The Astronomy Show on Drystone Radio

 Join me, Martin Lunn MBE every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the award-winning Astronomy Show on Drystone Radio, probably the only regular astronomy show on any radio station in the country. 

I will take my weekly look at the night sky and look at all the latest news in astronomy. There will be the astronomical anniversaries this week plus the latest news from the astronomical societies in the north of England.

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio live online at www.drystoneradio.com DAB radio in Bradford and East Lancashire, or 102 and 103.5 FM and can also be heard later on the Drystone Radio Podcast.

 

A Little Ramble through 19th century astronomy - A third comet of 1813?

 Nature July 29^th 1875

A third Comet in 1813?

Bode after mentioning in his miscellaneous Notices (Berl. Jahrb 1818) that canon Stark of Augsburg had observed the first comet of 1813 on the 19^th February, states that Stark had also discovered on the same evening with a 3.5 feet Dollond telescope, a very small and exceedingly faint comet without tail above the variable star Mira in Cetus. Cloudy skies are said to have prevented further observation.

Bode remarks with respect to this comet that it is strange that no other astronomer had perceived it. However suspicion this circumstance may have appeared , we know that several of the comets of short period have been revolving in such orbits for one or two centuries, visiting these parts of space without doubt under favourable circumstances for observation on more than one occasion, yet entirely esc aping detection , so that the mere fact of a single observer only having seen a comet, is hardly a sufficient argument against its existence.

The late Prof D’Arrest even thought it worthwhile to submit the reputed observations of the D’Angois-comet of 1784 to further circulation, notwithstanding Encke’s well know investigation in the “Correspondance Astronomique” of the Baron de Zach and we may have something to say on this subject in a future column.

Not having seen any reference to “Starks Comet” in English astronomical works, we have given the particulars recorded of it here.

                                                   www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

Cooke Telescope Tales- lift for a Yorkshire Bank in 1874

 York Herald Wednesday 23^rd December 1874 

York City and County Bank 

The spacious new and enlarged bank offices in Parliament Street, which have been in progress of erection during the last eighteen months, for the use of this company, will be opened to the public for business on Monday morning next. The present bank was erected in 1835. 

Below there is ample strong room accommodation which is connected to the bank by means of ingenious hydraulic lifts, provided by Messrs T Cooke and Sons.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

 

A Little ramble through Lepus the Hare

 A constellation known to the ancient Greeks, it represents a hare cunningly located at the feet of Orion. The Hare was placed in the sky for Orion to Hunt. This was due to the great devastation caused by hares in the island of Sicily.

To the early Arab astronomers Lepus was known as Al Kursiyy al Jabbar or the Chair of the Giant.

Later the Arab astronomer Al Sufi sometimes called the constellation Asl Nihal or the Thirst Slacking Camel because of its closeness to the Milky Way.

Alpha or Arneb which means ‘Hare’ is a magnitude 2.6 star, it is a F class supergiant star lying at a distance of 2,200 light years. It will end its life as a supernova.

Beta or Nihal which means ‘Quenching their Thirst’ is a magnitude 2.8 star lying at a distance of 160 light years. It is a G class giant class star.

Epsilon has a brightness of magnitude 3.2 it’s an orange K class giant star 213 light years away.

R sometimes called Hind's Crimson Star, it’s a well-known variable star. It is named after famous British astronomer J. R. Hind, who observed it in 1845. The colour of R is an intense smoky red and has been described by various observers as resembling a glowing coal, a ruby, or an illuminated drop of Blood. Its magnitude varies from +5.5 to +11.7 with a period of 418–441 days. R lies around 1,300 light years away. 

Messier 79

A globular cluster discovered by Messier in 1780 and lying at a distance of 42,000 light years.  It has a magnitude of 8.6.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

Cooke Telescope Tales - occultation by Jupiter seen from Canada in 1896

 Dr J C Donaldson of Fergus, Ontario, Canada using a 3.5 inch Thomas Cooke telescope obtained a glimpse of the 9^th magnitude star in Cancer just before it was occulted by Jupiter on May 22^nd 1896. 

