UK Observatories with Cooke Telescopes in the 19th century

 

I know I am often going on about how good Cooke telescopes are and depending on your nationality you might have a different view. The American would go for Alvan Clark telescopes while the Germans would say that Zeiss telescopes were superior, but I always believe the best were Cooke telescopes.

I came across this interesting little survey from 1866 and while it does not claim to exhaustive it is fascinating. I could not believe these facts when I first saw them.

The survey was of 48 private observatories in Britain and indicated that 40 had refractors while only 8 had reflectors, an interesting fact in itself and showing how popular refractors were compared to reflectors.

Of those 40 surveyed

12 were equipped with Cooke telescopes

The next nearest telescope makers with just 3 were Alan Clark (USA), Troughton, Goddard, Slugg and Slater.

Although this list does not suggest to be complete it does give an indication of how popular Cooke telescopes were.

Photo Visual Cooke in Shrewsbury

 

James Cavan died on April 25^th 1911, he was born in London in 1856 and educated at Harrow and Christ Church Oxford.

Throughout his life he had a keen interest in astronomy and at his county seat at Eaton Mascott Hall, Shrewsbury he built a well equipped private observatory with a 7.5 inch photo visual Thomas Cooke telescope (Cooke photo visual lens were made after 1894).

Most of his life was devoted to the public business of the county of Shropshire.

Cooke telescope leads to life long interest in astronomy

 

On April 15^th 1865 William Bolger Gibbs (1836-1925) of Peckham in London purchased a Cooke 4 inch educational telescope. He would not make any great discoveries but this small telescope would give him a life long interest in astronomy.

The following year he ordered an equatorial mounting from Cookes for a larger telescope. William Gibbs then obtained a 5.5 inch telescope in a wooden observatory, but I don’t know if it was a Cooke, but clearly he ordered the mount for the 5.5 inch telescope . He would use this telescope until he was 87 years old.

He was great friends with James Buckingham of Walworth in London who owned a 21.25 inch refractor by Wray the largest in the world until 1870 when Cookes built the 25 inch Newall refractor.

Crossley and Gledhill of Halifax and a Cooke

 

Edward Crossley was a wealthy industrialist who owned the Crossley Carpet Mill in Halifax, this was the largest one in the world at that time with a turnover of around £1 million, but Crossley was also interested in astronomy and in 1865 he built an observatory for a telescope. He naturally went to the best telescope maker in the country, Thomas Cooke of York and purchased a 9.3 inch refractor.

He would employ an astronomer Joseph Gledhill to do most of the observing due to his work and other commitments which took much of his time. Crossley would become mayor of Halifax from 1874-1878 and 1884-1885, and member of parliament for Sowerby from 1885-1892.

Edward Crossley and Joseph Gledhill would produce a classic Handbook of Double Stars with help from J M Wilson at the Temple Observatory at Rugby in 1879. This would become a classic yet it is even today much overlooked by astronomers. There was also extensive observations made of the Moon, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn with the 9.3 inch Cooke.

In 1896 Cookes produced a new photovisual lens and Crossley purchased one for his telescope, the lens was slightly smaller at 9 inches but both Crossley and Gledhill were impressed with its performance.

The telescope would be used in Halifax first at the Park Road Observatory until 1872 and then later from the new Bermerside Observatory until 1904 with the Crossley refractor making its mark on British astronomy in the 19^th century.

Crossley died in 1905 and Gledhill in 1906, the telescope was purchased by   Rev David Kennedy at the Marist Seminary in Meeanee in New Zealand. An observatory was opened at Meeanee in 1907 with the Crossley 9 inch being the second largest telescope in New Zealand, the largest at that time was another Cooke telescope the 9.5 inch Cooke telescope that had been owned by Isaac Fletcher of Cumberland.

The Crossley was used to photograph Halley’s comet in 1910. After World War 1 the telescope was sold to Wellington City Council in New Zealand and in 1924 a new observatory to house the Crossley 9 inch telescope was opened. During the 1920s and 30s the observatory was run by amateur astronomers with public viewing nights. The 1936 annular eclipse of the Sun was observed using the Crossley telescope.

