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Notes

28 (Friday) - 29 (Saturday) March 2003


I attended the 10th anniversary meeting of the Public Astronomical Observatory Network (PAONET) held at National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo. I had a talk entitled, Partnership between university and local area in astronomical education.

24 (Monday) - 26 (Wednesday) March 2003


I attended the spring annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of Japan held at Tohoku University, Sendai. On 26, I worked as a member of convener with Drs. Tadayuki Kodama and Hideki Takami for a special session of Future Plan and Science of Optical and Infrared Astronomy. I also started to work for the teaching material committee of the Astronomical Society.

17 March 2003 (Monday)


A net meeting was held between Institute of Economic Research[J], Wakayama University and Department of Language and Intercultural Education, Curtin University of Technology at Perth, Australia (14:00 - 15:00). I joined the meeting.

14 March 2003 (Friday)


I gave lecture of `Classify the Stars' for a special class of Kainan Senior High School (pic1, pic2, pic3). They analyzed V and R images of a open star cluster, M 67, and drew the color-magnitude diagram. They found clear main sequence and giant branch.

8 March 2003 (Saturday)


Presentation of graduation and master theses of Earth Sciences Group was held. My six students did their best for the presentation.

2 March 2003 (Sunday)


I attended the 8th Cosmic Spectrum Meeting held at Kawabe Cosmic Park.

14 (Friday) - 16 (Sunday) February 2003


I gave a lesson of `Astronomy Experiment' at Nara University of Education. Oh, DEER! As expexted that the campus is near the Nara Park, I saw many deer in the campus (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4).

10 February 2003 (Monday)


Asano Shin-san and Tsukidate Misako-san of Japan Space Forum visited my office of Wakayama University. `Secret of the Universe Approached from Color' of the MEXT Degital Contents Plan was on the way of completion. We discussed detailed points in the draft.

10 February 2003 (Monday)


60th Wakaten Meeting was held at 7th Seminar Room of Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, from 16:00 to 18:00. Participants were Yaji, Kamitamari, Furuya (Kawabe Cosmic Park), Toyomasu (Misato Observatory), Geshiro (Oishi-Kogen Observatory), Nishihama (Faculty of System-Engineering), Ishikawa, Tomita (Faculty of Education).

28 January 2003 (Tuesday)


Wakayama University is now making the guide video, and our astronomy group will be also included. The astronomy students wiped out the dust on the telescope, and the camera person (outside of right) took our activity.

25 January 2003 (Saturday)


Conference of Japan Society for Educational Technology was held at Kinokuni-Shigakukan (Wakayama City). I presented `Development of Materials for the SPP Class: Estimation of Age and Distance to Stars'.

14 January 2003 (Tuesday)


59th Wakaten Meeting was held at 7th Seminar Room of Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, from 15:00 to 17:00. Participants were Yaji, Kamitamari, Furuya (Kawabe Cosmic Park), Toyomasu (Misato Observatory), Nishihama (Faculty of System-Engineering), Nishibata, Tomita (Faculty of Education).

7 (Tuesday) - 8 (Wednesday) January 2003


I attended 6th Astro-Internet Meeting held at Kamogata Senior High School, Okayama. At night, a star watching party was held at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory (pic; watching Saturn). The 188-cm reflector was controlled from the Mitaka campus in Tokyo (telescope control monitor and observatory director, Dr. Yoshida watching the monitor). We also discuss about the PAONET 10th anniversary meeting which will be held in March.

9 December 2002 (Monday)


58th Wakaten Meeting was held at 7th Seminar Room of Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, from 15:00 to 17:00. Participants were Yaji, Kamitamari (Kawabe Cosmic Park), Toyomasu (Misato Observatory), Geshiro (Oishi-Kogen Observatory), Nishihama (Faculty of System-Engineering), Ishikawa, Tomita (Faculty of Education).

30 November 2002 (Saturday)


I met Asano-san of Japan Space Forum at Namba CITY, Osaka. He explained about `Secret of the Universe Approached from Color' which was accepted in the Digital Contents Plan by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan. I will help discussing about scientific contents.

17 November 2002 (Sunday)


I had a lecture at Bisei Astronomical Observatory, Bisei, Okayama, Japan (pic). The title was `The Life of the Galaxies'.

