Yorkshire telescope discovers moon of Jupiter from America in 1904

 On December 3^rd, 1904, C D Perrine at the Lick Observatory in America using the Crossley 36-inch telescope discovered the 6^th moon of Jupiter which today is called Himalia. The name Himalia is named after the nymph Himalia who had three sons by Zeus. The name wasn’t given to the moon until 1975.

It is the largest of the small irregular moons of Jupiter having a diameter of about 90 miles (140km).

The Crossley telescope was purchased by Edward Crossley of Halifax in West Yorkshire in the early 1880s. Crossey owned the Crossley carpet mill the largest in the world in the md 19^th century. He was a keen astronomer but most of his time was allocated to running his company. Although the telescope performed poorly in Halifax due to the sky conditions being so poor caused by all the factory pollution in the sky. Crossley gifted the telescope to the Lick observatory in the mid-1890s.  It performed brilliantly in the clear California weather

At least 8 comets and 3 moons of Jupiter plus numerous asteroids were discovered by astronomers at Lick using the 36-inch Crossley telescope.

The telescope was used for research work until around 2010 was always known as the Crossley telescope.  You could say that a little bit of Yorkshire astronomical history achieved fantastic discoveries in America.

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