It would appear that carpet sellers were also interested in astronomy. In 1865 Thomas Carter of Carter and Mercer, carpet dealers of Ripon in Yorkshire purchased a 2.5 inch telescope plus 3 astronomical eyepieces together with a pancratic terrestrial eye piece and a sun cap.
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In Liverpool between 1851 and 1890 the optical company of Abraham & Co traded on Lord Street, Liverpool. In 1864 they ordered from Thomas Cooke & Sons a plain equatorial mounting on a tripod stand. This was for a 4.5 inch telescope.
As an instrument maker I don’t know why they could not
provide a stand for this instrument, unless perhaps the buyer had asked for a
Cooke mount.
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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 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 1866 the optical instrument makers of Charles Baker 244 High Holburn, London ordered from Thomas Cooke & Sons a Barlow lens of power either 300 or 350. Also purchased was an astronomical eyepiece, unfortunately I do not know the power.
The firm of Charles Barker had been formed in 1765 at the
above address and they sold optical and surgical equipment. In the mid 1850s they were also selling not
only telescopes but also microscopes and
accessories.
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In 1865 George Mansfield Browne of Liverpool purchased a 3.25-inch equatorial for £125 that is just over £20,000 in today's prices from Thomas Cooke & Sons.
As you can see astronomy and buying telescopes were very
much aimed at people who were well off. He also purchased a Terrestrial
eyepiece for £1 15s 0d.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
The Full Moon in January which is on the 13th this year is known as the Wolf Moon, as in ancient times, hungry wolves were heard howling more often at this time of year.
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In South Yorkshire, Jonathan Booth of Moorgate, Rotherham purchased a 4 inch educational telescope on a mounting with latitude adjustment. This telescope was purchased from Thomas Cooke & Sons in 1865.
As is often the case I unfortunately have no other
information on Jonathan Booth.
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Another clergyman the Rev T Bland of Leeds purchased a Thomas Cooke & Sons 3.25 inch telescope in January 1867. Together with the telescope he also purchased an astronomical eyepiece of either 220 or 240 power.
To date I have not been able to discover any astronomical observations by the Rev Bland, it is possible he was a member of the Leeds Astronomical Society.
I don’t know what church the Rev T Bland was rector at.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
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 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.
Into thick freezing fog on January 5th, 1941, Amy Johnson takes off from Blackpool airport, never to be seen again. The mystery of what happened to Britain’s most famous woman flyer has never been properly explained.
The flight was a routine delivery of an Airspeed Oxford
aircraft to Kidlington airbase near Oxford. For someone who had flown solo to
Australia and Cape Town in South Africa a very routine flight.
Around 4 hours later the wreckage of her aircraft is found
in the River Thames about 100 miles off course. There are many conspiracy
theories regarding what happened to her.
Was she flying a spy out of the country? Was she accidently
shot down by British anti-aircraft guns? More probably without modern
navigation aids she simply lost her bearings in a thick fog bank and her
aircraft crashes. Her body is never found.
One report suggests that HMS Haslemere a mobile barrage
balloon vessel spotted a parachutist in the River Thames Estuary, they did not
know who the parachutist was, but despite rescue ropes being thrown out to the
person they were too cold to grasp the ropes and drown.
So, the mystery of what happened to Amy Johnson on that cold
foggy January 5th 1941 remains today.
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It is 320 years since Edmund Halley predicted the return of a comet to the night sky that would be named after him. It was in 1705,that he published A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets, in which he described the orbits of 24 comets that had been observed from 1337 to 1698. He showed that comets of 1531, 1607, had similar characteristics to the one he saw in 1682. He then reasoned that they must be the same one.
He predicted its return in 1758. It was observed bang on schedule on Christmas night December 25th, 1758. Today this comet is known as Halley’s Comet.
Henry John Tuberville who was formerly known as Henry John
Blackmore was something of an eccentric with a taste for science and in
particular astronomy. He was the elder brother of Richard Doddridge Blackmore
who wrote ‘Lorna Doone’
As Henry Blackmore in April 1865 he brought a 4.5 inch educational telescope from Thomas Cooke & Sons and in October 1866 as Henry Tuberville he brought a 5.5 inch telescope with a finder, 6 eyepieces, sun prism on an equatorial mounting, strong but as light as possible, on a stout polished mahogany stand. With both telescopes his address was the village of Pilton near Barnstable in Devon.
He changed his name in 1865 it appears due to some family issues, Tuberville was a Catholic family name and he appears to have changed his name with the aim of offending his Church of England relatives.
I cannot find as yet any evidence of any astronomical observations he made or whether he was a member of any astronomical societies in Devon. I also have no idea what happened to his two Cooke telescopes.
Henry Blackmore was born in Berkshire in 1824, his father
John Blackmore would become the vicar of Ashford near Barnstable in Devon. In
1857 he inherited some money after an uncle died, and by the time of his death
had amassed a fortune of £20,000 which today is worth £2.4 million.
In 1875 when he was 51 Henry Tuberville started to visit Yeovil in Somerset where he became engaged to Elizabeth Maggs who was 23 and the daughter of a chemist Thomas Maggs, he had made several wills the last in 1875 he left everything to Thomas Maggs and his family. There were not surprisingly many objections to the will.
He was taken poorly on August 16th 1875 and as he was a chemist Thomas Maggs was called in to see him, he apparently had a great pain in his leg, the following day he died. The physician Dr. Allridge stated that Tuberville had taken potassium cyanide, although it was never decided how he hot this poison. In the end a jury decided that in a state of unsound mind Tuberville had taken the potassium cyanide.
His brother Richard, believed that Henry had been murdered
and tried to get the inquest re opened in this he failed. The mystery is still
there today did he commit suicide or was he murdered?
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Thomas Cooke & Sons of York had a very interesting number of celebrated and famous customers.
In 1859 John Couch Adams of the discovery of Neptune fame ordered a universal portable equatorial stand of best construction to carry a telescope of 3.5 inch aperture.
As far as I know the telescope was not made by Thomas Cooke,
but I do not have any further information regarding this telescope. Maybe if he
had it in 1846 he could have looked for the planet we now call Neptune!!
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It’s January, the beginning of another year, and although we are in winter, the Earth will be closest to the Sun. The closest point, or ‘Perihelion’, occurs on January 4 when Earth will be just 91,405,993 miles (147,103,686 km) away from its star. That’s in contrast to six months from now when, on July 3, Earth reaches ‘Aphelion’, its most distant point from the Sun, when we will be 94,502,939 miles (152,087,737 km) away.
In the northern hemisphere, we experience winter in January,
so it can seem counter-intuitive to learn that the Earth is now at its closest
to the Sun. However, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun in
January, while the southern hemisphere, which is tilted towards the Sun, has
summer. In six months’ time of course the positions will be reversed.
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On the night of January 3rd, we have the Quadrantid meteor shower when around 40 to 70 meteors per hour can be seen. The Quadrantids do have one very important claim to fame in that theirs is the only meteor shower named after a constellation that no longer exists. A meteor shower is named after the constellation the meteors appear to come from, in this case the Mural Quadrant. In 1930 when the modern constellation boundaries were defined, the Mural Quadrant was discarded, as were many other old constellations. As this meteor shower was known during the nineteenth century, we still recognise the defunct constellation in its name.
It is believed that the Quadrantids, unlike most meteor
showers, are associated not with a comet but with an asteroid, which is also
the case for the Geminid meteor shower we see in December. In the case of the
Quadrantids, it is believed to be asteroid 2003 EH1.
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