Many thanks to all the people who look at my blogs.
Just to let everyone know that I am back off on another rambling astronomer mission to the gamma quadrant, this means that there will be no blogs until Friday November 14th 2025
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Nature July 3rd 1873
We learn that there has been erected a small observatory on
the Columbia (U.S.) College campus for educational and we hope, also for
scientific purposes. The observatory is furnished with an equatorial, accompanied
by a seven prism spectroscope by Clark, and a position micrometer, besides an
altazimuth and a zenith telescope.
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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.
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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!
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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Astronomical Register February 1865
Sir,- Some of your correspondents have asked for a diagram for the stars near the planet Uranus is at presented situated, I herewith send you one, which I trust will meet the requirements of amateurs.
To find Uranus.- With the naked eye direct your attention to
the constellations Taurus and Gemini. Having noted the stars beta and zeta at
the tips of the bull’s horns, and mu, nu and gamma at the feet of the twins,
proceed (see diagram) along an imaginary line for my Gemini toward beta Taurus,
passing by eta Gemini 4th mag. To No.1 Gemini full 5th
mag. Between this latter star and beta Taurus will be perceived a triangle of 5th
mag stars, viz: 132, 136 and 139 Taurus. Now the planet Uranus will be found situated
a little below a line drawn from 1 Gemini to 132 Taurus, the lowest of the
triangle.
Uranus being generally invisible to the naked eye, the telescope must be pointed towards the place indicated in order to see it. Perhaps on first trial it will not be easily found and the star 132 will be in the field; if so this will be readily known by its having a small 7th mag star near to it. Before leaving this star note well its apparent brightness, for Uranus is not quite so bright, and can easily be found by pointing the telescope a little s.f.
Having got Uranus in the field, unless you have a large and good telescope, you will only see a dull looking object, and will not be able satisfactory to make out its disc. If now you show it to some of your friends not versed in planetary lore, you will most likely be greeted with “Oh! Is that all?” and excite feelings, if not expressions of scepticism as to its being a planet.
Unless possessed of a large telescope, the best way of
observing Uranus is to use, not a telescope, but far better, a binocular opera
or field glass. With such an instrument, Uranus can be found and shown almost
instantly. Having other stars in the field at the same time with it, its planetary nature is made palpable in a week, by its varied its position with
regard to its neighbours.
I am, Sir your obedient servant, T M Simkiss
Waterloo Road Wolverhampton
January 16th 1865
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Nature, June 19th 1873
M Leverrier has entered on his new office of Director of the
French National Observatory. The Observatory Board has decided on his formal
proposition that they shall co-operate with the Bureau des Longitudes for
taking a new measure of the French arc from Dunkerque to Oran via Spain.
Commander Perrier will be the chief geodesist for that most important survey.
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Join me, Martin Lunn MBE every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the award-winning 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 latest news from the astronomical societies in the north of
England.
The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone
Radio live online 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.
On November 5th 1867 the 25 inch object glass 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.
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On Saturday afternoon October 9th 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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Academy Newspaper Saturday 6th March 1880
Observations of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars made with the
Six-foot and Three-foot Reflectors at Birr Castle from the Year 1848 to about
the Year 1878. By the Earl of Rosse.
Parts I. and II. in vol. ii. of the Scientific Transactions
of the Royal Dublin Society, Lord Rosse has published the observations of
nebulae procured by means of the great telescopes of his observatory in the
course of thirty years.
The late Earl, the
constructor of these great instruments, had brought out several papers on a
selection of the nebulae and clusters observed, the last one having appeared in
the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for 1861; but, with the
exception of a monograph on the great nebula in Orion, published in the
Philosophical Transactions for 1868, no further account of the observations had
been given, and it was time that astronomers should be put in possession of
whatever observations had been procured. It was obviously desirable that the
original notes of the observers should be pretty fully transcribed in order to
give due weight to their evidence. The brighter and more striking objects of
Sir John Herschel’s Catalogue of 1833 having been first examined, and the more
interesting ones having been ‘delineated in drawings published in the former
papers, there remained less scope for the pencil, and the micrometer has been
more frequently used instead. However, twenty-five nebulae or groups of nebulae
have been figured on four plates, and the new drawings of the crab-nebula
Messier 1, of G. C. 1,227 = H. V. 28, and of the spiral nebula Mess. 51, will
be considered especially interesting.
