A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - spectra of comets

 

Nature January 8^th 1874

On the spectra of Comets

Here is a summary of comet spectra by H Vogel published in Poggendorffs Annalen

I will now give a summary of all the observations known to me of cometary spectra. 

1.      The first comet examined by spectrum analysis is the Comet I. 1864. Donati found its spectrum to consist of three bright bands, which (if one may judge from the figure in Astr Nachr No. 1488) do not  coincide with those of the hydrocarbon spectrum.

2.      Huggins and Secchi observed Temple’s Comet I. 1866, and got from it a weak continuous spectrum, in which Secchi saw three bright lines, Huggins only one. The line seen by both was the brightest, and situated in the middle between b and F of the solar spectrum; accordingly no coincidence with the hydrocarbon spectrum.

3.      In the spectrum of Comet II. 867, the continuous spectrum was relatively so strong that Huggins found it difficult to detect bright lines. “Once of twice”, he says “I suspected the presence of two or three bright lines, but of this observation I was not certain. The prismatic observation of this faint object, though imperfect, appears to show that this small comet is probably similar in physical structure to comet I.1866” In this case again probably no hydrocarbon.

4.      Brorsen’s Comet I. 1868 was observed by Huggins and Secchi. Both observed three zones of light; The middle one being the brightest, and lying in the green; while its brightest part was somewhat less refrangible than the brightest line of the air spectrum. From this observation, and the determination of the position of the other two faint bands, it appears that the comet spectrum was neither similar to that of nitrogen, nor to the hydrocarbon spectrum.

5.      Winnecke’s Comet II.1868, was also observed by Huggins and Secchi. The measurements and direct comparisons of Huggins gave an agreement of the cometary spectrum with that of carbon in olefiant gas. From Secchi’s measurements it appears that the sharply defined side of the middle band (towards the red end), nearly coincided with the line group b of the solar spectrum; at which part also the beginning of the middle band of the spectrum of hydrocarbon id situated.

6.      Comet I. 1870 was observed by Wolf and Rayet; the spectrum consisted of three bright bands, whose position, however, was not accurately determined.

7.      Comet I. 1870 was observed by Huggins and myself. Huggins found three bands, I only two. The measurements of the bands observed in common agree well; the spectrum appears to be identical with that of Brosen’s Comet.

8.      Comet III. 1871 (Encke) was observed by Huggins three days, by Young four and by myself six; it showed, as usual a spectrum of three bands. Huggins thought this agreed with the hydrocarbon spectrum ; while young and I observed no such coincidence.

9.      Comet IV. 1871 (Tuttle), examined only by me, gave a spectrum of three bands. Accurate measurements of their positions showed no coincidence with the hydrocarbon spectrum.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

w

 

A little ramble through Equuleus the Little Horse

A small constellation situated between the head of Pegasus the Flying Horse and Delphinus the Dolphin. Equuleus is one of the original 48 constellations listed by the astronomer Ptolemy, it’s the second smallest constellation, only Crux the Southern Cross is smaller.

In Greek mythology it is sometimes associated with Celeris which means swiftness or speed and is the smaller brother to Pegasus.

The Arab astronomers called the constellational Kitah al Faras which means part of a horse. Another Arab name is Al Faras al Thani which means the second horse alluding either to its small size, or to the time when it was adopted as a constellation.

The Hindu astronomers referred to it as Acvini which means the horseman.

There is only one star bright enough to be easily seen with the naked eye and that is alpha or Kitalpha which comes from the Arab name for the whole constellation. Kitalpha has a magnitude of 3.9 and is 186 light years away, it’s a G class giant star and is cooler than the Sun with a temperature of around 5,000 degrees. The Sun has a temperature of 5,800 degrees.

There are no bright galaxies or nebula in Equuleus.

                                                       www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

Cooke Telescope Tales - New Cooke telescope for Tyemouth in 1858

On the 20th December 1858 Dr Matthews from Tynemouth ordered a telescope of 4 inch aperture, plus a polished brass tube, a finder, four eyepieces, sun prism and dark glasses, two brass clamps for fixing to stand.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

 

 

A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - Leyton Observatory records 1862-1864

 Astronomical Register January 1866

 

Leyton Astronomical Observations

  A quarto volume of about 120 pages has been published by the firm of Williams and Norgate, containing the observations made at Mr Joseph Gurney Barclay’s private observatory at Leyton in Essex. During the years 1862, 1863 and 1864. 

