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 - Mars in 1877

 Academy, Saturday 18^th December 1875

The Opposition of Mars, 1877.—The Astronomer Royal has given a chart of the path of Mars in 1877, with neighbouring stars down to the ninth magnitude taken from Bessel's Zones, the object being to facilitate observations of the parallax of Mars in this important opposition, when the planet approaches more closely than usual to the earth, owing to the position of its eccentric orbit.

 Although it is hoped that the sun’s parallax will be determined with considerable accuracy by the late transit of Venus, astronomers cannot afford to throw away the opportunity which the planet Mars offers of getting an independent, and possibly equally trustworthy, determination, more especially when it is remembered how important a part the observations of Mars in 1861 (the last opposition which was favourable for this purpose ) played in correcting the results obtained from the transit of Venus in 1769, For observations of Mars no special expeditions will be necessary, all that is required being to measure the apparent distances of the planet from neighbouring pairs of stars at northern and southern Observatories, and also at the same Observatory, when the planet is rising and when it is setting. The latter class of observation enables an observer to determine the sun’s distance by measures made entirely at his own Observatory, the rotation of the earth providing him with a base line from east to west.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

Cooke Telescope Tales - in 1865 even a Cooke telescope could not see through trees

 Mt T H Waller of York in 1865 and using a 4.75 inch Cooke telescope was trying to observe the satellites of Jupiter when unfortunately, the planet was obscured by some trees, and he was unable to see the immersion of the second satellite or the transit of the third. Fortunately, by the time that the fourth satellite was passing in front of Jupiter it had cleared the trees. 

Mr Waller was also a very keen double star observer he would often use the double star catalogue of Mr Brothers of Manchester and the Bedford Catalogue.

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A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - possible solar observatory for Potsdam in 1874

 Nature, September 17^th 1874

The German Government has determined upon the erection of a Sun Observatory upon a large scale at Potsdam. Drs Spoerer and Vogel have already been appointed to undertake telescopic and spectroscopic observations, and the directorship has been offered to Prof Kirchhoff, who however has declined it as he is unwilling to leave Heidelberg.

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Cooke Telescope Tales - Saturn observed from Sunderland in 1890

 Dr J Haswell, Grange Terrace, Sunderland in 1890 

Observed the spot on Saturn that had been seen by Dr Terby in March 1890. He saw the spot on several  nights in March , and he described it as being very obvious on March 30^th, though not so noticeable as it had been last spring. 

Haswell used a 4.25 inch Thomas Cooke & Sons telescope which was of short focal length

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

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.

                                                    www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

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.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk