Director: K. Horikawa, Secretary: Y. Iga
A little more than one month has passed since solar conjunction on Nov. 21, and Jupiter comes to reappear in the morning south-east sky. 2007 Apparition has started. This month, we have received observations listed below.
| Observer | Location | Telescope | Images/Drawings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Einaga, Hideo | (Hyogo, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 5 | images |
| Fukui, Hideto | (Shizuoka, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 6 | images |
| Horikawa, Kuniaki | (Yokohama, Japan) | 16cm Refl. | 1 | drawing |
| Ikemura, Toshihiko | (Nagoya, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 5 | images |
The first observation of this apparition was made by Fukui on Dec. 19, which was almost one month after solar conjunction. It was a quite slow start as recent apparitions.
The most notable feature on Jupiter was darkness of EZs. Southern EZ which showed a considerable darkening in the second half of last apparition was extensively very dusky in this apparition too, and in images under poor conditions, from EB to SEBs looked like one broad belt. Also, there were a lot of large festoons in northern EZ.
According to Fukui's images on Dec. 22, there was a large hump followed by shallow bay on SEBs edge at II:0 deg. Observations of January indicated that this feature could be a South Tropical Disturbance. Details will be described in the next report.
RS was about II:113 deg., almost stationary from the last apparition. It was reddish diffuse oval without dark arch around. The vast zone extended south of SEB, and STB dark segment and BA had not been observed yet. Also, NTB was still invisible.
Saturn passed stationary on Dec. 7, and turned to retrograding motion. Observation hours are shifting to after midnight from dawn, so that, many observation have been received listed below.
| Observer | Location | Telescope | Images/Drawings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akutsu, Tomio | (Philippines) | 28cm SCT | 1 | image |
| Einaga, Hideo | (Hyogo, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 12 | images |
| Fukui, Hideto | (Shizuoka, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 1 | image |
| Hayashi, Toshio | (Kyoto, Japan) | 35cm SCT | 2 | images |
| Hirabayashi, Isamu | (Tokyo, Japan) | 25cm Refl. | 3 | images |
| Ikemura, Toshihiko | (Nagoya, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 6 | images |
| Kazemoto, Akira | (Kyoto, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 28 | images, 2 animations |
| Kumamori, Teruaki | (Osaka, Japan) | 60cm Refl. | 5 | images |
| Mishina, Toshiroh | (Yokohama, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 6 | images |
| Takimoto, Ikuo | (Kagawa, Japan) | 31cm Refl. | 28 | images |
| Vandebergh, Ralf | (Netherlands) | 25cm Refl. | 1 | image, 1 animation |
| Yoneyama, Seiichi | (Yokohama, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 5 | images |
| Yunoki, Kenkichi | (Osaka, Japan) | 20cm Refl. | 88 | images |
Activity of white spot in SEB was again reported this month. Images by Kazemoto and Yunoki on Dec. 24 showed a white spot in SEBZ around III:290 deg. Though this spot had irregular shape at visible wavelength, it was a clear round spot in red image by Yunoki.
In addition, white spot chain and disturbed belt structure were reported in SEB and its vicinities by Yunoki on Dec. 19 and 31, and by Vandebergh on Dec. 22, but none of them were confirmed by other observer7s images.
(January 14, K. Horikawa)
(Translated on March 2)