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
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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 Cooke 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.
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On November 11th 1940 a transit of Mercury was visible for 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 if 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.
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 from South Africa for the Southern Hemisphere using 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 in 2024 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.
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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.
An occultation occurs when the Moon passes in front of a star blocking out the light from the star. Very occasionally a planet will pass in front of a star. This happened in 1977 when Uranus passed in front of a star leading to the discovery of its system of rings.
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.
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