Jupiter and his satellites seen with a Cooke from Worcester

 

On the 21^st August 1866 Thomas Barneby of Worcester observed Jupiter and his satellites using a 9 inch Thomas Cooke telescope that had originally been made for the late Captain Jacob.

Rather confusingly Thomas Barneby’s observatory changes name from the mid 1860s when it is called South Villa Observatory to in 1874 when it is called the Morton House Observatory. I don’t know if this was due to a move of house but in both cases the addresses were near Worcester.

To get back to Jupiter he describes that when he first saw Jupiter, the shadow of the third satellite only was on its disk. The third satellite itself next made its ingress, and I afterwards saw several ingresses of the shadows of the fourth and first satellites.

The second satellite had then become eclipsed leaving no satellite visible, except on the face of the planet.

The three shadows were perfectly black and there was no perceptible penumbra, although the outlines were not so clearly defined as I have seen them with a smaller instrument.