The Super Harvest Moon and a partial eclipse of the Moon

 Traditionally, September was the month when crops were harvested; a time of year that was vital to local economies across the country. Harvesting the crops as quickly as possible was crucial in ensuring that people had enough food for winter. This is why the full moon we see this month is probably the best known of all: the Harvest Moon.

This won’t be the usual Harvest Moon, but a Super Harvest Moon. This is the second of the four super moons this year. On September 18^th when the Moon is full it will be slightly closer than normal and hence a supermoon. The supermoon in October will be the closest of the year.

At this time of year, when the Sun sets, the Moon rises, which in pre-mechanised times meant that harvesting was not restricted to the normal hours of daylight. In medieval times all the harvesting was done by hand so it took much longer than it does today. The moonlight allowed entire villages to work throughout the night. (Of course, the Moon does not shine, so ‘moonlight’ is really reflected sunlight.) The extra light a couple of days either side of full moon helped farmers to harvest enough to survive the coming winter and have enough to sell at the markets, which were then the lynch pins of the economy.

As well as the Harvest Super Moon there will also be a partial eclipse of the Harvest Moon on September 18^th. An eclipse of the Moon occurs when the Moon passes into the shadow cast by the Earth. The Moon does not shine it simply reflects light from the Sun which is why we see tt. Although the light from the Sun cannot get directly to the Moon it can reach it by passing through the Earth’s atmosphere.  The light we see from the Sun is made up of the colours that form the colours of the rainbow. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and violet. The atmosphere blocks the blue light to pass which means that the normally white moon turns a wonderful coppery red colour. 

This is only a partial eclipse so only around 8% of the Moon will enter the Earth’s shadow. In addition the time when the moon passes into the shadow will be in the early morning between 03.12 until 04.16 am. If you are around at that time in the morning look to the top north east part of the Moon and you will see a small coppery red patch. This is a small partial eclipse of the Moon

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Joseph Baxendell and the discovery of the nova T Bootes in 1860

On April 10^th and 11^th 1860 Joseph Baxendell at Mr Worthington’s observatory at Crumpsall Old Hall in Manchester using a 5 inch refractor,  made the only definite observations of this enigmatic object. I do not know if this instrument was a Cooke or not.

 He saw the nova at magnitude 9.75, by April 22^nd it had fallen to magnitude 12.8, the following night it could not be seen with Mr Worthington’s 13 inch reflector.

 Various other astronomers including Friederich Winnecke, Edward Pickering, Ernest Harding and Ernst Zinner searched for the star but without success. 

Granting the reality of this object, the nova appears to have had an amplitude of at least 7 magnitudes, and an unusually rapid decline of about a magnitude in 4 days 

This strange star was given the designation of T Bootes

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The Astronomy Show

 Join me, Martin Lunn MBE tonight and every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the 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 A-Z of Constellations 

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio live on line 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.

Solar Eclipse 1898 seen with Cooke telescopes

 Total Solar Eclipse, January 22^nd 1898 English Preparations by Edward Maunder FRAS 

The English astronomers observed the January 22^nd 1898 eclipse of the Sun from various sites. The telescopes  are all achromatic Cooke lenses of 4.5 inch aperture, 5 feet 10 inches focus, and a single quartz lens of 5 inch aperture, 4 feet 9 inches focus   

The third station at Wardha, on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway from Bombay to Nagpur, will be occupied by Mr Newall, who proposes to use a large spilt spectroscope, with two prisms of 62 degrees, in the attempt to determine the speed of rotation of the corona by the relative displacements of its lines as observed east and west of the Sun. 

In the same neighbourhood, Captain Hills will probably fix his apparatus, which will consist of two slit spectroscopes, having the slit tangential to the Sun’s limb at the point of second contact and diametral receptively. The slits are 1.5 x 0.004 inches and 2 x 0.004 inches respectively; and the prisms are, for the first spectroscope, of two flint prisms of 60 degrees, 4.5 inch base, 2.5 inch height at maximum deviation for Hydrogen gamma and for the second spectroscope, of four quartz prisms of 60 degrees, 3.25 inch base, 2.75 inch height at maximum deviation for Hydrogen epsilon. The collimator and camera lenses are single quartz lenses, of 2.5 inch aperture , 30 inch focus and 3 inch aperture and 36 inch focus.

 

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William Houseman of Workington and his Cooke telescope

 Thomas Cooke telescopes crop up all over the country, and here is another one. This is a 5 inch telescope that was owned by William Bradshaw Housman (1878-1955). 

He had an observatory for his Cooke telescope at his home in Seaton in Workington. By profession he was an engineering draughtsman. His first observation using his Cooke telescope was in 1924, I don’t have any further information on the telescope regarding who owned it before Housman or in what year it was made. 

He was very keen on observing the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights and in fact between 1928-1951 he would be the Director of the Aurora and Zodiacal Light section for the British Astronomical Association. 

He was a very keen observer of Mars and drew many wonderful coloured pictures of the red planet using the Cooke telescope during the 1930 and 40s. . During World War 2 the blackout conditions meant that he was able to see Mars against a very dark background with no light pollution at all. 

W B Housman died in 1955 , I don’t know what happened to his Cooke telescope and like so  many other unsung astronomy heroes William Bradshaw disappears in to the sunset.   

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In 1855 Thomas Cooke introduces himself to Europe

The last French Monarch of France Napoleon III who was nephew to the Emperor Napoleon was rebuilding Paris in 1855 and wanted he Exposition of that year to be the most impressive. The Paris Expositions were begun in 1789.

 Although Napoleon wanted it to be the greatest art and industrial event ever staged it had already been eclipsed by the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in Britain in 1851. The exposition would run from June to November 1855. 

Among the exhibitors was Thomas Cooke of York who took the brave step of exhibiting a variety of optical equipment including a 7.5 inch equatorial with a clock work drive. 

Cooke was exhibitor No. 392 and was described as selling astronomical and nautical instruments. He was in the 8^th section ‘Arts connected with Science and Education’. 

For Cooke it was a great success not only because he won a First Class Medal for his 7.5 inch telescope he also made some very good contacts including the astronomer  Warren De La Rue. 

He also met Lt Gen Edward Sabine, astronomer, geophysicist and explorer and Lt Col Strange from the East India Company, the latter two would be very important in ensuring that Cooke theodolites being used in the great survey of India. 

He also introduced himself to the astronomers of Europe and in the following years there would be orders for telescopes and observatories from countries such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Russia and Sweden.

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A Thomas Cooke telescope at Eton Observatory

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. 

The science master at Eton School was  H G Madan who was the brother of Falconer Madan who was himself the grandfather of Venetia Burney who suggested the name Pluto for that newly discovered planet. 

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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