NASA looking at Moon landing at Haworth.

If you think of Haworth, you naturally think of the Bronte sisters, and Wuthering Heights, possibly the steam engines going through Haworth Station, and all the film crews there for numerous films and shows. But would you associate Haworth as a moon landing site. Well NASA certainly is.

NASA is hoping to send the Artemis III crewed mission to the Moon in late 2026 or early 2027. One of the potential landing sites they have chosen is Haworth.

But don’t worry if you live in Haworth a massive space craft is not going to land in the parsonage. The Haworth that NASA is looking at is on the Moon.

Haworth is a crater near the south pole of the Moon that was named after the British chemist Sir Walter Norman Haworth 1883-1950. He was awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1937 for his ground-breaking work on carbohydrates and vitamin C.

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Snowballing and the Cooke’s Works

  In early December 1882, two youths employed at the Thomas Cooke, Buckingham Works, Bishophill, York were summoned for snowballing near the works. It was shown that two residents in the vicinity were compelled to put their shutters in lest their windows should be broken. 

Mr Haley stated that he had had numerous complaints respecting snowballing. Mr Ditmas who appeared for the boys submitted that the defendants not having been previously warned might with justice be discharged. 

Mr Rowntree said that snowballing could not be considered a privileged. The youths were find 1 shilling each.

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Great Comet of 1882 seen from India with a Cooke telescope

 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 25^th 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.

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The Astronomy Show on Drystone Radio

 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.

 

 

Take an intergalactic journey with me every Monday evening between 7.00pm and 9.00pm to look at what’s in the night sky and catch up with the latest astronomy news. This is probably the only regular weekly astronomy show on any radio station in the country,

 

 

Cooke Instruments were of the highest quality, But…….

 Cooke Instruments were of the highest quality but by the 1920s with a slump in trade around the world for optical instruments Cooke’s were now discovering the penalty of making instruments too well, they did not need repairing!! 

With this in mind in the late 1920s Cookes which by his time was trading as Cooke, Troughton and Simms undertook a major advertising campaign encouraging people who had brought equipment in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries to bring them back and have them repaired.  This particular advertisement was from 1927. 

The campaign was not just in the UK it was also global, and senior salesmen were sent to the various Cooke offices around the world to try to drum up extra business. It worked briefly but sadly for Cookes and other major industries around the world the Great Wall Street Crash in 1929 signalled the beginning of the Great Depression in the 1930s and the demand for optical instruments ceased almost overnight..

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Newall telescope used to observe Mars from Greece in 1964

In early 1964 the 25 inch Refractor was used at the Penteli observatory in Athens to allow astronomers to make drawings of the planet Jupiter. There were some very good drawings of the Great Red Spot. 

The Newall Telescope was originally made for Robert Newall in Gateshead in the north east of England in 1870. In 1885 it was donated to the observatory at Cambridge and in 1957 it was sent to the Penteli Observatory in Athens. The telescope is still in use today at the Penteli Observatory.

                                                         www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

The Astronomy show on Drystone Radio

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.

Maria Mitchell Observatory and a Thomas Cooke telescope

 The Maria Mitchell Observatory was founded in 1908 in Vestal Street Nantucket Massachusetts. The observatory was named after Maria Mitchell America’s first professional woman astronomer. 

In 1952 the observatory housed a 5 inch clark telescope which was given to Maria Mitchell in 1859 by the women of America and used as a guide scope for a Cooke photographic triplet telescope of 7.5 inches aperture. 

I do not know when the observatory acquired the Cooke and how long it was used there if it indeed is still there today?

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Leeds Astronomical Society visit Thomas Cooke & Son of York in 1920

On Saturday afternoon October 9^th 1920 members of the Leeds Astronomical Society of which Mr David Booth is president and others visited the works of Messrs Cooke and Sons Ltd Bishophill, York where an interesting and instructive time was spent. 

During their tour around the works they saw how lens are ground down and polished and how various instruments are used and adjusted. 

Among the other things pointed out were various parts of the 18 inch telescope for Brazil. In the show room there were various telescopes including one made by Mr Cooke in 1850. 

The visitors were surprised to find that in York there were such large and extensive works equipped with the various modern and accurate machines capable of making the most precise scientific instruments for the exacting demands of today.