The absence of any indication of the places of the nebulae,
except in a limited number of cases, is a serious drawback, since it renders
constant reference to other publications necessary, and, indeed, gives to the
observations a merely supplementary character. It is acknowledged that some
difficulty has arisen now and then in regions rich in nebulae in identifying
the object observed with a catalogued nebula; but it is believed that very few
cases of uncertain identity remain. Into the text have been introduced
diagrams, which are rough copies of those drawn at the telescope, and which
will be useful in any re-examination, when they can be compared directly with
the heavens. In an Appendix some letters are printed in vindication of the
performance of the six-foot reflector, against some disparaging remarks which
have appeared in a magazine article. Astronomers, however, will probably be
guided in their judgment chiefly by the work which has actually been
accomplished. The present publication comprises the nebulae between Oh. and
14h. of right ascension; part iii. is intended to contain those within the last
ten hours.
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Nature, May 15th 1873
The Cincinnati Observatory founded by Prof. Mitchell, is we
learn, to be removed, and established in a manner worthy of the wealth of
Cincinnati. From the drawings it may be judged that the dome of the new building
will be thirty-five feet in diameter in the inside.
The new site was highly approved of by Prof Abbe, who
continued until lately to be the director of the observatory at Cincinnati, and
was presented by John Kilgour, Esq, who also added thereto the sum of ten
thousand dollars to provide for the new building.
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Nature, March 27th 1873
The largest catalogue of stars that has ever been published
in America is now about to appear from the United States Naval Observatory at
Washington.
This work, as far as we can learn from a recent communication
of Prof. Yarnall, will embody all the valuable observations made since the
foundation of the observatory in 1842, with the meridian instruments,
consisting of the work of the well-known astronomers Coffin, Hubbard, Ferguson,
Newcomb, Hall, Harkness and Yarnall.
Over fifteen years of labour have been devoted to it by Prof
Yarnall and his assistants, and he himself has made nearly one half of the
observations. The catalogue will be based on over eighty thousand observations
of more than ten thousand stars, many of them being quite faint, and in extreme
southern latitudes, such as have never or rarely hitherto been observed.
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On October 17th 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
Join me, Martin Lunn MBE every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the award-winning 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 latest news from the astronomical societies in the north of
England.
The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone
Radio live online 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.
In the classic handbook of Descriptive Astronomy by G F Chanbers there are drawings from October 1865 showing a Great Sun Spot. The drawings were made by Frederick Brodie from his observatory at Uckfield in Sussex using an 8.5 inch Cooke
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Academy Newspaper Saturday August 17th 1878
The observers of the total eclipse of the sun on July 29, in
America, have been very much favoured by the weather, and the observations,
telescopic, spectroscopic, polariscopic, and photographic, seem to have highly
successful. The corona appeared small, but of great brightness, and photographs
of it and of its spectrum were obtained. Several long rays were seen, perhaps
even the zodiacal light, at a distance of six degrees from the sun. The few
prominences visible appeared insignificant and dim; the chromosphere rather
low. It is sufficient at present to know of the observers’ good fortune and to
await their full reports.
In the instructions
issued by the Washington Observatory for observing the eclipse, the importance
is pointed out of renewing during the totality the search for an
intra-Mercurial planet or planets, and a map is given showing all the stars to
the seventh magnitude in a space extending over 32° in right ascension, and 15°
in declination, with the sun in or near the centre. Of the observers on the
look-out only one, Prof. Watson, the experienced discoverer of so many small
planets, is reported to have succeeded in seeing a hitherto unknown star in
right ascension 8" 26™ and declination 18° 0’ or a little over two degrees
distant from the sun, and less than a degree from the place of the star
theta Cancri given in the map.
The news has been telegraphed to London, Paris, and Berlin;
but, oddly enough, the telegram in one, or more than one, instance, purports to
have been sent by the late secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Joseph
Henry, who died in May last.
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October 22nd 1863
Turning my 6 inch Cooke telescope upon Venus I was much surprised to see almost the whole of the unilluminated disc of 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
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Dorado is a modern constellation in the southern hemisphere
it cannot be seen from Britain. Dorado
was one of twelve constellations named by Petrus Plancius on his star globe of
1597 and was based on information sent back by the Dutch navigators Pieter
Keyser and Frederick Houtman, when they voyaged to the southern hemisphere. The
constellation then appeared on a star map produced by Johan Bayer in 1603.
