In Monthly Notices, LXIII, 1, Dr Isaac Roberts contributes a most valuable and startling paper on the subject of 52 regions observed as nebulous by Sir William Herschel. These regions were photographed using both the 20 inch reflector and 5 inch Cooke & Sons refractor. The surprising result is that in only 4 out of the 52 regions is any nebulosity found.
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.
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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 aurora display of November 27th 1872 appears not to attract that much attention because it occurred on the same night that as the spectacular Andromedid meteor shower, which was the remains of comet Biela burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Samuel Barber of Liverpool commented about the aurora and described it as merely a hazy or diffused cloudy light, devoid of both colouring and symmetry of form. He went on to say that he had observed this variety of aurora on several occasions but it appears to attract few observers.
J M Boraston on the steamer Don on the night of November 23/24 1891 made observations of Andromedid meteors from location Long 72’ West Lat 17’ North, the sky was very clear with no Moon.
Mr Boraston states that the heavens were alive with meteors. Several were seen as faint, swift and long tracked and for 6 hours the average number of meteors was estimated at 108 per minute or 6,480 per hour.
On January 24th and February 4th 1893 Mr Newall using the 25 inch Thomas Cooke & Sons telescope at the new observatory at Cambridge observed the 5thsatellite of Jupiter.
(I assume by the 5thsatellite he means Amalthea which was discovered by Barnard in 1892)
Mr Newall remarked that it has been most justly described as a very difficult object to see.
By November 1891 the 25 inch Newall Telescope and dome are all but completely mounted on their new site at Cambridge.
Mr H F Newall son of Mr R Newall who purchased the 25 inch telescope from Thomas Cooke & Sons has built himself a house close by, whence he has been superintending the project.
On August 22nd 1867, John Joynson at Waterloo near Liverpool observed Jupiter with no satellites visible. This was done using a 6 inch Thomas Cooke & Sons telescope.
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.
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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.
A drawing of Venus was made at the observatory of Mr Chatwood at Worsley, Manchester in 1901 using his 9.75 inch Thomas Cooke & Sons telescope. This had originally been owned by Isaac Fletcher of Cumberland.
The telescope would in 1902 be purchased by J T Ward for the newly formed Wanganui Astronomical Society in New Zealand.
The telescope is sometimes referred to as a 9.5 or 9.75 inch telescope and just to add extra confusion when ordered it was supposed to be a 9 inch telescope.
The occultation of Aldebaran in 1867 was observed by Mr Airy who remarked that the star did not come out bright instantaneously but was 38 seconds regaining its full light.
Whereas Mr Joynson in Liverpool with his 3.5 inch Thomas Cooke & Sons telescope described the star as sliding on the Moon’s disk at the immersion but re appearing instantaneously
Will Hay is best remembered as a comedian of the stage and in films in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a very competent astronomer who discovered a white spot on Saturn in 1933 using a 6 inch Cooke telescope. He also observed Nova Puppis 1942 with a Cooke this time a 3.5 inch telescope.
Observing from London early in the morning of November 24th 1942 and using his 3.5 inch Cooke he saw the nova. He had seen it a few days earlier on November 14th as a naked eye object of around magnitude 3.5. By November 24th it had faded and a telescope was needed to see it.
It was very close to the horizon and he estimated the brightness of the nova as between magnitude 4 and 5 but as he commented being so close to the horizon it is difficult to estimate the brightness of a star so low in the sky due to the amount of atmosphere the light has to pass through.
Will Hay was also struck by the red colour of the nova. He checked other stars nearby of about the same brightness and they appeared to be their normal colours suggesting that the redness was in the nova itself.
Nova Puppis was discovered by Bernhard Dawson at the La Plata Observatory in Argentina on November 8th 1942. It reached a maximum magnitude of 0.3 on November 10th 1942.
On November 11th 1940 a transit of Mercury was visible from Britain , that same transit was also visible from Australia on November 12th due to the different time zones.
A transit of Mercury occurs when the planet passes in front of the Sun as seen from Earth. Mercury can then be seen as a dark spot slowly moving across the Sun. Although not as scientifically important as transits of Venus, transits of Mercury still attract a lot of attention. The most recent was in 2019 the next will be in 2032.
The Transit of November 12th 1940 was seen by Mark Howarth at the Grange Mount Observatory, Newcastle New South Wales, Australia. A Cooke 4.5 inch telescope was used with a solar diagonal of power x 80. Weather conditions were good, especially at times of the beginning and ending of the transit.
A slight haze made it impossible to obtain satisfactory photographs. The temperature at the time of the transit was 92 degrees F. or if you prefer 33 degrees C.
The occultation of the star 73 Pisces by Jupiter was observed from Meean Meer, Lahore, India on December 23rd 1880 by H Collett using a 4.5 inch Cooke telescope with a power of 96.
At 01 hours, 52 minutes, 30seconds GMT the star was hanging on the limb of the planet and by 01 hour and 54 minutes it had entirely disappeared. The phenomenon strongly resembled the occultation of a satellite except the disappearance was more rapid. The planet and star appeared to cohere for about 1.5 minutes.
No micrometer was used. The GMT of reappearance was 02 hour, 44 minutes when the star was again observed to hang onto the planet’s limb. The planet was well placed for observation being near the zenith.
