A report from 1889 says that Baron Albert von Rothschild’s observatory within the precincts of his palace is a bijou. A splendid equatorial by Thomas Cooke & Sons with a 9 inch aperture, to which the Baron has fitted notions of his own. Observations of double stars are made by him, and astronomers may in a year or two receive published results. Dr Palisa is the Baron’s court astronomer.
Another constellation introduced by Lacaille in the 1750s. This group represents another of the scientific instruments that Lacaille placed in the southern sky. Sadly as with so many of his new constellations Microscopium is little more than a filler between Sagittarius and Piscis Austrinus.
There are no bright stars in Microscopium. Even the mere hint of haze or moonlight means that the stars in Microscopium will not be seen.
The brightest stars are gamma at magnitude 4.7, which lies
at a distance of 225 light years and is a G class giant star.
Epsilon also has a magnitude of 4.7 and is an A class star
lying 166 light years away.
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.
Ernest Wunderlich at the Wyone Observatory, Port Hacking which is about 14 miles south of Sydney observed the occultation of Saturn by the moon on March 14th 1917. The telescope used was a 4.5 inch Thomas Cooke & Sons telescope.
The sky was at the commencement of occultation was, owing to
slight haze, rather more luminous than usual, and this caused the loss of the
“inner edge of ring” and “first limb” of the ball at ingress. At egress the
definition was all that could be desired, but the first edge of ring was
decidedly outside the Moon’s illuminated edge before it was noticed, and thus
was “lost”.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
Nature February 24th 1876
The Saturnian Satellite Hyperion
Observations of this faint object made with the 26 inch
refractor of the U S Naval Observatory on forty nights between 1875 June 16th
and November 25, appear in No. 2076 of the Astron Nach.
It is stated that the observations were generally made with
difficulty. Pro Asaph Hall acknowledges
his obligations to Mr Marth for his ephemerides of the satellites of Saturn, by
which he has endeavoured to facilitate
identification of these objects, and which could only have been prepared at an
expenditure of much tome and trouble.
James Nangle at Marrickville in New South Wales using a 6.25 inch telescope which I have recently discovered was a Thomas Cooke rather than a Thomas Cooke and Sons telescope which means it was made before 1857, observed Mars in 1909.
He described the darkish areas to have a greenish tinge,
with the Mars Cimmerium and Syrtis Major looking like the tops of trees in an
Australian valley when seen from the top of a mountain. The northern snows were
also well seen. There appeared none of the canals that had been drawn by
Schiaparelli or Lowell.
www.theramblingastronoer.co.uk
Most people will have heard of the supermoon but far fewer people will know of the micromoon.
The Moon takes around one month to orbit the Earth. Its normal distance from us is 239,000 miles. A micro moon occurs when the Moon is more than 250,000 miles away. A supermoon is when the Moon is less than 230,000 miles away. This is why a supermoon appears larger than normal, while a micromoon appears smaller. The discrepancy happens because the Moon does not orbit the Earth in a circle but in an ellipse or egg shape.
On June 29th we will have the last of the Micromoons for 2026. This will be the the micro Strawberry Moon.