The term Dorado today is usually translated as the goldfish
which is how it appears on modern star maps. However, the name Dorado is
Spanish for mahi-mahi, or the dolphinfish. The mahi-mahi has an opalescent skin
that turns blue and gold as the fish dies. This may very well be the reason
Dorado is sometimes called the goldfish.
There are very few bright stars in Dorado, alpha which has no name is a magnitude 3.3 star and lies at a distance of 169 light years, and is an A class star hotter than the Sun.
Beta which again has no name but is s member of the
important Cepheid class of stars that astronomers use to determine how far away
the stars are. Beta varies between magnitude 3.5 and 4.1 and is 1,040 light
years away. The first of the cepheid variable stars was discovered by John
Goodricke the deaf astronomer in York in 1784.
By far the most interesting object in Dorado is the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC) a dwarf galaxy around 170,000 light years away. The
first recorded mention of the LMC was by the Persian astronomer `Abd al-Rahman
al-Sufi Shirazi, (later known in Europe as "Al Sufi"), in his Book of
Fixed Stars published around 964 CE. The next recorded observation was in
1503–4 by Amerigo Vespucci, Ferdinand Magellan sighted the LMC on his voyage in
1519, and his writings brought the LMC into common Western knowledge. The
galaxy now bears his name.
The LMC is the fourth-largest galaxy in the Local Group,
after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Milky Way, and the Triangulum Galaxy
(M33). There is a Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation of Tucana the
Toucan.
The LMC contains around 10 million stars. It can easily be
seen with the naked eye. There are lots of important star clusters and nebula
in the LMC including the Tarantula Nebula. This was first observed by Nicolas
Louis de Lacaille when he was observing at the Cape of Good Hope between 1751
and 1752.
The Tarantula Nebula is a massive star forming area within
the LMC if it was as close as the Orion Nebula another star forming area and
only 1,500 light years away it would be so bright that it would cast shadows.
One of thing to mention about the LMC was that in 1987 a
bright supernova appeared. The supernova was discovered by Ian Shelton and
Oscar Duhalde at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile on February 24, 1987,
and within the same 24 hours independently by the amateur astronomer Albert
Jones in New Zealand. The supernova
reached a peak magnitude of about 3.0 in May before its brightness declined in
the following months.
Four days after the event was recorded, the progenitor star
was identified as Sanduleak −69° 202, a blue supergiant
It was only in 2019 over 30 years after the explosion that
astronomers found the central neutron star.
This star is known as SN1987A and as it is the closest
supernova to us since the invention of the telescopes it has been studied
extensively by astronomers and has allowed them to learn a great deal about how
a supernova works.
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Nature, March 6th 1873
The shower of meteors on the night of November 27rh 1872 was
evidently well seen from Europe, as I had anticipated, but no such notice seems
to have been taken of the shower on the night of the 24th.
On that night there was an equally fine display in Jamaica,
from about the same radiant point; the night of the 25th was cloudy,
and only a few meteors were seen on the night of the 26th, which was
clear; and the shower on the 27th was simply a repetition of the
shower on the 24th; but on both occasions the numbers seen here were
somewhat less than in Europe.
These meteors must therefore form two almost distinct bands passing round the Sun, which their association with the comet of Biela renders particularly interesting; it is just possible that these two bands intersect, and that one part of the comet belongs to ne band and the other part to the other, and that they came into notice and actual contact about the same time in the year 1846, and of course afterwards separated .
Maxwell Hall
Jamaica, January 5th 1873
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The variations in the appearance of a nebula to different eyes and with different telescopes make it very difficult to establish a physical change, though observers in the southern hemisphere hold that such has certainly taken place in the case of the nebula in which the remarkable variable star eta Argus is involved. Prof. Holden has lately collected the evidence bearing on the question of change in another remarkable nebula—that known, from its peculiar form, as the Greek omega—and from a careful comparison of the relative positions of the nebula and accompanying stars, in drawings made at different times, he infers that, while the stars and one portion of the nebula show no change, another portion appears to have moved considerably.
This may be a veritable change in the structure of the
nebula, or it may be a case of proper motion; in either case the fact, if well
established, would be of great interest. The drawings examined were:
—Herschel’s in 1837, Lamont's in 1837, Mason's in 1839, Lassell’s in 1862, and
finally two by Trouvelot in 1875, with different telescopes, one of 6 inches
aperture, and the other the Washington refractor of 26 inches.