11 November 2002 (Monday)


57th Wakaten Meeting was held at 7th Seminar Room of Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, from 16:00 to 18:20. Participants were Yaji, Kamitamari, Furuya (Kawabe Cosmic Park), Toyomasu (Misato Observatory), Nishihama (Faculty of System-Engineering), Ishikawa, Furukawa, Nishibata, Matsui, Tomita (Faculty of Education).

9 (Saturday) - 10 (Sunday) November 2002


Astronomy students opened the Wakayama University Observatory in the term of the University Festival.

16 October 2002 (Wednesday)


Berna left Japan (at Kansai International Airport pic).

15 October 2002 (Tuesday)


56th Wakaten Meeting was held at Earth Science Experiment Room of Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, from 16:30 to 18:30. Participants were Yaji, Kamitamari, Furuya (Kawabe Cosmic Park), Toyomasu, Yadomaru (Misato Observatory), Soga, Nishihama (Faculty of System-Engineering), Ishikawa, Furukawa, Nishibata, Matsui, Shibahara, Tomita (Faculty of Education), and Bernabe Cedres (Instituto de Astrofisica de Cararias, Spain).


Dr. Cedres gave a talk with a title of `Astronomy in Canary'. He introduced Canary Islands, institues, and astronomy there. He included public outreach, robotic telescope, and solar observatories that interested Wakaten members (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4, pic5, pic6, pic7).

10 October 2002 (Thursday)


Uchida Midori-san who studies various issues in Uruguay came to my office and discussed with Berna-san (pic).

7 (Monday) - 9 (Wednesday) October 2002


I attended the fall annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of Japan held at Miyazaki Seagaia. I presented a poster entitled `Public Outreach of Wakayama University Astronomical Observatory'. Berna-san and Nishibata-kun, an undergraduate, also attended the meeting (their discussion in front of the poster). The Foreign Minister Meeting was once held here, and Berna-san proudly sat at the chair for the European Union (pic). I also discussed about the collaboration works with Dr. T.T. Takeuchi and Dr. S. Nishiura (at the poster room). I made interviews to many people for a new article, Road to Astronomy, in the journal of `Astronomy Education'. Dr. Nishiura kindly answered to the interview (pic).

2 October 2002 (Wednesday)


I gave a lecture of `Frontier of Galactic Astronomy' at Osaka Prefectural Education Center.

25 (Wednesday) - 27 (Friday) September 2002


Optical-Infrared User's Meeting and GOPIRA (Groups of Optical and Infrared Astronomers) Future Plan Symposium were held at Mitaka Campus of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. I worked for a member of organizing committee of the GOPIRA Symposium.

17 September 2002 (Tuesday)


Dr. Bernabe Cedres Exposito (we call him Berna-san) of Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias came to Wakayama University. He will stay here for a month. (at Kansai International Airport pic).

5 (Thursday) - 14 (Saturday) September 2002


I visited Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona, USA. I made spectroscopic observations of blue compact dwarfs with Dr. Deidre Hunter. (2m dome, 2m telescope, spectrograph GoldCam, dome entrance, to the left, stairs up to the visitor gallery, in front, corridor to the control room, stairs to the control room, upstairs, corridor to the control room, control room; view 1, control room; view 2).


Kitt Peak is a sharp peak in the huge plain, and many telescope are on the top of the peak. 4m Mayall telescope is the main telescope, and Dr. Phil Massey kindly showed me around. Secondary mirror can be flipped, and the mosaic camera (2k x 4k x 8) was equipped at the prime focus. There are many recreation rooms, and even piano was there. We went into inside the pier. Speaking of the Kitt Peak must reminds you of the solar telescope. I could see the long optical tube (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4). Wyin telescope is near the 2m dome.


There is a good visitor center (pic1, pic2, pic3).


The lodgings I stayed was this building, and the room was like this. In front of the dormitory, is the administration office, and to the other direction, is the dinning building. Very compact, and I enjoyed comfortable stay.

