620207Planetary2_p1

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                        ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

                                 PLANETARY SECTION

Bulletin No 2                                                    February 7, 1962.


PROGRESS   To date I have received replies to my first Bulletin from seven of the Centres
REPORT     of the R.A.S.C. I will here list the names of my contacts:

     Centre        Contact               Address

     Halifax       B. W. Allen           419 Windsor St., Halifax, N.S.

     Hamilton      Edward Ostrosser      70 Sussex Ave., Hamilton, Ont.

     Kingston      G. M. Steed           13 Chestnut St., Kingston, Ont.

     Montreal      Geoffrey Caherty, Jr  636 Sydenham Ave., Montreal 6, Que.

     Niagara Falls Grayson C. Gardner	 488 Philip St., Niagara Falls, Ont.

     Ottawa        Dr W. L. Orr          1952 Fairbanks St., Ottawa 1, Ont,

     Quebec        Rene Doucet           650 Blvd des Prairies, Cap de la
                                              Madeleine, Co. Champlain, Que.

Observations have already been received from Hamilton, Quebec, and Montreal, and I
have been promised some drawings by the Ottawa Centre. The other Centres, while not
engaged in systematic planetary work at the present time, have expressed interest in
participating in the Section's program as it develops.

Regarding: the responsibilities of the contacts, they are expected to pass on the inform-
ation in this and future Bulletins to members of their Centre particularly interested
in planetary problems and if possible to the general membership as well (i.e. at meetings
of the Centre or via the Centre's newsletter where such exists). The exact means is
left to the good judgement of the individual, although I will be glad to do anything
within my power to help. (In this respect I can supply a limited number of extra copies
of these Bulletins.) The contact will also be responsible for keeping me posted on
local activities. The details of this will be worked out in practice.

JUPITER	  I will shortly begin preparing a report on 1961 observations of Jupiter as
          mentioned in Bulletin No 1. I would appreciate it if any further observations
were sent to me as quickly as possible for inclusion in this report. From the considerable
amount of material on hand it should be possible to obtain some very interesting results
from one of the most active apparitions in recent years.

OBSERVING   Initially there will be a deliberate concentration on observations of the
PROGRAM     planet Jupiter. Some of the reasons for this are:

     (a)  It is observable over a large part of the year and in particular will be
          well placed for most of 1962.
     (b)  Any good telescope of 3 inches aperture or greater will show detail worth
          recording.
     (c)  There is a wide variety of observation programs to suit practically every
          taste.
     (d)  The experience gained will make observations of other planets much more
          profitable.

Detailed instructions and suitable report forms will be available in a few months.
In the meantime I will briefly describe some of the types of observation possible.