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.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
Join me, Martin Lunn MBE every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the award-winning 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 latest news from the astronomical societies in the north of
England.
The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio live online 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.
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 19th century.
Some of Mr Taylor’s anecdotes were enlightening to a younger
generation, whilst others created amusement which continued with responses from the honoured guests.
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I will be taking a break from Saturday 20th September until Saturday 4th October. I will be visiting the gamma quadrant, I will however be back in the alpha quadrant for my next blog on Monday 6th October.
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Nature January 23rd 1873
The Moon’s Surface
May not the white, telescopic appearance of the moon’s
surface, resembling snow in many parts, be explained by the fact that the
extinct volcanoes of our satellite are covered with crystals of salt?
Any person who is accustomed to view the moon through a
telescope must, I think, have been struck by the dazzling snow white appearance
of the mountains. May not an explanation of this be deduced from the experience
gained by the last eruption of Vesuvius?
One of the most curious phenomena observed is the power of
burning lava to retain an enormous quantity of water, and salt, which it does
not allow to escape till it begins to cool.
The formation of salt is shown generally over the whole
stretch of lava emitted in 1872. Soon after the surface cools it is covered
with a light crust of salt.
Is it not, therefore, probable that the numerous lava beds
of the extinct volcanoes in our satellite may be coated with salt, bleached to
the whiteness of snow?
C H W Merlin
British Consulate, Athens, November 23rd 1872
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Delphinus the Dolphin is a small constellation that can be seen in the summer months close to the star Altair one of the summer triangle stars.
There are many stories attached to the constellation, one of the most popular is from Greece where
it is said that a dolphin rescued the musician Arion who was travelling from
Tarentum to Corinth and while playing music charmed some dolphins. When the
crew of the ship he was travelling on robbed him and threw him overboard the
dolphins rescued him and carried Arion on their backs the shore and safety. And
for that good deed a dolphin was placed in the sky forever.
It is one of the smaller of the classical constellations and
as always there are lots of stories concerning it. There is some suggestion
that Hipparchus wanted to place the stars in the constellation Delphinus into
the constellation of Equuleus or Foal. However, this dd not happen and it
stayed as a separate star group, it was always regarded as the most remarkable
of the marine creatures.
The stars alpha, beta, gamma and zeta Delphinus are often
described as representing Job’s Coffin. No one seem to know why or when this
term was first used.
The Roman poet Ovid said it was clarum sidus or the famous
star of the girls and it was personified as Amphitrite the goddess of the sea, because
the dolphin induced Amphitrite to become the wife of Neptune.
The Hindu astronomers knew it as shi-shu-mara or a porpoise
which was also ascribed to Draco.
The Arab astronomer Al Biruni gave it the title Al Ka fidor
the Riding Camel, while other Arabian astronomers referred to it as Dulfirm a
marine animal friendly to man.
Delphinus forms a shape like a small version of the Plough. The two brightest stars are beta and alpha in that order; beta is an F class star and has a magnitude of 3.6 its 97 light years away and has a surface temperature of about 6,500 degrees making it warmer than our Sun. Alpha on the other hand is a B class star with a magnitude of 3.8 and with a surface temperature of around 11,500 degrees and is 241 light years away.
Neither star appears to have a classical name but in 1814 in
the Palermo star catalogue the names
Sualocin were given to alpha while beta became Rotanev. It caused a real
mystery it was a puzzle that Admiral Smythe was unable to solve. This is
strange because he knew the staff at the Palermo Observatory very well. It
would be TW Webb who solved the puzzle, he realised that be reversing the letters and reading Nicolaus Venator, the
Latinised form of Niccolo Cacciatore, this was the name of the assistant and
successor of Piazzi at Palermo.
Epsilon which at magnitude 4.0 has surprisingly got an
Arabic name, it was known as Al Dhanab al Dulfim or the Dolphin’s Tail. Its 330
light years away and is a B class giant star with a very hot temperature of
13,000 degree. While in China the star was known as Pae Chaou or the Rotten
Melon.
Gamma which has no name is a F class star 115 light years
away, with a magnitude of 4.3 and a temperature of around 6,000 degrees similar
to the Sun which has a surface temperature of 5,800 degrees
Delta also has no name is a magnitude 4.3 star an A class
star hotter than the Sun and is 223 light yeas distant.