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Cooke Troughton & Simms in Romania in 1927

In early 1927 Cookes was contacted by the Resita Company in Romania with reference to their geodetic equipment. 

Literature from Cooke Troughton and Simms through their representative Captain Boxshall were sent to the company and secured a very respectable order and it was hoped that this with be the first of many with Romania.

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Iapetus occulted by Saturn in 1963 seen with Cooke telescope in South Africa

On October 17^th 1963 using the 6 inch Cooke telescope at x300 magnification at the Republic Observatory  in Johannesburg, South Africa astronomers saw the Saturnian moon Iapteus occulted by Saturn. Iapetus was discovered by Cassini in 1671, 

The first dimming occurred at 18h 58 m UT the light was finally extinguished at 19h 07m. These observations were confirmed by the Astronomical Observatory at Madrid. 

The Union Observatory was originally the Meteorological Observatory built in 1905, it became the Union Observatory in 1912, until 1961 and finally the republic Observatory until it closed in 1971.

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Looking at Venus through a Cooke telescope from Nottingham in 1863

 On October 22^nd 1863 and turning my 6 inch Cooke telescope upon Venus I was much surprised to see almost the whole of the unilluminated disc pf the planet; it was so striking I appearance, that I thought it must be the resemblance of the Moon, which made me fancy that I could see the unilluminated portion. My sister in law, whom I called to witness the planet, but without telling her what to look for, said she instantly saw the whole disc. The atmosphere was beautifully clear, but still the planet was so far past conjunction, that I should scarcely have imagined the phenomena would be visible.

 

J F Barber Stanton by Dale Nottingham

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

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 and Astronomy in Yorkshire -  God’s Own Country.

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.

The 1881 BA meeting in York with Thomas Cooke & Sons and the Middlesbrough meteorite

Messrs Thomas Cooke and Sons of York had a display of scientific instruments for the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. It was the 50th anniversary meeting in York. The first was held in York in 1831. 

Cookes had on display an achromatic telescope OG of 15.5 inches in a brass cell. In addition, there was a transit instrument and a large fixed equatorial telescope for the Spanish Transit of Venus expedition in 1882. 

There was also an electrically controlled chronograph for recording astronomical observations. In addition, a solar spectroscope with 5 prisms and double ray reversion equal to 20 prisms. 

Astronomical Yorkshire was represented at the meeting with the Middlesbrough meteorite which had fallen on March 14^th, 1881. Today we know it is one of the most important meteorites on Earth and is the textbook example of an oriented meteorite. This means that only one face of the meteor was burned upon entry into the Earth’s atmosphere making the meteorite dome shaped.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

Aurora over Halifay in 1870

 On October 20th 1870 Joseph Gledhill who was the assistant astronomer to Edward Crossley at his observatory at Park Road, Halifax and who normally used the 9.3 inch Cooke telescope saw a fine display of Aurora. 

At 7.30 pm a bright red magnetic cloud lay in Auriga, a little later it was in Lynx. The large stars in the back of Ursa Major and the Northern Crown in the West marked the upper limit of the bright segment to the westward.

 At 10.00 pm the arch of fiery red magnetic clouds was well seen, it extended from N E to W.

No bright columns were seen this evening

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Colossal X class flare heading towards Earth

The Sun is crackling with sunspot activity at the moment, on Thursday October 3^rd a massive flare, the largest  in this solar cycle and the largest since 2017 was blasted towards the Earth.

It is predicted that when it hits the Earth there could be some spectacular Aurora or Northern Light displays on Saturday 5^th or Sunday 6^th October.

If it is clear on those nights then watch the skies you might be lucky enough to see those wonderful Northern Lights.

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

50 years of services at Cookes

 In August 1947 a social evening was held to commemorate the retirement of 5 veteran craftsmen at Cookes. Messrs A Harrison, T Dwyer, C Grewer, W Wrigley and J Danby all had worked for over 50 years at Cookes, they all stared at the end of the 19^th century. 

The social evening was held at the clubhouse where Mr E W Taylor joint managing director and son of HD Taylor who designed the Cooke Portrait Lens attended to present the proceeds of collections to each of the retired men. 

Some of Mr Taylor’s anecdotes were enlightening to a younger generation, whilst others created amusement which continued with responses from the honoured guests. 

It was a very pleasant evening.

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk