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--. THE INTERNATIONAL MARSWATCH ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
. ..../ | -------------------------------------------------
:::::: Volume 2; Issue 1 (file imw.sep96)
:::::: September 1996
:::: Circulation: 184
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Hello Mars Enthusiasts!
Welcome back to another edition of the International Marswatch
Electronic Newsletter. The 1996-97 Mars apparition is soon upon
us, and a veritable armada of spacecraft will soon be launched
towards the Red Planet. So it's time to start thinking again
about getting prepared, organized, and motivated for Mars!
CONTENTS-------------------------------------------------------------------
- -
- What Mars did on your summer vacation -
- A new WWW home page for 96-97 Marswatch! -
- Goals of the 1996-97 Marswatch Project -
- A welcome from Mars Pathfinder Project Scientist Matt Golombek -
- Future HST Observations and Marswatch -
- 1994-95 HST Mars image archive on-line! -
- Summary -
- -
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What a summer!
--------------
A LOT has happened since last we saw our fine frosted friend slip
behind the Sun earlier this year. Most important have been the
successful testing, integration, and delivery of the Mars Global
Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder spacecraft to Cape Canaveral, where they
are scheduled to be launched in November and December, respectively.
Also, unless you were living, well, under a rock on Mars, you no doubt
heard about the putative discovery of microscopic fossilized life forms
in one of the Martian meteorites. A lot of work clearly needs to be done
to try to verify these results, but the possibility is exciting, as is
the realization that Mars can still reach out and grab the headlines
worldwide. What a great time to be a Mars-o-phile!
A new Web page!
---------------
Marswatch has combined forces with Mars Pathfinder to create a new
1996-97 Marswatch Web site and image archive at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. The URL for this site is:
http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/mpf/marswatch.html
The web site for last apparition's Marswatch project is still being maintained
at Cornell at URL:
http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/marsnet/mnhome.html
for those interested in browsing older images or previous editions of
the newsletter. There is a link to this site from the new JPL page.
We plan to keep a Marswatch image archive at the JPL WWW site; stay tuned
for information on how to upload your images to JPL!
Goals of the 1996-97 Marswatch Project
--------------------------------------
This year the amateur-professional Marswatch project will concentrate
its efforts on providing observational support for the Mars Pathfinder
and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft missions. There are a number of
important ways in which professional astronomers using large telescopes,
as well as amateurs using their backyard instruments, can contribute
to Mars research and exploration. A detailed description of the types
of contributions that can be made by amateurs and professionals can
be found by going to the Cornell Web site and choosing the link to
"Goals and Outline of the 1996-97 Marswatch Project", or simply going to:
http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/marsnet/imw/marswatch96.info
If you do not have WWW access, just ask for an email version of this document.
Welcome to MarsWatch (From Matt Golombek, Pathfinder Project Scientist)
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Observing Mars during the 1997 opposition takes on added significance because
3 spacecraft from the Earth's space faring nations will be cruising towards the
Red Planet. The Mars Global Surveyor, Mars '96 and Mars Pathfinder missions
all launch near the end of 1996, arriving in 1997. Pathfinder is specifically
requesting the assistance of the amateur and professional astronomical
community for information about Mars prior to landing at Ares Vallis, Chryse
Planitia (32.8W, 19.5N) on July 4, 1997. Because Pathfinder's entry behind
its aeroshell and descent on its parachute are dependent on the atmospheric
density with altitude, which varies significantly with dust loading, and the
algorithm that controls landing contains a priori best estimates of
atmospheric parameters, the Project is intensely interested in knowing the
status of the martian atmosphere during final approach. In addition, the
first few sols activity scenarios can be optimized if the Project has good
estimates of surface temperature and solar insolation. Both of these factors
have prompted the Mars Pathfinder Project to coordinate the Mars Watch home
page for monitoring Mars and its atmospheric conditions during opposition
leading up to our landing. We invite your active participation and hope you
will join us in exploring our neighboring world in 1997.