Derby Daily Telegraph Tuesday 15th October 1912
Gale’s Comet has been well seen with the 6in. equatorial at Mr. F. J. Hanbury's Observatory, Brockhurst, East Grinstead, during the past week. The Superintendent, however, says in a letter to the Times that it is somewhat north of its predicted place in the ephemeris and the difference is on the increase amounting to nearly one degree last night. It is rising rapidly in declination and appears be brightening, also; when first seen it was estimated about fifth magnitude but now nearer the fourth. It, was really a fine object last night, being found in twilight. On a dark sky it had an extensive coma, with a large bright nucleus and a tail at least half degree length. It was very plain in the finder, and was about south of Alpha Serpentis. sighting along the telescope it was seen with the naked eye, as a little misty spot just below the bright star. It is evidently proving to be a more interesting object than was at first anticipated, and seems likely to remain in view for some little time.
My note
The comet was discovered by Walter Gale at Sydney NSW on
September 8th 1912. He may have made the discovery with his 6.5 inch
Thomas Cooke telescope
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On the night of July 7th/8th 1872, the object glass of the Alleghany Observatory was stolen, as also a few eyepieces belong to the Transit Instrument.
It is thought that the object of the thief is to try to extort
a large reward for its return, but Mr Langley, the director of the Observatory,
has resolved not to offer a reward, nor guarantee immunity from punishment to
the culprit. This he deems a duty to others who may have the charge of similar
instruments.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
Join me, Martin Lunn MBE every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the award-winning 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 latest news from the astronomical societies in the north of
England.
The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio live online 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.
Maurice Farman and the Chevreuse Observatory
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.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
Academy Newspaper Saturday 20th May 1876
Observations at
Toulouse
This observatory, which was placed under the direction of M.
Tisserand in 1874, has recently been supplied with a large reflector of thirty-two
inches aperture, which has been at once devoted to an examination of the great
nebula in Orion and of the 155 stars which Otto Sttuve has observed in it.
Among these stars are many which are supposed by M. Struve to be variable, and
M. Tisserand has found that several of these are now invisible, while he has
observed thirty-two new stars which M. Struve had not recorded, though fifteen
of them appear in Bond’s catalogue.
Of the remaining
seventeen the majority are extremely faint, but there are two of the thirteenth
magnitude which Struve could hardly have overlooked if they had then been as
bright as they are now. On the whole, M. Tisserand’s observations strongly
support the view that many of the stars in this nebula, and most probably
physically connected with it, are
undergoing change, an import an important
point in its bearing on the nebular theory and the evolution of
planetary systems.
M. Tisserand has also
observed the satellites of Uranus and some phenomena of Jupiter’s satellites.
Since, for the eclipses of the latter, the
observation consists in noting the disappearance of the last minute portion of the satellite
or of the reappearance of the first faint trace, much will depend on the size
of the telescope, and therefore observations
with such a large instrument as the Toulouse reflector will possess a
peculiar value, as giving a much closer
approximation to the true time of the phenomenon than could be possible with
small telescopes. M. Tisserand's observations are given in recent numbers of
the Comptes Rendus.
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Total Solar Eclipse, January 22nd 1898 English Preparations by Edward Maunder FRAS
The English astronomers observed the January 22nd 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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Cygnus the Swan sometimes known as the northern cross is a majestic constellation in the summer skies, its brightest star Deneb is one of the three stars that form the summer triangle. The other two are Altair in the constellation of Aquila the Eagle and Vega in Lyra the Lyre.
In ancient Greece the constellation was sometimes referred to
as a bird or on some occasions a hen. Today we call the constellation a swan
and this probably due to Aratos the Greek poet and philosopher who saw the
group as a ‘quickly flying swan’.
When the Romans adopted the title we have now, our
constellation became the mythical swan identified with Cycnus, the son of Mars,
or the brother of Phaethon, transformed at the river Padus and transported to
the sky. The constellation was also identified with Leda, the friend of Jupiter
and mother of Castor, Pollux and Helena.
The modern-day Cygnus may have originated on the Euphrates,
for the tablets show a stellar bird of some kind, perhaps Urakhga, the original
of the Arabs’ Rukh, the Roc, that Sinbad knew well.
At all events its present figuring did not originate with
the Greeks, for the history of the constellation had been entirely lost to
them, suggesting that they were not the inventors of at least some of the star
groups attributed to them.