27 (Tuesday), 31 (Saturday) August 2002


We had a class of `Estimation of Distance and Age of Star Cluster' at Center for Information Science, Wakayama University, with 82 students of Toin Senior High School, Wakayama prefecture (10th grade, science course), according to the Science Partnership Program by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.


We used M 13, 15, 36, and 67, V and R images taken by Wakayama University students using the 60 cm telescope and the CCD camera ST-7 or ST-9. For photometry, we used `JIP', a software on Windows developed by JST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, with a planning by PAOFITS, a group of developing educational material in PAO, public astronomical observatories of Japan. For drawing the color-magnitude diagrams, we used Excel.


This class was transmitted to two high schools in Hiroshima, Fukuyama Attached High School of Hiroshima University and Hiroshima City Motomachi Senior High School. through the Japan Gigabit Network. The Hiroshima students obtained good results even though they took the remote class.


This class was performed under a collaboration: Fukuyama High School, Motomachi Senior High School, Wakayama University Center for Information Science, Faculty of System Engineering, Center for Educational Research and Training, Astronomy Group, Hiroshima City University, Hiroshima University, TV Wakayama, and others. Okyudo Masami-san, a director of Misato Observatory and also a guest professor of Wakayama University, conducted this project.

11 (Sunday) - 16 (Friday) August 2002


I visited Korea astronomical institutes. I had a talk at Seoul National University on 13. Dr. Hyung-Mok Lee kindly arranged my talk. The University has a complicated numbering arrangement of buildings. The astronomy department is on the third floor of the 18th building. Dr. Kee-Tae Kim showed me around the campus. A radio telescope (pic) is in the campus. The campus has a large area and these pictures (pic1, pic2) were taken from the roof of the 18th building. Then I visited Seoul National University of Education. I discussed with Dr. Yong-Bok Lee. This is the experimental room for earth science. That is more well-equipped than Wakayama University's one.

6 (Tuesday) - 8 (Thursday) August 2002


I gave a lecture of `astronomy' at Nara University of Education.

5 August 2002 (Monday)


I attended a meeting about the sub-telescope of the new Okayama Observatory plan held at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory.

2 August 2002 (Friday)


We opened our University Observatory for the Open Campus of Wakayama University. 5 people visited us.

30 July (Tuesday) - 1 August (Thursday) 2002


I attended Summer School of Young Astronomers held in Kyo-Tanabe City.

25 July 2002 (Thursday)


A group of Kimura-juku, a cram school, visited our University Observatory; 53 pupils of 4th to 6th grades and 9 teachers. Though it had been cloudy in the day time, we fortunately had a fair sky and enjoyed watching a beautiful double, Albireo. Many students kindly helped this night class.

17 (Wednesday) - 19 (Friday) July 2002


I attended 20th Nobeyama Radio Observatory Users' Meeting held at Nobeyama Observatory.

8 July 2002 (Monday)


54th Wakaten Meeting was held at 7th Seminar Room of Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, from 16:00 to 18:50. Participants were Yaji, Kamitamari, Furuya (Kawabe Cosmic Park), Toyomasu (Misato Observatory), Geshiro (Oishi-Kogen Observatory) Ishikawa, Nishibata, Ohta, Tomita (Faculty of Education), Nishihama (Faculty of System-Engineering).

2 (Tuesday) - 5 (Friday) July 2002


I attended 8th Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting of the International Astronomical Union held at National Center of Sciences, Tokyo, Japan. I presented a poster of `Star Formation History of Irregular Galaxies through Analysis of Optical Spectra' which is a collaboration work with Drs. Kohji Yoshikawa, Tsutomu T. Takeuchi, and Hiroyuki Hirashita.

26 June 2002 (Wednesday)


I attended 11th annual meeting of astronomical museum society held at Kawabe Cosmic Park. I had a talk on educational activities at Lowell Observatory.

20 (Thursday) - 21 (Friday) June 2002


I attended Kiso Observatory Schmidt Symposium held at Hotel Shinanoji, Nagano. I presented the latest progress of our project at Kiso Observatory.

11 (Tuesday) - 17 (Monday) June 2002


I attended a meeting, Star Formation Workshop 2002, held in Taiwan. The workshop is usually held every year in the US, and this year, it was organized by Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taiwan. I presented a poster.


