Wednesday 29 October 2014

Little Gnome Weather Fact #5

October 29th 1932 Arctic Football

In sleet, snow, thick mud and an Arctic wind Blackburn Rovers play Sheffield United in the old football first division. The game is tough for both players and supporters. During the second half the match is suspended for 10 minutes to allow players some respite.

However when the game resumes the referee losses consciousness, but a sterner made linesman takes over. The weather is so bad that 3 Sheffield United players refuse to return to the pitch. Blackburn went on to win 3-0.

The weather was not only bad in Blackburn at Blackpool 5 Chelsea players had to leave the field suffering from exposure.

Monday 13 October 2014

Astronomy Scrapbook Monday 13th October 2014

October 13th 1914 Apple bridge Meteorite.

At 8.45 pm on the evening of  October 13th 1914 in the early days of World War 1 a meteorite landed  at a farm near Appleby Bridge close to Wigan in  Lancashire.

A bright fireball and a loud explosion was reported from  Manchester, Liverpool, Halifax, Northwich, Bolton, Macelesfield, plus many other towns.

The meteorite which was of a stone type weighed 15 kg. It was the second largest meteorite that has struck England. The largest being the Wold Cottage meteorite in the East Riding of Yorkshire which weighed 28 kg and landed in 1795.

Cast of the Appleby Bridge Meteorite


The meteorite was recovered the following morning  by workman from a field at Halliwell Farm near Appleby Bridge where it had  landed.

 Very few people thought it might be a rock from outer space, most thought it was caused by a bomb dropped from a German Zeppelin airship which was attacking England.

Sunday 12 October 2014

Astronomy Scrapbook Sunday 12th October 2014

October 12th 1964 First 3 man space craft in space.

The Russian spacecraft Voskhod 1 became the first craft to take 3 people into space. The crew comprised of Vladimir Komarov, Boris Yegorov and Knostantin Feoktistov.  Boris Yegorov a doctor and Feoktisov a scientist were the first scientists to have taken part in orbital flight. The mission lasted one day.





Wednesday 8 October 2014

Little Gnome Weather Fact #4

Frost and the October Moon?

According to weather lore if there is no frost on the night of the full Moon in October there will be no frost until the full Moon in November.




Will we be frost free until November?

Little Gnome Astronomical fact # 12

The Hunter`s Moon

Today the Moon is full, in some parts of the world there will be an eclipse of the Moon. This full Moon is known as the Hunters Moon.

All full moons have their own names they usually can be traced back hundreds of years to the monastic period of English history.




Last month we saw the Harvest Moon, many hundreds of years ago farmers used the light from the Moon to help get their crops harvested. This month they would use the moonlight to go hunting with their bow and arrows and spears to kill animals, they would cure the meat so they would have food over the winter months.


Tuesday 7 October 2014

Little Gnome Astronomical Fact #11

October 7th 1959 First pictures of the far side of the Moon.

The first time people had ever seen the far side of the Moon was revealed on October 7th 1959 when the Russian probe Luna 3 took this grainy black and white image.


Astronomy Scrapbook Tuesday October 7th 2014

October 7th 1964 SYNCOM 3

On this day SYNCOM 3 is used for the first time for a trans Pacific transmission of television pictures between the USA and Japan prior to the covering of the Olympic Games opening on October 10th.