In Arabia although occasionally known as Al Ta’ir al Arduf
the Flying Eagle it is usually known as Al Dajajah, the Hen.
Cygnus is usually shown in full flight down the Milky Way,
‘The Steam of Heaven’, but old drawings show it apparently just springing from
the ground.
Christian astronomers of the Middle Ages see the Cross of
Calvary, or Christi Crux in the sky these descend today when we see the
Northern Cross in Cygnus.
The brightest star in Cygnus is alpha or Deneb, which comes from the Arabic Al Dhanab or Hen’s Tail. The star has also been called by other Arabic names such as Arided or the Follower and Aridif the Hindmost. Deneb is part of the summer triangle it does appear the faintest of the stars compared to Altair and Vega. However, appearance can be deceptive because although Deneb appears the faintest it is in fact the brightest. This is because it is much further away than the other two stars.
Deneb is an A class supergiant star around 2,600 light years
away with a surface temperature of about 8,700 degrees much hotter than our Sun
which has a surface temperature of around 5,800 degrees.
Albireo of beta this name is used universally today is in no
way associated with the Arab astronomers.
Apparently, the name was first applied due to a misunderstanding as to
the word’s ab ireo in the description of the constellation in the 1515 version
of the Almagest. The Arabs referred to the star as Al Minnar al Dajajah or the
Hen’s Beak.
Albireo to the naked eye appears as one star, it is however
a fantastic double star when viewed through a small telescope. Surprisingly
although labelled as beta, Albireo is fainter than gamma, delta and epsilon
Cygnus.
The star appears as a magnitude 3.2 object and is a K class
giant star making it cooler than the Sun, it lies at around at a distance 395
light years.
Gamma Cygnus or Sadr which is Arabic for the Hen’s Breast
the star has a magnitude of 2.2 and is an F class giant star with a surface
temperature of about 5,800 degrees and is about 1,800 light years away.
Epsilon Cygnus or Gienah to the Arab astronomers which means
the Wing has a magnitude of 2.5 is a K class giant star with a temperature of about
4,500 degrees and is 73 light years away.
The star called P Cygnus was discovered in August 1600
either by either the Dutch map maker Willem Blaeu or the Dutch optician Janson.
It was classified as a nova, the term which was used then to signify any star
which appeared in the sky where previously there had been none. The term nova
is Latin for New; we still use the term today. It was labelled “P” in the star
catalogue Uranometria which was produced by Johannes Bayer in 1603.
It was numbered 27 in Tycho’s catalogue for Cygnus with the
designation ‘nova anni 1600 in pectore Cygni’ Kepler through it worthy of a
monograph in 1606 while Christiaan Huygens in the 17th century called it the
‘Revenante of the Swan’ due to its light changes.
Six years after its discovery it started to fade in
brightness until in 1626 it was below naked eye visibility. It then brightened
again in 1655 but faded somewhat by 1662. There was another outburst in 1665
following this there were numerous fluctuations in brightness. Since 1715 it
has remained fairly constat as 5th magnitude star.
Today the star is classed as a Luminous Blue Variable star
it is a B class giant star around 5,300 light years away and has a surface
temperature of a whooping 18,500 making it much hotter than the Sun.
Between the stars gamma and beta is the variable star chi
which can vary in brightness from magnitude 3.3 when it is easy to see down to
magnitude 14.2 when a large telescope will be needed to see it. Chi is a Mira
type variable star named after omicron ceti or Mira known as the Wonderful the
prototype star of this class of variable stars. It is a M giant class star,
much cooler than the Sun.
61 Cygni has the distinction of being the first star apart
from the Sun to have its distance worked out. In 1838 Frederick Bessel said the
star is 11.4 light years away. It was worked out by using the parallax method.
61 is a K class dwarf star with a magnitude of 5.2.
Sir John Flamsteed 1646 -1719 the first astronomer royal
produced a star atlas, it was published posthumously in 1725. He noted bright
stars tin the various constellations he could see from Britain. The star 61
Cygnus was the 61st star he catalogued in this constellation.
The last bright nova seen in our galaxy was Nova Cygni 1975,
no known as V 1500 Cygnus when at its
brightest it rose to magnitude 1.8. It was discovered by Kentaro Osada in
Japan. We are certainly due for another bright one, so it is always worth while
watching the skies.