The introduction gives a description of the telescope in use by Mr Barclay and his assistant, and the remainder of the book is occupied with tables of observations on certain double stars in Struve’s Catalogue, and on 30 minor planets, as well as the right ascension and declinations of stars used in the latter case and a list of the comparison stars. 

The comet observations during the three years are not the least valuable part of the volume, which has been brought out in a spirited way, and which will be welcomed by Mr Barclay’s brother Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society.

www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - Andromedid meteors seen from the Caribbean Sea in 1891

 Mr Boraston on the steamer Don on the night of November 23/24 1891 made observations of Andromedid meteors while crossing the Caribbean Sea from location Long 72’ West Lat 17’ North, the sky was very clear with no Moon 

Mr Boraston states that the heavens were alive with meteors. Several were seen as faint, swift and long tracked and for 6 hours the average number of meteors was estimated at 108 per minute or 6,480 per hour.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

The Astronomy Show on Drystone Radio

 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.

 

Cooke Telescope Tales - drawings on Venus in 1901

 A drawing of Venus was made at the observatory of Mr Chatwood at Worsley, Manchester in 1901 using his 9.75 inch Thomas Cooke & Sons telescope. This had originally been owned by Isaac Fletcher of Cumberland.

 The telescope would in 1902 be purchased by J T Ward for the newly formed Wanganui  Astronomical Society in New Zealand.

 The telescope is sometimes referred to as a 9.5 or 9.75 inch telescope and just to add extra  confusion when ordered it was supposed to be a 9 inch telescope.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - French Astronomical Literature

 Astronomical Register January 1866 

We observe and announce Le journal de ciel: Astronomie pour tous .- This is a quarterly periodical, published at Paris, at a cost of one franc per number. It appears to be a magazine something of the character of our own. The editor is Professor J Vinot, and the office 26 rue Servandoni, Paris. We mention these particulars as possibly some of our readers may like to make its acquaintance.

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

 

Cooke Telescope Tales - Will Hay observes nova Puppis in 1942

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 telescope. 

Observing from London early in the morning of November 24^th 1942 and using his 3.5 inch Cooke he saw the nova. He had seen it a few days earlier on November 14^th as a naked eye object of around magnitude 3.5. By November 24^th 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 8^th 1942. It reached a maximum magnitude of 0.3 on November 10^th 1942.

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

 

A little ramble through Draco the Dragon

 Draco was known as a dragon and features in many ancient legends, to some ancient Greek astronomers, for example Eratosthenes and Hipparchus, in the ancient Greek poem The Shield Of Hercules with the two dogs (Sirius and Procyon), Lepus the Hare, Orion the Hunter and Perseus as The scaly horror of a dragon, coiled full in the central field.  It was also described as the snake snatched by Minerva from the giants and whirled to the sky, where it became Sidus Minervae at Bacchi or the monster killed by Cadmus at the fount of Mars, whose teeth he sowed for a crop of armed men.

In Persia the constellation was seen as Azhdeha, the man-eating serpent, and in early Hindu mythology it was seen as an alligator.

Babylonian records suggest the constellation near the pole might be a snail drawn along the tail of a dragon, while other sources suggest that it might be Sir or a snake. However other Babylonian sources suggest that it is the dragon Tiamat overcome by the kneeling sun god Izhdubar who we would recognise as Hercules whose foot is upon it.

To the Assyrians the dragon represents Hea or Hoa the third god of the Assyrian triad also known as Kim- mut.

The Chaldeans saw it as a much longer constellation than we see today, winding downwards and in front of Ursa Major the Great Bear. It still today almost encloses Ursa Minor the small bear.

The Egyptians saw the stars as part of a hippopotamus and are shown on the planisphere of Denderah and the walls of Ramesseum at Thebes. It is said that at one time the Egyptian called Draco Tanem.

The Arab astronomers referred to the constellation as Al Tinnin and Al Thuban which comes from the Greek Draco. It was also called the poisonous dragon this is because a comet was seen in Draco and astrologers thought it had spread poison across the world. It appears that a great comet was seen from China in 1337 in the constellation of Yuen Wei which identifies with some of the stars in Draco. This could be the comet the astrologers were referring to.

The dragon is closely identified with China but the dragon that was in the Chinese zodiac is now part of the stars that form our constellation of Libra. To the Chinese Draco was Tsi Kung the Palace of the Heavenly Emperor.

