Cooke Telescope Tales -Transit of Mercury May 7th 1878 & 1924

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun in our solar system and there will be times that it will pass in front of the Sun and can be seen as a small dot slowly moving across the face of the Sun. This is a Transit of Mercury, they occur on average 13 times per century, the last was in November 2019 the next will be in 2032. 

Here is a little-known astronomical fact, two transits of Mercury separated by 46 years which occurred on the same date and were both seen using Cooke of York telescopes. 

The transit of Mercury on May 7^th 1878 (it was May 6^th in the UK) was observed at 06 hours and 40 minutes as the Sun rose in Australia, with Mercury already halfway across the surface of the Sun, this observation was made by W J MacDonnell at Sydney using a 4.25 inch Cooke telescope. 

Then 46 years later in 1924 also on May 7^th A F Bennett this time using a 6 inch Cooke telescope started observing a Transit of Mercury from 16 hours and 57 minutes from his home in Suffolk. 

Although he lived in Suffolk, he was actually born in Goole East Yorkshire and was educated at Bramham College.

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Cooke Telescope tales - York Exhibition 1881

 Yorkshire Gazette Saturday 7^th May 1881 

York Exhibition 

In the space intervening between the central and Great Halls, a large equatorial mounted telescope which stands 15 feet high is exhibited by Messrs T Cooke & Sons York opticians, the instrument which is an object of curiosity with an object glass of 10 inches.

 

The sale price is £1200 (my note; today that telescope would cost over £186,000)

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A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - Messier 11

 Nature August 5^th 1875

The Great Cluster messier 11

As the first special publication of the Observatory of Hamburg, we have Prof. Helmert’s memoir detailing the results of his micrometrical observations of the components of this well-known cluster in the constellation of Aquila or in Clypeum or Scutum Sobieski, as many of the continental astronomers continue to call that part of the heavens which it is situate.

The memoir has a particular interest from the circumstance of Dr Lamont having similarly employed the Munich refractor in the years 1836-39.The investigation of any changes that may take place in the constituents of these groups of stars, as regards position or brightness, becomes a very attractive one, and as we know from the excellent work of Heer Pihl on the Perseus Cluster, it is not one always requiring the use of large instruments, such as have been employed in the hands of Lamont and Helmert, upon Messiewr 11.

D’Arrest terms this cluster ”magnifica innumerabilium stellarum coaservatio”; the amateur will remember Admiral Smyth’s comparison of the configuration of the components  to “ a flight of wild ducks”

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Cooke Telescope Tales - telescope for Brussels in 1880

 Yorkshire Gazette Saturday 15^th May 1880 

A York Telescope for Brussels Observatory 

Messrs T Cooke & Sons, opticians of this city, had the honour some time ago of receiving an order from the Belgium Government for an equatorial mounting for a telescope with an object glass of 15 inches diameter, which is to be placed in the Royal Observatory Brussels. 

The work has just been completed, and the instrument presents a fine specimen of mechanical art and skill. The tube about 21 feet in length, and the stand 13 feet high. The instrument is fitted with all the latest appliances, including clockwork of very delicate construction by which the telescope caused to follow the movement of the star on which it is fixed. The firm expect to pack and forward the instrument towards the end of the month. 

 

York Herald Saturday 15^th May 1880 

The telescope for the Belgium Government may be inspected by those whose who are interested

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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.

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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.

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