There are two Messier objects in Cygnus
Messier 29
An open cluster discovered by Messier in 1764, a young
cluster around 13 million years old lying at a distance of 7,000 light years.
It shines at a magnitude of 7.0 meaning binoculars to find it.
Messier or M39 is another open cluster that can be seen as a
fuzzy light patch of light north of Deneb shining at a magnitude or 4.6. It was
first recorded by Aristotle in 325 BCE as a cometary looking object. M39 lies
about 950 light years away and only contains about 30 stars. It was discovered
by Messier in 1764.
NGC 7000 or the North American Nebula was discovered by
William Herschel in 1786. This nebula is lying close to Deneb. Some people
claim it may be visible to the naked eye under good, dark conditions, and a
preferred object for amateur astrophotographers. Its mag is 4.4 but spread over
a wide area.
It is called the North American nebula because it has the
same shape as North America and is a great favourite with astronomers to
photograph. It was first photographed by
Max Wolf on December 12, 1890.
The distance to the North America Nebula is estimated at
1,600 light years.
Next door to the North American Nebula is the Pelican Nebula
IC 5070 with a magnitude of 8.0 and this cannot be seen with the naked eye.
Both the North American and Pelican are favourite for astrophotographers.
NGC 6992
The Veil nebula a supernova remnant from an explosion
between 10,000 to 20,000 years ago .it lies next to the 4th magnitude star 52
Cygnus. First seen by William Herschel in 1784 with a magnitude of 7.0, a
telescope is needed to see it. Again, it’s a favourite of astrophotographers
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Nature July 18th 1872
The Melbourne Argus states that valuable work is being
performed with the great telescope at the Melbourne Observatory.
At a recent meeting of the Royal society, Mr Ellery, the
Government Astronomer, stated that some photographs of the Moon had been
obtained better than any he had any knowledge of.
The picture of the Moon taken in the telescope was about three inches in diameter, while the primary pictures of the photographs of the Moon hitherto made public by Mr De La Rue were only three quarters or even seven eighths of an inch in diameter, though subsequently enlarged to something like two feet.
Nature July 25th 1872
The Melbourne Telescope
Mr Ellery has been so good as to send me an enlargement of
the lunar photograph taken with the great Melbourne telescope. This picture, Mr
Ellery tells me was taken on the second evening trial; it is very beautiful,
although not so critically sharp as I have obtained with my Newtonian
equatorial of 13 inches aperture, and a little more than 10 feet focal length.
This sharpness, however, is a mere question of the shadiness
of the atmosphere; and I feel persuaded that pictures will be taken with the
Melbourne telescope far surpassing any hitherto procured.
In my telescope the focal length varies from 1 inch to 1 and
two eights inch in diameter, according to the distance of the Moon from the
earth.
The primary picture of the Melbourne telescope (an
enlargement has been sent to me) is 3 and 3 sixteenths in diameter; hence the
structure of the collodion and minute defects in it are of much less importance
then when smaller instruments are used.
The employment of the great Melbourne telescope for astronomical photography cannot fail to be of great advantage to astronomy, and I should be very glad to see a similar instrument t work in England, notwithstanding its much-abused climate.
Warren De La Rue
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St James’s Budget Newspaper Saturday October 27th 1883
One of the finest observatories in Europe is now almost
completed at Nice, and the work of observation has already commenced, under the
direction of M. Perrotin, the French astronomer who conducted the expedition to
Patagonia for the observation of the transit of Venus.
The importance of this new undertaking may be judged of from
the fact that more than £80,000 has already been spent upon it, and the total
cost, when all is complete, will not fall far short of £120,000. This
enterprise is due entirely to the munificence of M. Bischoffsheim, of Paris,
and is consequently considered a patriotic work which will help to redeem the
reputation of France in the world of science.
The smaller of the
two largest telescopes in the observatory is now in working order. It measures
seven metres in length, and the objective 18.38 centimetres in diameter. The
larger equatorial telescope will cost for the instrument alone £14.000. This
telescope is 18 metres in length, and the diameter of the object lass is 76
centimetres; yet it can be moved with the slightest touch of the hand and
follows with ease every movement of the planets.
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The transit of Mercury was observed on November 14th 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.
Join me, Martin Lunn MBE every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the award-winning 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 latest news from the astronomical societies in the north of
England.
The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio live online 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 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.
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| Paris Exposition 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 8th 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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