandebergh's image taken last month. First, white spot in EZ around I:80 deg. was not able to be found in any images this month. On the other hand, Ikemura's image on Nov. 4 showed a faint shading which was suspected to be the STB dark spot around III:50 deg. Though Vandebergh processed this image to emphasis the spot, it was doubtful whether it was a true feature, partly because it was close to limb. Also, Kazemoto observed the same region on Nov. 7, but no feature was seen.
No other markings like white spots were observed this month.
(December 9, K. Horikawa)