The Trapezium and
Astronomers in Manchester
I
have come across a couple of short reports from 1870 with reports of
how many stars can be seen in a small area of the Orion Nebula called the Trapezium.
The
Trapezium is a young open cluster where stars are being created now, it is a stellar nursery containing about 2,000 stars,
Let
us return to 1870 Mr S Broughton of 46 Fountain Street Manchester
asks why there appear to have been no drawings of the stars inside the
Trapezium since 1867 when some stars were seen. However it appears that Mr Broughtonhad not seen the following.
Another
astronomer from Manchester, Mr Edmund Salter using a 12 inch
reflector recorded 9 stars in the Trapezium in December 1869 and
January 1870 and possibly 10 stars. Mr Salter’s drawings almost
perfectly coincide with those of Mr Huggins from 1866.
 |
| Mr Huggins drawing of 1866 |
I
know nothing else about Mr Broughton but Mr Slater who was very short
sighted which did not matter when he was looking through the eyepiece
of a telescope. Later in 1870 and I believe it was in October
Mr Slater was involved in a very melancholy accident at
Peterborough Railway Station, I assume it means he walked in front of
a train and was sadly killed.
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