Several other observers had attempted to watch the occultation in Canada many with much larger telescopes but were unsuccessful.

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

Cooke Telescope Tales - new telescope for Greenwich Observatory in 1888

 London Daily News Thursday 8^th March 1888 

An Addition to Greenwich Observatory. 

FLAMSTEED’S famous institution on  Greenwich Hill has been crowned with another dome. Nine or ten years ago Professor GREENE  of the Polytechnic  Institute at Troy, desiring to construct a dome on a somewhat larger scale than usual, found  that the heavy metal roof ordinarily set up would require a more substantial  structure  than he co could conveniently provide, and that powerful of machinery would be necessary for making it revolve. He determined to try what could be re done with papier mache. The experiment was a complete success. His dome proved as strong as though constructed of wood and iron, and so light that it could be turned without machinery  of any kind. 

Greenwich shortly after had  occasion to construct, a dome, and very wisely adopted the new material.  The one just now completed is the second constructed during Mr. CHRISTIE'S regime. It is eighteen feet in  diameter, and is designed for the Cooke  6-inch  equatorial telescope, with a photo-heliograph  tube attached to the same mount.  This combined instrument is to be carried on a huge as block of stone weighing 3 tons, and will stand at a sufficient elevation above the other  buildings and the surrounding trees to command a complete view of the sun throughout in the day. 

 This is what Greenwich has been unable to do hitherto, and in his last report to the Board of Visitors the ASTRONOMER ROYAL draws attention to the difficulty under which  the work of the photo-heliograph has been n carried on in past years owing to the want of  such an observatory as he has now succeeded in  setting up, though as yet unfortunately the funds for the complete equipment of the new al building are not forthcoming. It has been hinted, by those who certainly are in a  position to be well informed, that unless somewhat greater liberality be extended  to the Observatory it may become necessary to discontinue the time signals, upon which the country has come to rely almost  as implicitly as on the rising and setting of the sun. 

 It would certainly be a novel sensation for the public to find their supply of Greenwich time cut off, after the manner of the water companies when they cannot get their money. This is certainly rather a formidable screw  Mr. CHRISTIE has at command, though it is to be hoped he may not have occasion to apply it to  the Treasury. There is no doubt, however, that to stint funds at Greenwich Observatory is very  poor policy. Its practical utility in all sorts of ways is simply incalculable. 

 We may add to what has been stated about the new building, that it is here that Greenwich will take its a share in the projected complete photographic  map of the starry heavens.

                                                       www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

A Little Ramble Through 19th Century Astronomy - star 27 Canis Minor in 1875

 Nature June 17^th 1875

Mr J E Gore (Umballa, Punjab) writes, under May 5^th 1875 that he believes that the star 27 Canis Minoris to be a variable star. It is 4 in Hardin’s Atlas but at present about 5.5 or 6, and much inferior to 28 Canis Minoris which Harding rates at 5.

The change in Brightness was first noticed in 1874. This star is 4.5 in the Radcliffe Catalogues, % in Arg Zones, 5.5 in Lacaille and 6.5 in Heis’ catalogue; Behrmann has 6, and the lowest estimate of magnitude 7 is in Flamsteed’s catalogue, with respect to which Baily remarks that there is  no magnitude recorded in the original observation book, and that the modern observation makes it 4.5.

Mr Gore states he has also suspected some variations in light in the red star 22 Canis Majoris; it is usually rated as of magnitude 3 or 3.5, but for some time past it has seemed rather fainter than an ordinary star of the fourth magnitude. Bradley and Piazzi have this star 3.4 magnitude, while Flamsteed, Brisbane and Heis have it at 4, the Washington General 5, and it is so rated once by Argelander; in Behrmann it is 4.5.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk