The Super Harvest Moon and a partial eclipse of the Moon

 Traditionally, September was the month when crops were harvested; a time of year that was vital to local economies across the country. Harvesting the crops as quickly as possible was crucial in ensuring that people had enough food for winter. This is why the full moon we see this month is probably the best known of all: the Harvest Moon.

This won’t be the usual Harvest Moon, but a Super Harvest Moon. This is the second of the four super moons this year. On September 18^th when the Moon is full it will be slightly closer than normal and hence a supermoon. The supermoon in October will be the closest of the year.

At this time of year, when the Sun sets, the Moon rises, which in pre-mechanised times meant that harvesting was not restricted to the normal hours of daylight. In medieval times all the harvesting was done by hand so it took much longer than it does today. The moonlight allowed entire villages to work throughout the night. (Of course, the Moon does not shine, so ‘moonlight’ is really reflected sunlight.) The extra light a couple of days either side of full moon helped farmers to harvest enough to survive the coming winter and have enough to sell at the markets, which were then the lynch pins of the economy.

As well as the Harvest Super Moon there will also be a partial eclipse of the Harvest Moon on September 18^th. An eclipse of the Moon occurs when the Moon passes into the shadow cast by the Earth. The Moon does not shine it simply reflects light from the Sun which is why we see tt. Although the light from the Sun cannot get directly to the Moon it can reach it by passing through the Earth’s atmosphere.  The light we see from the Sun is made up of the colours that form the colours of the rainbow. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and violet. The atmosphere blocks the blue light to pass which means that the normally white moon turns a wonderful coppery red colour. 

This is only a partial eclipse so only around 8% of the Moon will enter the Earth’s shadow. In addition the time when the moon passes into the shadow will be in the early morning between 03.12 until 04.16 am. If you are around at that time in the morning look to the top north east part of the Moon and you will see a small coppery red patch. This is a small partial eclipse of the Moon

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Joseph Baxendell and the discovery of the nova T Bootes in 1860

On April 10^th and 11^th 1860 Joseph Baxendell at Mr Worthington’s observatory at Crumpsall Old Hall in Manchester using a 5 inch refractor,  made the only definite observations of this enigmatic object. I do not know if this instrument was a Cooke or not.

 He saw the nova at magnitude 9.75, by April 22^nd it had fallen to magnitude 12.8, the following night it could not be seen with Mr Worthington’s 13 inch reflector.

 Various other astronomers including Friederich Winnecke, Edward Pickering, Ernest Harding and Ernst Zinner searched for the star but without success. 

Granting the reality of this object, the nova appears to have had an amplitude of at least 7 magnitudes, and an unusually rapid decline of about a magnitude in 4 days 

This strange star was given the designation of T Bootes

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The Astronomy Show

 Join me, Martin Lunn MBE tonight and every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the Astronomy Show on Drystone Radio, probably the only regular astronomy show on any radio station in the country. 

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 

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio live on line at www.drystoneradio.com DAB radio in Bradford and East Lancashire, or 102 and 103.5 FM and can also be heard later on the Drystone Radio Podcast.

Solar Eclipse 1898 seen with Cooke telescopes

 Total Solar Eclipse, January 22^nd 1898 English Preparations by Edward Maunder FRAS 

The English astronomers observed the January 22^nd 1898 eclipse of the Sun from various sites. The telescopes  are all achromatic Cooke lenses of 4.5 inch aperture, 5 feet 10 inches focus, and a single quartz lens of 5 inch aperture, 4 feet 9 inches focus   

The third station at Wardha, on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway from Bombay to Nagpur, will be occupied by Mr Newall, who proposes to use a large spilt spectroscope, with two prisms of 62 degrees, in the attempt to determine the speed of rotation of the corona by the relative displacements of its lines as observed east and west of the Sun. 

In the same neighbourhood, Captain Hills will probably fix his apparatus, which will consist of two slit spectroscopes, having the slit tangential to the Sun’s limb at the point of second contact and diametral receptively. The slits are 1.5 x 0.004 inches and 2 x 0.004 inches respectively; and the prisms are, for the first spectroscope, of two flint prisms of 60 degrees, 4.5 inch base, 2.5 inch height at maximum deviation for Hydrogen gamma and for the second spectroscope, of four quartz prisms of 60 degrees, 3.25 inch base, 2.75 inch height at maximum deviation for Hydrogen epsilon. The collimator and camera lenses are single quartz lenses, of 2.5 inch aperture , 30 inch focus and 3 inch aperture and 36 inch focus.

 

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William Houseman of Workington and his Cooke telescope

 Thomas Cooke telescopes crop up all over the country, and here is another one. This is a 5 inch telescope that was owned by William Bradshaw Housman (1878-1955). 

He had an observatory for his Cooke telescope at his home in Seaton in Workington. By profession he was an engineering draughtsman. His first observation using his Cooke telescope was in 1924, I don’t have any further information on the telescope regarding who owned it before Housman or in what year it was made. 

