Friday 12 February 2021

1857 Occultation of Jupiter seen from Liverpool, reported in New Zealand

 

1857 Occultation of Jupiter seen from Liverpool reported in New Zealand

Lyttelton Times Wednesday 6th May 1857

I was interested to see that the occultation was being reported from the other side of the world, I don’t know if the editor of the paper was interested in astronomy or whether there were any connections between Liverpool and Canterbury in New Zealand  where the Lyttleton Times was based.

The occultation of the planet Jupiter on the evening of Jan. 3 was observed at Liverpool observatory. At the immersion the four satellites and the planet where all seen to disappear behind the moon. Clouds came over immediately after immersion of the fourth or proceeding satellite, but they speedily passed away and the immersion of the remaining three satellites and Jupiter was also observed. At their immersion the satellites became fainter for three or four seconds and then suddenly disappeared. The entire time of obscuration was 50 minutes 58 seconds. The most remarkable fact was that no distortion of the image Jupiter was noticed, contrary to almost all past experience.

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