Before and after the occultation Jupiter appeared as if with 5 moons, the star being almost indistinguishable from the satellites.
As the occultation could not be observed in Europe these few notes may prove to be of some interest.
John Franklin Adams photographed the entire night sky between 1904 and 1909 from Godalming in Surrey for the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere was photographed from South Africa. He used a 10 inch Cooke camera and two 6 inch Cooke cameras.
In 1913 the Royal Astronomical Society undertook to publish a small number of the Franklin Adams Charts. The 206 photographic plates covered the entire sky. Each plate covered an area 15 degrees by 15 degrees.
The reproductions were on bromide paper 15 inches by 12 inches with the plate area being 11inches by 11 inches. The cost of each set will be 10 guineas. If we convert that today's prices in 2022 this would be over £1,400!!
It is hoped that a sufficient number of subscribers will be enlisted to help to defray the cost of such an expensive undertaking. It is hoped that they will be ready in 1914.
Today the Franklin Adams Charts are still use by astronomers due to their quality and their historical reference to the night sky over 100 years ago.
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.
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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 great comet of 1882 was first seen in September of that year and was observed and photographed by astronomers all around the world. This included from India.
On September 25th 1882 H Collett from Lahore, the Punjab, India observed the comet with a 4.5 inch Cooke telescope. At 04 hours and 50 minutes local time the comet was estimated to be about 14 degrees long and of unusual breadth. The borders of the tail appear much brighter that the central part.
On November 9th 1870 John Joynson of Waterloo in Liverpool observed an occultation of delta 3 Tauri. Delta 3 is one of the members of the Hyades cluster of stars that are near to Aldebaran in Taurus. Joynson was using a 6 inch Cooke telescope.
According to Joynson the Moon passed over this star and the disappearance took place at 11 hours, 19 minutes and 11.3 seconds. The star reappeared at 12 hours 16 minutes and 50.7 seconds. The observations were considered very satisfactory.
On November 5th / 6th 1907 Mr A B Cobham and Mr G D Hirst using a 4.5 inch Thomas Cooke & Son telescope in Australia saw a dark spot on Saturn. This was afterwards ascertained to be Titan.
They also both commented that they caught glimpse of the edge of the ring at flashes, the impression indicating the extreme fineness and delicacy of the rings when seen edgewise.
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.
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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.
On November 5th 1867 the 25 inch object glass or lens which had been so long in the making by Thomas Cooke of York was completed. This was the largest object glass to that date. It was tested on the double star gamma 2 Andromeda and the stars were seen most distinctly divided and with the spurious disks of the three stars of the system perfectly round.
The telescope would not be completed until 1870, by which time sadly Thomas Cooke had died.
James Keeler at the Lick Observatory in California used the 36 inch reflector telescope which had been presented to the Lick Observatory by Mr Crossley of Halifax, Yorkshire in 1896 into fair working order and employed it in photographing the comet discovered by Mr Brooke on October 20th 1898.
Keeler obtained photographs on 11 consecutive nights from November 4th to November 14th. After this the work was discontinued by the twilight and the construction of the mounting for the telescope the maximum exposure for the photographs had been reduced to 13 minutes.
The best photograph was taken on November 5th and on appearance the comet resembled comet b 1894 Gale, the tail measured only about .75 of a degree long and is very straight and not too distinct.
John Dansken was born in Glasgow in 1836 and was by profession a surveyor and also an enthusiastic amateur astronomer who built an observatory at his home in Patrickhill, Glasgow which included a 5 inch telescope by Thomas Cooke of York, there was also a larger 13 inch reflector made by D Hunter of Lanark.
A number of smaller instruments were also housed there including telescopes by Wray and Dollond. He also had one of the finest astronomical libraries in the West of Scotland.
John Dansken died on November 1st 1905.
In 1865 W E Metford, from Bristol purchased a telescope with a 2 inches object glass, with a 21 inch f/l, and made of white metal, plus a sunshade.
Although he had an interest in astronomy I have not come across any references to any observations he made ,his chief distinction was in the development of bullets for rifles.
William Priest Pardo Matthews, Hill House, Gorleston, Yarmouth purchased in November 1864 an astronomical eyepiece for a 5 foot 4 inch long telescope with an aperture of 4.5 inches.
This must have been another Cooke eyepiece he purchased because according to a letter written by Matthews earlier in the year on July 18th 1864 the eyepiece that he had purchased from Cooke’s was a Huyghenian which he described as being an exceedingly good one.
I don't know if his 4.5 inch telescope was a Cooke telescope or not.
On the 20th December 1858 Dr Matthews from Tynemouth ordered a telescope of 4 inch aperture, from Thomas Cooke & Sons of York, plus a polished brass tube, a finder, four eyepieces, sun prism and dark glasses, two brass clamps for fixing to stand at a cost of £40. ( In 2022 that would be equal to £5,870)
At the same time he also ordered a plain equatorial stand with tangent screw motion…. Hook's joint &c £7 (In 2022 that would equal £1,025). A Hook's joint is essential a universal joint. The mechanism was invented by Robert Hooke (1635-1703) Packing cases £1 10s 0d. (In 2022 that would equal £220
There is no other information available.
