Reports from Geisei Observatory <April 15, 2004>

• A sequel to the report on a mysterious object seen on April 12
From last night to this morning I patrolled the sky using Geisei's 60cm reflector and early in the morning I swept the northeastern sky for a new comet for 30 minutes. It was a night of heavy dew with everything dripping wet. C/2002 T7 was still behind the forest and the 60cm telescope was not turned to the comet.

Here is about the mysterious object witnessed on the evening of April 12. I got a phone call from Mr. Kazuo Ozawa of Shizuoka Prefecture, a former member of OAA. He told me that the object was captured by his meteor patrol camera and sent me the photograph. According to him, people at an observatory at Toeicho in Aichi Prefecture saw this object from 20.30 to 20.50 on April 12 moving slowly from Crater to Hydra, over a distance of about 70 degrees, taking 30 minutes. Later he found that it was captured by his camera. The object is the star trail within the circle in the photograph. The witnesses reported that it was not as bright as Jupiter.

Photographed by a camera fixed on a tripod
19.16 - 22.57 on April 12
PENTAX ME
Russian-made 16mm f/8 wide-angle lens on ISO 100 film
Kazuo Ozawa, Shizuoka Prefecture