He was very keen on observing the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights and in fact between 1928-1951 he would be the Director of the Aurora and Zodiacal Light section for the British Astronomical Association. 

He was a very keen observer of Mars and drew many wonderful coloured pictures of the red planet using the Cooke telescope during the 1930 and 40s. . During World War 2 the blackout conditions meant that he was able to see Mars against a very dark background with no light pollution at all. 

W B Housman died in 1955 , I don’t know what happened to his Cooke telescope and like so  many other unsung astronomy heroes William Bradshaw disappears in to the sunset.   

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In 1855 Thomas Cooke introduces himself to Europe

The last French Monarch of France Napoleon III who was nephew to the Emperor Napoleon was rebuilding Paris in 1855 and wanted he Exposition of that year to be the most impressive. The Paris Expositions were begun in 1789.

 Although Napoleon wanted it to be the greatest art and industrial event ever staged it had already been eclipsed by the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in Britain in 1851. The exposition would run from June to November 1855. 

Among the exhibitors was Thomas Cooke of York who took the brave step of exhibiting a variety of optical equipment including a 7.5 inch equatorial with a clock work drive. 

Cooke was exhibitor No. 392 and was described as selling astronomical and nautical instruments. He was in the 8^th section ‘Arts connected with Science and Education’. 

For Cooke it was a great success not only because he won a First Class Medal for his 7.5 inch telescope he also made some very good contacts including the astronomer  Warren De La Rue. 

He also met Lt Gen Edward Sabine, astronomer, geophysicist and explorer and Lt Col Strange from the East India Company, the latter two would be very important in ensuring that Cooke theodolites being used in the great survey of India. 

He also introduced himself to the astronomers of Europe and in the following years there would be orders for telescopes and observatories from countries such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Russia and Sweden.

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A Thomas Cooke telescope at Eton Observatory

In 1870 one of the masters possible H G Madan at Eton School decided that they would provide a telescope. They chose a 5.9 in Thomas Cooke & Sons Refractor. The observatory was also made by Cookes. The observatory was erected on the roof of the western tower of the New Schools. It is square and surmounted by a revolving dome. 

Although a telescope on a roof will never be completely free from vibration it is reduced to a minimum by supporting the telescope on two massive trussed iron girders stretching across the observatory. The floor is supported quite independently. 

The telescope which was up the normal Cooke standards was supplied with the new Cooke clockwork driving system which was designed by the late Thomas Cooke. 

The science master at Eton School was  H G Madan who was the brother of Falconer Madan who was himself the grandfather of Venetia Burney who suggested the name Pluto for that newly discovered planet. 

I believe that the Eton telescope is still in use today in a different observatory located next to Eton Golf Course and is used by the Herschel Astronomical Society.

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Maurice Farman, the Chevreuse Observatory and a 9.5 inch Cooke telescope

As far as I am aware this is the not the same Maurice Farman who was an early pioneer in the days of flight, but I am always ready to be proved wrong. 

In 1908 while observing at the Chevreuse Obseravtory near Paris, an observatory I have never heard of before observed 1,100 double stars while using a 9.5 inch Cooke telescope.  

His observations were apparently quite brief and usually consisted of just one line of information, many additional notes  were drawn from historical observations of the stars he observed in 1908.

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George Ridsdale Goldsbrough, the rings of Saturn and a Cooke telescope

 There probably are not many people who have a theory on Saturn’s rings and who also own a Cooke telescope, but I would like to introduce to you such a man. George Ridsdale Goldsbrough (1881-1963). He would go onto become a mathematician and mathematical physicist.  

He was born in Sunderland on May 19^th 1881 which then was part of Co. Durham, he was a student at Armstrong College (now University of Newcastle upon Tyne) from 1900-1903 where he graduated with honours. 

Between 1905 and 1919 he was the senior mathematics master at Jarrow on Tyne Secondary School. His ability to do research led him in 1919 to an appointment to a lectureship in Mathematics at Armstrong College and in 1922 he also became a reader in Dynamical Astronomy. In 1928 he became Professor of Applied Mathematics a post he held until he retired. 

It was R A Sampson, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at the university of Durham who suggested that Goldsbrough should do work on tides and gravitational astronomy. 

Goldbrough’s work that would create most interest was his theory of the rings of Saturn in 1951. He suggested that the rings around Saturn could be formed in a stable system if certain circumstances were satisfied. 

I mentioned at the beginning about his link with a Cooke telescope. He had a 5 inch Cooke telescope. I don’t know if he brought it new or obtained it second hand , in which case I have no information regarding when it was made and who  might have originally owned it. 

We do know that he tried to observe the eclipse of the Sun visible in England on June 29^th 1927. He went to Swaledale, I don’t have a more accurate location than that. I can’t even say if he actually saw anything of the eclipse or not. The chances are he didn’t because in many areas it was too cloudy. 