The last chapter in this story involves a local farmer, businessman and politician Charles Rooking Carter who when he died in 1896 left a sum of £2,240 to fund an astronomical observatory. The new Carter observatory was opened on December 20^th 1941, but World War 2 meant that very little happened until 1945. Since then the telescope has seen extensive use including in 1968 an occultation of Neptune by the Moon. It was used for serious research work until 1971. Since this date modern telescopes have been used by astronomers at the Carer Observatory,

In 1975 it was discovered that the chemicals in the photovisual glass would become stable over a period of time and by 2000 it was clear that in its original form the lens was unusable. So in 2001 a new and slightly larger 9.75 inch lens was installed.

Today the Crossley telescope is used for public viewing and education projects. It is a testament to its construction that a telescope made in York in 1867 is still being used in the 21s century 11,500 miles away in New Zealand.

The Astronomy Show

 

Join me, Martin Lunn tonight and every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the Astronomy Show, 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 A-Z of Constellations and the Messier Marathon.

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio 102 and 103.5 FM the show can be heard live on line at www.drystoneradio.com and the show can be heard later on the Drystone Radio Podcast.

Thomas Cooke makes first 7 inch Telescope

 

March 28^th 1851 Thomas Cooke of York produces his first 7 inch Telescope

Hugh Pattinson a chemist who founded the extensive chemical works at Felling and Washington near Newcastle, earlier he had discovered an improved method of separating silver from lead, this is called the Pattinson Process. He was also very interested in astronomy and asked Thomas Cooke to build as large a telescope as he could.

Cooke went on to build a telescope with a lens 7.25 inches (18.41cm) across, his largest up until this date. The telescope was mounted on an iron pier. Pattinson placed the telescope in an observatory at his home. When pointed straight up the lens would be 14 feet (4.2m) above the floor. The Telescope and mount weighed 10 hundred weight (508 Kg).

The Cooke telescope would in 1856 be loaned to Charles Piazzi Smythe for his expedition to Teneriffe.

Thomas Cooke was one of the greatest telescope makers of all time, and he was based in York, he made many optical instruments including at the time in 1870 the largest telescope in the world. His main factory was at the Buckingham Works at Bishophill in York.

The Black Eye Galaxy and York

 

Edward Pigott although not a Yorkshireman (But then neither am I) worked very closely with John Goodricke in York between 1781-1786 on what today astronomers call variable stars, these are star that change in brightness over a period of time, there work was so important that when I worked in York I called them the ‘Fathers of Variable Star Astronomy’ a term which seems to still be used today.

Before he moved to York he was living in South Wales, it was here that Pigott discovered what he called a nebula in the constellation of Coma Berenices on March 23^rd 1779. The discovery is sometimes credited to Johannes Bode but he discovered it later in April 1779.

What he could not know was that it was not a nebula but a galaxy around 17 million light years away. This galaxy is called the Black Eye Galaxy because there is a lot of dust close to the bright central part giving the impression of a black eye.

Around the time of his discovery a French astronomer named Charles Messier was searching for comets but he kept coming across lots of fuzzy objects in the sky which he confused for comets, so he drew up a list of non comet objects to remind him that these objects were not comets. This is the Messier list and when he came across Piggot’s nebula in 1780 he gave it the designation of M64.

M64 is not bright enough to be seen with the naked eye you will need a telescope to see it.

Alfred Fowler 1868- 1940 Bradford Astronomer

 

Alfred Fowler was born on March 22^nd 1868 at Wilsden on the outskirts of Bradford and would become one of the most important astronomers of the first half of the 20^th century. His work in the field of spectroscopy would lay the basis of modern physical astronomy.

He was educated at the Keighley Trade and Grammar School and at the age of 14 he obtained a scholarship to the Old Normal School of Science, now known as Imperial College, South Kensington in London. Being of a sturdy Yorkshire character Fowler was not to be ruffled by all that would happen around him.

In 1888 at the age of 20 he was working as a demonstrator in astronomical physics, among the people he worked with was a Mr H G Wells, and although Wells was not able to pass all his exams his career took another course in writing, his astronomical knowledge was useful in the ‘War of the Worlds’

Fowler soon found himself working under Professor Norman Lockyer one of the most important astronomers studying the Sun in the later part of the 19^th century. When Lockyer retired in 1901 he took most of the astronomical equipment with him so although Alfred Fowler was appointed Assistant Professor of Physics he had very little equipment to work with. This did not cause Fowler too many problems he started working with spectroscopes which can split white light into the colours of the spectrum.

