690814Planetary10_p1

Click on the thumbnail at the bottom right of this page to go to the bitmap scan of this document. The text of this document appears immediately below.

                   THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

                                                                       Bulletin No.10

                                PLANETARY SECTION

Since the last bulletin was issued in April, a great deal has happened in space to
make the work of we astronomers more valuable than ever before .. and the need
for good observations is even more apparent.

As you are aware, the International Union of Amateur Astronomers was founded this
year and the machinery set up for the exchange of information. Observations can
now be correlated and co-ordinated on a worldÄwide scale. We have had an
exchange already Ä so keep those reports coming in.

I received a pleasant surprise last week when I received a real pot-pourri of ob-
servetions from the Edmonton Centre. Their observers are beginning to function
under the capable leadership of Richard Newman. I understand, too, that revivals
of observing programs are under way in the London and Niagara Falls Centres.

John Calder, an unattached member from Gait, has contributed a large sheaf of very
good observations of Jupiter, made with his 6" reflector. These have been included
in the comments in the Jupiter section of this bulletin.

Tom Tothill of Ottawa Centre has kindly contributed some drawings of Mars and
Jupiter evidently the Observers Group in Ottawa is a live one!

My own Hamilton Centre is very active nowadays as far as observing is concerned.
Several new telescopes have come upon the scene and these are being used to
good advantage.

Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 have passed by Mars and come up with some startling
findings. These make observations more important than ever - so let's use
those telescopes a lot during the rest of the summer and throughout the autumn.


MERCURY:  Very little has been done on this planet. Observers should look for
surface markings and record the phase angle as often as possible. An excellent
elongation of Mercury will occur on the days surrounding October 14.

VENUS:    Venus cannot be observed with much success for the rest of 1969. A
great deal of work was done on this planet by the Planetary Section earlier in the
year. A report of this will appear in the Journal of the British Astronomical Associa-
tion (this was set up through the I.U.A.A.).

MARS:     The optimum time for observing Mars has passed. Much excitement
was generated in June when Barry Sherman of the Hamilton Centre discovered one
of those elusive yellow clouds on Mars, If anyone else saw one during the past
apparition, would you please let me know? (I have contacted many paint dealers
with regard to obtaining some chips for our colour comparison project but have
been totally unsuccessful! Can anyone help out?)