Nature August 17th 1876
M Stephan, Director of the Observatory at Marseilles, has communicated to the Pars Academy a list of twenty-three new nebulae detected with the Foucault telescope of 0.80m, aperture, which raises the number of such discoveries, so far published to 120; but M Stephan mentions that he has approximately positions of about 400 new nebulae.
As might be expected the twenty-three new nebulae are mostly
very faint;
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In 1870 one of the masters possible H G Madan at Eton School decided that they would provide a telescope. They chose a 5.9 in Thomas Cooke & Sons Refractor. The observatory was also made by Cookes. The observatory was erected on the roof of the western tower of the New Schools. It is square and surmounted by a revolving dome.
Although a telescope on a roof will never be completely free from vibration it is reduced to a minimum by supporting the telescope on two massive trussed iron girders stretching across the observatory. The floor is supported quite independently.
The telescope which was up the normal Cooke standards was
supplied with the new Cooke clockwork driving system which was designed by the
late Thomas Cooke.
I believe that the Eton telescope is still in use today in a
different observatory located next to Eton Golf Course and is used by the
Herschel Astronomical Society.
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Ophiuchus is one of three large constellations visible in the summer months in the southern part of the sky, the others being Hercules and Serpens which are all formed of faint stars.
Ophiuchus is an ancient constellation depicting an elderly man encoiled by a serpent. In the night sky
today, Ophiuchus clearly had the best of the struggle with the serpent as it is
n ow depicted in two halves one being the body of the serpent the other being
its head.
He is identified to
the Greeks as a mythological forerunner of Hippocrates who served as the ship’s
surgeon aboard the ship the Argo., with Jason looking for the golden fleece.
It was said the medical work of Ophiuchus was so great he
could bring the dead back to life. He tried but failed to b ring Orion back to
life after he had been stung by a scorpion.
In Rome, Pliny considered that the stars that formed
Ophiuchus were dangerous to mankind through the killing of people by poisoning.
The brightest star alpha is known as Rasalhague which means ‘Head of the Serpent Charmer’ it has a magnitude of mag 2.1 and is an A class giant star with a surface temperature 7,500’C which is much hotter than the Sun. Rasalhague is 47 light years away.
Eta or to the Arabs Saik or the Driver is of magnitude 2.4
and is 88 light years away. It is an A class star with a temperature of 9,600’C
Beta or Alrai which means The heart of the Shepherd is a
magnitude mag 2.8 star lying 82 light years away. Alrai is a K class giant star
with a surface temperature of 4,100’C.
Delta or Yed Prior which means ‘Hand’ is of magnitude 2.8
and is a M class red giant with a temperature of 3,400’C lying at 171 light
years away. In China the star is known as Leang or Mast.
In 1604 Johannes Kepler saw a supernova in Ophiuchus, a
supernova is a star that destroys itself in a massive explosion. the last easily This was the last bright
supernova to be seen in our galaxy. It reached a magnitude of -2.1 and was
visible to the naked eye for around 18 months. This was before the first use of
the telescope for astronomical uses which was in 1609.
Probably the most famous star in Ophiuchus is one that
cannot be seen without binoculars or telescopes this is Barnard’s star a 9th
magnitude star only 6.1 light years away, the fourth closest to the Sun after
the 3 stars in the alpha centauri group. It was found by Edward Emmerson
Barnard in 1916. It is a red dwarf star.
There are a large number of Messier objects in Ophiuchus
Messier 9
Globular cluster discovered in 1764 mag 9.3 one of the
closer globular at a distance of 5,500 light years.
Messier 10
Globular mag 6.4 discovered in 1764 diameter of 83 light
years 13,400 light years
Messier 12
Globular discovered in 1764 15,700 light years away mag 7.7
diameter 75 light years
Messier 14
Globular cluster mag 7.6 30,000 light years away and 100
light years across
Messier 19
Globular cluster discovered in 1764 mag 7.5 28,000light
years across
Messier 62
Globular cluster discovered in 1771 magnitude 6.4 and 22,000
light years away
Messier 107
Globular cluster probably seen by Messier in 1782 and is
21,000 light years away and is of magnitude 8.9
The following are not in the |Messier list
IC 4665
An open cluster at mag 4.2 visible to naked eye, also binoculars
or small telescope. For some reason it was not catalogued by messier it lies at
1,400 light years away and is about 40 million years old.
NGC 6633
Open cluster mag 4.6 again not catalogued by Messier it
contains about 30 stars and is around 660 million years old.
Although not classified as a zodiacal constellation
Ophiuchus does lie in the zodiac. It can be found between the constellations of
Sagittarius and Scorpio. This means that there are times when planets can be
found passing through Ophiuchus.
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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.
As far as I am aware this is the not the same Maurice Farman who was an early pioneer in the days of flight, but I am always ready to be proved wrong.
His observations were apparently quite brief and usually
consisted of just one line of information, many additional notes were drawn from historical observations of the
stars he observed in 1908.
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The transit of Mercury was observed on November 14th 1907 from the Royal Alfred Observatory in Mauritius using a Cooke 6 inch refractor. The transit which was seen through a partly cloudy sky and the limb of the Sun was described as being boiling. Mercury appeared as a clear cut black disc, perfectly circular with no spot or fringe.
There were 11 photographs taken during the transit with the
6 inch Cooke. The telescope had ben
supplied to Mauritius by the colonial government in1874 in order to observe the
transit of Venus.
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On Thursday November 3rd 1859 J Chadwick esq apprentice summoned Mr Cooke, optician and mathematical instrument maker to the magistrates at the Guildhall in York for refusing to teach him his grade.
Mr Cooke said that J Chadwick had grossly misbehaved and had absented himself on one or two occasions. Under these circumstances Mr Cooke refused to receive the lad into his service.
The magistrate ordered the lad’s indentures to be dismissed.
J Chadwick has since joined the Cape Mounted Rifles in South Africa.
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