George Ridsdale Glodsbrough died on May 26^th 1963 at the age of 82, while sitting in a deck chair in the gardens adjoining the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon

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The Mayflower and Cooke Troughton & Simms

 Scientific Instruments made by the York based company Cooke Troughton and Simms which was formed in 1922 were sent across the Atlantic Ocean on board the Mayflower 2. 

The Mayflower 2 sailed on April 20^th 1957 from Plymouth in Devon replicating the original voyage of the Mayflower in 1620. The Mayflower 2  arrived in Plymouth Massachusetts on June 22^nd 1957 and was then towed to New York City on July 1^st 1957. 

The instruments were placed in a treasure chest where when it arrived in New York City was greeted by President Eisenhower. It then became a tourist attraction with its treasures including the Cooke Troughton and Simms instruments being seen by tourists. 

The instruments which were inscribed to commemorate their method of transport will eventually be taken by the company’s representatives in the cities of Boston, Chicago, and the states of California and Colorado.

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The Astronomy Show

 Join me, Martin Lunn MBE tonight and every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the Astronomy Show on Drystone Radio, probably the only regular astronomy show on any radio station in the country. 

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. 

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio live on line at www.drystoneradio.com DAB radio in Bradford and East Lancashire, or 102 and 103.5 FM and can also be heard later on the Drystone Radio Podcast.

 

83 UMa, T CrB, John Birmingham and a Thomas Cooke telescope

It’s fair to say that the weather at least in the north of England has not been fantastic this summer, for looking at the stars anyway.  Even the weather for the Perseid meteor shower was poor despite the weather forecasts saying it should be clear, Things finally changed right at the end of August with some clear nights.

I was able to get back to searching for high latitude novae, these are stars 3 or 4 kilo parsecs above the galactic plane. I was quickly looking at some of my old stomping grounds including the area around the Plough. The star Fl 83 Uma on my photograph was particularly red looking on August 29^th, 2024. That is nothing surprising as it is an M2 III red giant star. It’s one I always look out for as it does have some interesting history. The following night August 30^th it was not as red.

The Fl letters in front of the number 83 indicates that the star was the 83^rd  one listed in Ursa Major by John Flamsteed the first astronomer royal in his star catalogue which was published in 1725.

On August 6^th, 1868, John Birmingham saw the star for one night only become much brighter than normal. Its usual magnitude is 4.6 but, on that night, Birmingham said it was as bright as Megrez in the handle of the blade of the Plough. Megrez has a magnitude of 3.3. I know there are some suspicions that Megrez might be some kind of very long period or secular type variable. Birmingham would go on to produce an important catalogue of red stars.

John Birmingham’s observation was interesting none the less, my observations of  83 UMa go back to last century,  but I have never seen anything untoward.

John Birmingham was an important Irish astronomer of the 19^th century for reasons other than 83 Uma. I am not writing a history of the life of John Birmingham people with far greater skill than I can do that. In 1866 Birmingham saw a star in the constellation of Corona Borealis or the Northern Crown we now call T CrB. This star was a nova.

A nova is a binary system of two stars one a small hot white dwarf the other a large cooler giant star. The white dwarf pulls gas from its larger companion towards it and this gas then forms a disc around the white dwarf. This theoretical area is known as a roche lobe. When the lobe is full of cool gas it cascades down onto the hot surface of the white dwarf where the star essentially sizzles like a very hot pan. A small amount of gas is thrown away into space. In medieval times when people saw these stars appear they called the nova, because this is the Latin word for new. They thought these stars were being born. They are not, they are much older stars just going through a phase of their evolution. Although an old term we still use the word nova today to explain the process we see.

Then incredibly T CrB went nova again in 1946 and it acquired the name of the ‘Blaze Star’. Although not unique it certainly was the brightest nova to do so. Today I think there is an acceptance among astronomers that stars are seen to go nova will do so again.

Maybe like yourselves I have been bombarded all year long with circulars and news reports telling me that T CrB was going to go nova again this year. The period between 1866 and 1946 is 80 years but the experts have suggested that T CRB was winding up to go nova this year, although nothing has happened yet, we may have to wait for the 80-year period to go by making the next event in 2026. We will see.

And finally, as in all good astronomy stories John Birmingham acquired a telescope in 1869 it was not any old telescope, but it was a 4.5-inch telescope made by Thomas Cooke & Sons of York.

As autumn and winter approach I will hope to get back to my photography, weather permitting of course and checking for high latitude novae and keeping an eye on amongst other stars, 83 Uma.

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Transit of Mercury in 1907 seen from Mauritius with a Cooke telescope

The transit of Mercury was observed on November 14^th 1907 from the Royal Alfred Observatory in Mauritius using a Cooke 6 inch refractor. The transit which was seen through a partly  cloudy sky and the limb of the Sun was described as being boiling. Mercury appeared as a clear cut black disc, perfectly circular with no spot or fringe. 

There were 11 photographs taken during the transit with the 6 inch Cooke. The telescope  had ben supplied to Mauritius by the colonial government in1874 in order to observe the transit of Venus.

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