| Observer | Location | Telescope | Images/Drawings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akutsu, Hiroaki | (Hokkaido, Japan) | 28cm Refl. | 3 | images |
| Akutsu, Tomio | (Philippines) | 28cm SCT | 11 | images |
| Colville, Brian | (Canada) | 30cm SCT | 9 | images |
| Einaga, Hideo | (Hyogo, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 42 | images, 10 maps |
| Hatanaka, Akitoshi | (Mie, Japan) | 40cm Refl. | 4 | images |
| Horikawa, Kuniaki | (Yokohama, Japan) | 16cm Refl. | 14 | drawings, 4 images |
| Ikemura, Toshihiko | (Nagoya, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 14 | images |
| Mishina, Toshiroh | (Yokohama, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 23 | images |
| Phillips, Jim | (USA) | 20cm Refr. | 4 | images |
| Takimoto, Ikuo | (Kagawa, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 45 | images |
| Tomita, Yasuaki | (Gunma, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 3 | images |
| Vandebergh, Ralf | (Netherlands) | 25cm Refl. | 1 | animation |
| Yoneyama, Seiichi | (Yokohama, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 14 | images |
| Yunoki, Kenkichi | (Osaka, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 37 | images |
Einaga created a cylindrical map from his images taken between Mar. 2 and 4. It is very useful for author to understand overall aspect of Jupiter.
Mid-SEB outbreak ranged from around II:170 deg. to II:320 deg. This area had complicate aspect with a chain of irregular tiny spots, but under poor condition, it was merely flat light band, probably because the scale of each spot was smaller than that of former outbreaks. In main part (II:210-280 deg.), northern half of SEB was light with faint irregular n. edge. The p. end of outbreak went into north of post-GRS disturbance described in next paragraph, and this region was greatly disturbed in second half of March.
RS was seen at II:109.1 deg. (measured from Ikemura's image on Mar. 4) as light oval surrounded by dark markings. Though it was still reddish having dark core at its center, whole aspect was RS Hollow. Light band of SEB following RS (post-GRS disturbance) extended to about II:210 deg., but activity was weaker than mid-SEB outbreak. There was a step-up of SEBn at about II:150 deg., probably due to effect of p. end of mid-SEB outbreak. Interestingly, white clouds of post-GRS disturbance extended beyond RS, and northern half of SEB was disturbed with bluish materials and delicate white clouds up to around II:20 deg.
BA attracting observers' attention by reddening was observed as large reddish oval this month too. Low contrast against its surroundings made it difficult to see visually, and through Horikawa's 16cm reflector, it could not be seen except for good condition. Dark STB segment following BA was about 70 deg. long, and was followed by two dark spot in STZ, which turned into dusky segment about 30 deg. long. in mid-March. In SSTB, there were five small white spots between II:20 deg. and 130 deg. These were long-lived white spots A1-A5, and two cyclonic FFRs, one of which was between A2 and A3 and the other was between A4 and A5, could also be seen as observed in last apparition.
EZ was dusky and yellowish with plenty of prominent festoons, which trailed long and formed EB. NEB was partially triple, showing rift activities in some places in southern half of the belt, though not conspicuous. There were small white spots in NEBn, especially prominent at II:160 deg,, 220 deg., and 280 deg. Some spots changed into notches exposing to NTrZ from portholes, probably because n. edge of the belt had started to retreat. On the other hand, only one barge was conspicuous at around II:180 deg.
NTB was invisible all round the planet, and wide zone was extending over NTrZ and NTZ, but NTZ was somewhat duskier than light NTrZ. NNTB was faint in most longitude, forming s. edge of dusky NPR in images under poor condition, except for II:330-60 deg., where dark segment could be seen. Since 2002, there were numerous tiny dark spots rapidly prograding on NNTBs jetstream. Last apparition, we obtained mean rotation period of 9h53m53.1s from 14 spots, but only several spots were observed on this latitude this apparition.
(2) Saturn
Saturn was retrograding in Cancer, being in good period for observation. This month, we have received observations listed below. Hirabayashi's images were taken in February, and Friedman's images were forwarded by Minami of Mars Section.
| Observer | Location | Telescope | Images/Drawings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akutsu, Hiroaki | (Hokkaido, Japan) | 28cm Refl. | 2 | images |
| Einaga, Hideo | (Hyogo, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 24 | images |
| Friedman, Alan | (USA) | 25cm MCT | 2 | images |
| Hatanaka, Akitoshi | (Mie, Japan) | 40cm Refl. | 3 | images |
| Hirabayashi, Isamu | (Tokyo, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 5 | images |
| Ikemura, Toshihiko | (Nagoya, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 7 | images, 1 animation |
| Mishina, Toshiroh | (Yokohama, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 4 | images |
| Nakai, Kenji | (Hiroshima, Japan) | 25cm MCT | 1 | image |
| Pellier, Christophe | (France) | 21cm MCT | 18 | images, 1 animation |
| Phillips, Jim | (USA) | 20cm Refr. | 1 | image |
| Takimoto, Ikuo | (Kagawa, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 93 | images, 2 animations |
| Tomita, Yasuaki | (Gunma, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 12 | images |
| Tyler, Dave | (Barbados) | 28cm SCT | 7 | images |
| Vandebergh, Ralf | (Netherlands) | 25cm Refl. | 20 | images, 9 animations |
| Yoneyama, Seiichi | (Yokohama, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 3 | images |
| Yunoki, Kenkichi | (Osaka, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 47 | images |
White spot emerged on STBn edge was declining down. The spot began to spread into STrZ during February, and it changed to indistinct light patch in early March, when images under poor condition did not show the spot at all. This light patch was observed by Pellier, Takimoto, Vandebergh, and Yunoki in the first half of the month, but it could not be seen in normally processed images afterward, except for Vandebergh's images which extremely enhanced contrast. Therefore, the spot will disappear soon.
This month, two groups of white spots was observed in SEB. One consisted of two white spots in SEBZ spaced about 15 deg. apart at around III:240 deg. These were found by Friedman and Yunoki on March 2, but it seemed to be temporary spots, because they were not tracked afterward. The other one was similar two spots at about III:120 deg., observed by Pellier (Mar. 18) and Yunoki (Mar. 21).
(April 13, K. Horikawa)
(Translated on August 10)
[Fig.1] Cylindrical map of Jupiter |
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| Created by Hideo Einaga from his own images taken between Mar. 2 and 4 |