Dr. Matthew Golombek
Mars Pathfinder Project Scientist
HST Observations and Marswatch
------------------------------
Information and details have been posted at the URL:
http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/mpf/hst.html
describing plans for HST observations of Mars by Phil James and
colleagues between September 1996 and June 1997. The first of these
planned observations have just been officially scheduled: Faint Object
Spectrograph measurements will be obtained on 18 September (next week!!)
from 18:26 to 19:16 UT, and WFPC2 imaging in 9 wavelengths (F218W, F255W,
F336W, F410M, F502N, F588N, F673N, F953N, and F1042M) and centered near
CML=165 will be performed also on 18 September from 20:01 to 20:51 UT
(This is 4:01 to 4:51 pm East Coast time). THIS WOULD BE A GOOD CHANCE
TO TRY TO OBTAIN SOME GROUNDBASED IMAGING OF MARS EITHER SIMULTANEOUS
WITH HST (for observers in Japan, Australia, and southeast Asia), OR
COVERING DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE PLANET ON THE SAME MARS DAY!
The remainder of the dates for planned HST imaging of Mars during 1996-97
by the James team are shown in the table below. The specific times of
the observations are not determined until only a few weeks before they
are actually obtained.
HST Mars observations during 1996-1997 Planned by P. James et al.
==============================================================================
Date Observations
-------------------- -------------------------------------------------
18 September 1996 Imaging at CML=165; FOS Scans
06-10 October 1996 Global Imaging at CML=045,165,285 (1st Pathfinder obs)
18-22 November 1996 Imaging at CML=165
02-06 January 1997 Global Imaging at CML=045,165,285; FOS Scans
25-31 March 1997 Global Imaging at CML=015,105,195,285
14-18 April 1997 Imaging at CML=045 (Pathfinder monitoring intensifies)
17-21 May 1997 Global Imaging at CML=045,165,285
26-30 June 1997 Global Imaging at CML=030,075,345 (Daily weather)
==============================================================================
*CML=Central Meridian Longitude; FOS=Faint Object Spectrograph; All Imaging
will be performed with WFPC2 using up to 10 filters between 218 and 1042 nm
1994-95 HST Mars image archive on-line!
---------------------------------------
All of the Mars images obtained by HST through August 1995 are now in the
public domain. To facilitate the examination of these images by the
general public and by the Mars amateur observing community, we have created
an on-line HST Mars image archive. The archive (still under construction) is at:
http://marswatch.tn.cornell.edu/hst_archive.html
The archive contains images in GIF and TIFF formats that you can download
directly from the Web, along with a table that provides detailed information
for the images relating to the date, time, filter, viewing geometry, etc.
The first images in the archive are from the recent 1994-95 HST imaging
program by P. James and colleagues. The archive will be updated over time
to (hopefully) include all of the images of Mars ever obtained by HST, going
back to December 1990.
Summary
-------
This will likely be the last IMW Newsletter originating from Cornell; future
editions will be distributed from JPL in association with the Mars Pathfinder
mission. During the 1994-95 apparition, the newsletter went out to
about 50 people; this year the email distribution list already has over
180 names on it, including some "exploder" addresses that will transmit the
information more broadly to amateur and professional observers. Because
of the explosive growth of the WWW, it is likely that ALL major amateur
and professional Mars observing groups will be linked together electronically
via this project. This is a very exciting time with great potential for
advancing Mars research... so dust off that scope, or write that observing
proposal, do your homework on positions and standards, and catch some
Red Photons!
--Jim Bell
Editor, IMW Newsletter
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Cornell University
Department of Astronomy
Center for Radiophysics and Space Research
424 Space Sciences Building
Ithaca, NY 14853-6801
phone: 607-255-5911
fax: 607-255-9002
email: jimbo@cuspif.tn.cornell.edu
WWW: http://marswatch.tn.cornell.edu
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