A little ramble through Lacerta the Lizard

 Another modern faint constellation, this time in the northern sky, Lacerta the Lizard was created by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in the early 1680s. The constellation is sandwiched between Cygnus and Andromeda. Hevelius created several small faint constellations in the northern sky. Most are so faint that their stars could easily have been put into larger classical Greek constellations.  Lacerta is such an example.

Hevelius drew a strange weasel shaped creature with a curly tail. Hevelius did suggest an alternative name that of Stellio the Stellion a newt with star like dorsal spots found along the Mediterranean coast. John Flamsteed the first astronomer royal drew a picture of a greyhound here. Today it is just Lacerta the Lizard.

The Chinese considered this area of the sky to be part of their constellation of the Flying Serpent.

There were other suggestions for constellations in this area, the Sceptre and Hand of Justice created by the French astronomer Augustin Royer in 1697 to commemorate King Lous XIV. The German astronomer Johann Bode in 1787 called this area Frederick’s glory in honour of King Frederick II of Prussia. Both have been discarded in favour of Lacerta.

There is only one bright star, alpha with a magnitude of 3.7, it’s an A class star making it much hotter than the Sun, alpha is 102 light years away.

Although there are no bright stars in Lacerta it is worthwhile looking at because the Milky way galaxy passes through it and this is an area of space where nova often occur. Although Lacerta is a small constellation there were three novae in the 20^th century in 1910, 1936 and 1950.

A nova is a binary star system with two stars, one a small hot white dwarf the other a much larger but cooler giant star. The white dwarf pulls gas from its companion towards it and when enough has been pulled off the giant star a shell of gas is thrown into space. The star suddenly appears in the sky where no naked eye star had been seen before. A long time ago these were called a Nova which is Latin for new because astronomers thought these were stars being created. We now know that they are older stars just going through their timelines. Although today we still use the old term of nova to describe these stars.

There are no bright deep sky objects in Lacerta.

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A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - new observatory in South America in 1874

 Academy Saturday 19^th December 1874

 —M. Gonzalez, the Director of the National Observatory of Columbia, is about to establish a private observatory for astronomical physics at Bogota  at an altitude of 10,000 feet, and nearly on the equator a most  favourable situation for the application of the spectroscope to the sun and planets, as they may there be observed in the zenith, while the observatory will be removed above the grosser portion of the atmosphere.

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The Full Egg Moon on April 2nd

 On April 2nd there will be a full moon, this is nothing strange as there is a full moon each month. They all have there own names. Today the press in the UK tend to use the American names for the full moons which come from the Old Farmers Almanac. These names date back to 1792.

However I prefer to use the old English names that go back to the beginning of the monastic period of history during the Anglo Saxon period. They have been good enough for well over 1400 years and I see no reason to stop using them now.

The full moon in April according to the Old Farmers Almanac is the Pink Moon so called because of pink flowers that bloom at this time of year.

The old English name for the full moon in April is the Egg Moon, this however has nothing to do with Easter but due to the increasing amount of daylight. As the period of daylight increases the hens, geese and ducks start to lay more eggs.

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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 - The star cluster in Sobieski's shiled in 1869 and 1870

 Academy Saturday 28^th November 1874

—ln the years 1869 and 1870 Professor Helmert, at the Hamburg Observatory, determined the positions of some two hundred stars belonging to the cluster in Sobieski’s Shield. This cluster, which was discovered by Kirch in 1681, was carefully observed by Dr. Lamont at Munich between 1836 and 1839, and the places of about 150 stars in its most condensed part were then fixed with considerable accuracy for comparison with subsequent observations. These Professor Helmert has now made after the lapse of more than thirty years, so that if any change has occurred, and especially if there has been any condensation going on, it ought to be clearly shown by comparing the two sets of measures. The two series, however, agree so closely, that the second set may be looked upon simply as a verification of the first—a result which, though disappointing with respect to the object in view, must yet be gratifying to both the observers concerned, :. Evidence of the accuracy of the measures. Two charts present at a glance the results of the two determinations, the only noticeable difference being that Professor Helmert has included many more outlying stars in his area of operations.

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Cooke Telescope tales - sale of a large achromatic telescope in 1871

The great refractor by Thomas Cooke and Sons oy York, which was shown at the International Exhibition of 1871 was sold by auction by Messrs Stevens of King Street, Covent Garden for about £750 (in 2026 that would be around £114,000). 

The instrument which had every modern appliance, and was one of the most complete ever turned out by the celebrated instrument makers was of 10 inches clear aperture and was originally priced at £1,200 (in 2026 that would be around 191,000) , but owing to the rise in wages and materials would now be charged much more. The purchaser was Mr Henley, the telegraph engineer. 

William Thomas Henley was a submarine cable maker in Greenwich. He set up the Persian Gulf Cable which was 1,651 miles long. The success of which allowed him to gain many more contracts.

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Cooke Telescope Tales - occultation of Saturn observed from South Africa in 1920

 Occultation of a Star by Saturn on March 14^th 1920 made at Rondebosch, South Africa using a 6 inch Thomas Cooke telescope by W Reid, C. L O’B Dutton and W G McIntyre. 

 From the report that was received from South Africa it was assumed that many observers in the north would have seen this occultation but that does not seem the be the case. Due to this exact timings were not prepared. The report says that the star was not following its predicted path although I wonder if what they were really seeing was that Saturn was not quite in its predicted place. 

The time when the star was in contact with the rings was given as 8.46 South African Standard Time however this was a compromise. It was the time when the observers present were all certain that the star was behind the rings. Mr Reid thought it touched the rings 3 minutes earlier and at the time given was on the edge of Ring B 

At first their was very little loss of light, but as soon as it touched Ring B the light gradually faded for about a half a magnitude. It remained this way for a few seconds, when it fell a little further, and almost immediately the flicker took place – that is, the star suddenly almost went out, but not quite, it rose again fairly suddenly. After this its light fluctuated very considerably, but never reached more than a magnitude less than its original brightness. 

The star disappeared behind the planet at 8.54 and re appeared at 10.36. The seeing on the night was very good.

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