IMPROVEMENT OF MARTIAN SATELLITES POSITIONAL SERIES DERIVED FROM OBSERVATIONS DURING THE 1988 OPPOSITION

Using new techniques, new observations of secondary reference stars we re made in the vicinity of Mars during the 1988 opposition. A new plat e reduction has been made using the images of the satellites and the s econdary reference stars. The entire series contains 660 positions of Phobos, and 639 of Deimos in the FK5/J2000.0 system. The new positions of Phobos and Deimos were compared with calculated values. The mean d ifferences between calculated and observed Martian satellite positions for all series are DELTAalpha cos delta = + 0.02'', DELTAdelta = -0.0 8''.