He developed a great interest in eclipses of the Sun, the eclipses of 1896 and 1905 were affected by bad weather but those at West Africa in 1893 and India in 1898 were more successful and he was able to examine the spectrum of the Sun during the eclipse. The eclipse of 1914 in Russia could not be reached due the start of World War 1.

By his services to science not only in the field of research but also teaching he received many awards including in 1915 the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, in 1918 the Medal of the Royal Society, the Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1935 he was awarded a CBE.

In 1919 he would become the first General Secretary of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) an association of professional astronomers active in research and teaching. The IAU still today the body that represents professional astronomers.

Alfred Fowler died on June 24^th 1940 in Ealing, London, He was a most remarkable man from Wilsden, of whom little is known, this is partly due to his modest kindly demeanour and the quiet way in which he would speak of his most important discoveries.

The Astronomy Show

 

Join me, Martin Lunn tonight and every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the Astronomy Show, 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 A-Z of Constellations and the Messier Marathon.

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio 102 and 103.5 FM the show can be heard live on line at www.drystoneradio.com and the show can be heard later on the Drystone Radio Podcast.

The Astronomy Show

 

Join me, Martin Lunn tonight and every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the Astronomy Show, 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 A-Z of Constellations and the Messier Marathon.

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio 102 and 103.5 FM the show can be heard live on line at www.drystoneradio.com and the show can be heard later on the Drystone Radio Podcast.

Will Hay, the White Spot on Saturn and Lamp posts

 The astronomer and comedian Will Hay who discovered the white spot on Saturn in 1933. The film star known for his playing of bumbling teachers or station masters, yet his work as an astronomer was unknown to most people, even his neighbours. 

 He discovered the white spot on Saturn using his 6 inch Thomas Cooke & Sons telescope. When he was interviewed by the press as well as outlying the astronomical work he undertook he also made reference to the problems of light pollution. He commented that :- 

He is delighted with his discovery for more than one reason. For some time he has been worrying Croydon council to shade the two lamp posts outside his house because their reflections interfere seriously with his work. He thinks that now perhaps they will realise that he is not just a funny man but someone of importance in the astronomical world.

The Winchcombe crater is not the first to be taken to a museum in England

 

The BBC reported that the part of the driveway where the Winchcombe meteorite landed is being preserved. This is not the first case of a crater being taken to a museum.

In Yorkshire on March 14^th 1881 a meteorite fell next to the North Eastern Railway line in Middlesbrough (Middlesbrough was in Yorkshire then) not only was the Middlesbrough meteorite ‘captured’.  The crater that the  meteorite made was also ‘captured’, a one yard cube of earth containing the crater was taken to the Yorkshire Museum .

Both meteorite and crater were displayed at the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in York in 1881.

It is possible to to see the Middlesbrough meteorite at the Yorkshire Museum today. A cast of the crater still exists in the museum.

The Middlesbrough meteorite is one of the most important on Earth it is classed as a textbook example of an oriented meteorite. Only one side of the object was burned as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Astronomy Show

 

Join me, Martin Lunn tonight and every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the Astronomy Show, 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 A-Z of Constellations and the Messier Marathon.

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio 102 and 103.5 FM the show can be heard live on line at www.drystoneradio.com and the show can be heard later on the Drystone Radio Podcast.

U Tau discovered in Manchester

 

Mr Baxendell of Manchester discovered on March 19^th 1862 a new variable star in the constellation of Taurus about 19 minutes of arc from the place of the nebula discovered by by Mr Hind in 1852. (This nebula was NGC 1555 associated with the variable star T Tauri).

 The star discovered by Mr Baxendell will be known as U Tauri

Early Photographs taken with Cookes

 

Some of the early astronomical photographs were taken in England by astronomers using Thomas Cooke & Sons telescopes.

In 1853 John Phillips in the Museum Gardens in York using a 6.25 inch telescope photographed the Moon. In 1857 Mr Fry used Mr Howell’s 6.5 inch telescope in Brighton.

At this period of time telescopes were designed for visual use and all the gentlemen astronomers had the problem while using refractors of the difference between the actinic and visual foci. Reflecting telescopes did not suffer from such problems.

The negatives obtained by both Phillips and Fry were about 1 inch in diameter.