The first day of the meeting was held in a building in National Taiwan University (building of the meeting place).


Next day, we moved to Taroko. From Shun-Shan station, we took the Tsu-Chiang express to get to Hua-Lien, and then took bus. (Shun-Shan station). We sometimes got off the bus and enjoyed the famous Taroko Gorge (pic1, pic2). The meeting place was Grand Formosa Hotel (pic).


On 14 June, there were important games for Japan and Korea in the world cup football game. Though we could not watch the live TV program there, we were checking the score on the web (pic1, pic2).


We had an excursion on 15 June. We walked Bai-Yang trail near the hotel. (entrance of the trail). The trail has may tunnels (pic1, pic2). We found a note like this, meaning "watch out". Written by complicated Chinese letters, the note is kind of persuasive. We enjoyed also suspension bridge, water fall, and tunnel where we got wet through. At that night, we saw aboriginal dance (pic).


On 17 June on the way from Grand Formosa Hotel back to Taipei, we stopped at seashore. Some people tried to the stone-throwing play (pic). I had expected the sun at the zenith, because I was near the north tropical line and the date was near the summer solstice. But unfortunately, we had cloudy or rainy days all the meeting days, so we could not see the sun (weather was like this).

10 June 2002 (Monday)


53rd Wakaten Meeting was held at 7th Seminar Room of Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, from 10:30 to 12:00. Participants were Kamitamari, Kojima (Kawabe Cosmic Park), Toyomasu (Misato Observatory), Ishikawa, Tomita (Faculty of Education).

7 June 2002 (Thursday)


I visited attached junior high school of Wakayama University and Saika elementary school, where Ohta-kun and Nishibata-kun are now doing their teacher training, respectively.

5 June 2002 (Wednesday)


I visited attached junior high school of Wakayama University, where Okamoto-san is now doing her teacher training. She gave a lecture on photosysthesis.

14 May (Tuesday) - 18 (Saturday) 2002


I stayed at Kiso Observatory for open use observation. The observation was `Surface Photometry of Nearby Dwarf Irregular Galaxies'. Unfortunately, we did not have clear nights this time. Ishikawa-kun, Furukawa-kun, and Nishibata-kun helped the observation.

13 May 2002 (Monday)


52nd Wakaten Meeting was held at 7th Seminar Room of Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, from 16:00 to 18:30. Participants were Kamitamari, Furuya (Kawabe Cosmic Park), Toyomasu (Misato Observatory), Ishikawa, Tomita (Faculty of Education), Nishihama (Faculty of System-Engineering), Mita (graduate of Wakayama University), Geshiro (Oishi-Kogen Observatory).

11 May (Saturday) - 12 (Sunday) 2002


I gave lecure on introduction of modern astronomy at Wakayama Center of University of the Air.

26 April (Friday) - 6 May (Monday) 2002


I visited Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. I discussed with Dr. Deidre Hunter and Dr. Phil Massey. Steel Visitor Center has a new corner, observatory control room. It is very impressive (from outside, inside, (display, 1, display, 2).


I also visited Northern Arizona University. (beautiful campus; pic1, pic2). I discussed with Dr. Andrew Odell of Department of Physics and Astronomy. There is a 24-inch telescope dome in the campus (pic). Unfortunately, I had no chance to join the star watching party.

13 (Saturday) - 18 (Thursday) April 2002


I visited the 88-inch telescope of University of Hawaii at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. We have been allocated on Sunday 14 and Monday 15 nights, and I could observe on 14 night. Yoshikawa-san and Ishikawa-kun joined the observation.

8 April 2002 (Monday)


51st Wakaten Meeting was held at 7th Seminar Room of Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, from 10:30 to 13:00. Participants were Yaji, Kamitamari, Furuya (Kawabe Cosmic Park), Yadomaru, Ozawa (Misato Observatory), Ishikawa, Tomita (Faculty of Education), Nishihama (Faculty of System-Engineering), Koshiyama (Osaka Koyiku University).

5 (Friday) - 6 (Saturday) April 2002


Dome of astronomical observatory of Wakayama University has been repaired.

1 April 2002 (Monday)


RA and Dec control boards for 60-cm telescope of astronomical observatory of Wakayama University were replaced.