The Arab astronomers knew Thuban as the ‘Large Snake’ and it was the North Star when the great pyramids were built in Egypt around 4,000 years ago. In theory being labelled as alpha it should indicate that Thuban the brightest star in Draco, however at magnitude 3.6 it is only the 7^th brightest star in the constellation. I have no idea why this is the case. Thuban is an A class star with a surface temperature of over 10,000 degrees which is much hotter than the Sun. Thuban is just over 300 light years away.

When Johannes Bayer introduced the Greek alphabet system to the constellations in 1603, he considered Thuban to be of the 2^nd magnitude, the brightest star Draco. In his classification the brightest star in a constellation is alpha followed by beta all the way to omega the last letter in the Greek alphabet. Early star catalogues produced in the 1600s or even earlier suggested it was brighter than we see it today. This was mentioned by Sir John Herschel who was the son of William Herchel who discovered the planet Uranus in 1781and saw Thuban at the same brightness that we see the star as today.  

The position of the North Star changes in time due to the wobbling of the Earth. It takes the Earth around 26,000 years to wobble once meaning that during this period the North Pole of the Earth will describe a circle in the sky.  This process is called Precession. Around the year 14,000 the bright star Vega in Lyra will be the North Star.

Today we have Polaris in Ursa Minor as the North Star. People in the southern hemisphere are not so fortunate now as there is no bright star to mark south pole. Thuban is 303 light years away and shines at magnitude 3.6 and is an A0 giant class star. It is hotter than the Sun.

The great astrological and astronomical work compiled for the first Sargon king, of Akkad referred to the star as Tir An na, or the Life of Heavens as it then marked the position of the North Star.

In China Thuban was known as Yu Choo or the Right Hand Pivot.

Beta or Alwaid which is Arabic for The Mother Camels an alternative Arab name is Al Rakis or The Trotting Camel. Alwaid is 380 light years away and has a magnitude of 2.8 and is a G class giant star with a surface temperature of around 5,000 degrees.

The brightest star in Draco is gamma or Eltanin which means The Great Serpent, the star has a magnitude of 2.2 is 154 light years away and is a K class giant star with a surface temperature of about 3,900 degrees making it cooler than the Sun.

Delta or Al Tais which is Arabic for The Goat is a magnitude 3.0 star lying 98 light years away, it’s a G class giant star with a surface temperature of 4,600 degrees.

Iota or Al Dhiba which is Arabic for The Male Hyaena was known to the Chinese as Tso Choo the Left Pivot

One interesting and well-known deep sky object in Draco is The Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC6543) it’s a planetary nebula that was discovered by William Herschel in 1786. It was Herschel who first used the term planetary nebula to describe these objects that looked a bit like a planet. Although its picture often appears in astronomy books it is faint and a telescope is needed to see it.

And for all the Harry Potter fans Draco is Draco Malfoy an enemy of Harry Potter.

 

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cooke Telescope Tales - Copies of the John Franklin Adams photographs for sale in 1913

 Nature April 10^th 1913

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 2025 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.

                                                    www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

 

 

 

A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - Schiaparelli and the Milan Observatory in 1873

Nature December 11th 1873

Signor Schiaparelli, Director the Milan Observatory, has been appointed Director of the Florence Observatory in place of the late Signor Donati.

The Florence Observatory which stands near Galileo’s Tower at Arcetri, is in every way superior to that of Milan, and we may look for considerable results from an astronomer who has already done so much with small opportunities.

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - comet Winnecke 1869

 Academy, Saturday 13^th November 1869 

 Winnecke's Comet.

Huggins’ spectral analysis of this comet is well known, and his conclusion that the light of this comet is produced by incandescent carbon vapour. The experiments of Watts—published in the October Number of The Philosophical Magazine—seem to prove that this spectrum is really that of carbon: and further, that the temperature of the carbon producing it must be between 1500° C. and 2500° C. If no other explanation of this comet-spectrum can be found, and if the temperature of cosmical space may really reach 1500° C., important changes must be made in the theories of the universe as at present accepted.

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

The Astronomy Show on Drystone Radio

 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.

 

 

Cooke Telescope Tales - Occultation of delta3 Taurus observed from Liverpool in 1870

On November 9^th 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.

                                                       www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

Cooke Telescope Tales - Thomas Cook was allowed to vote in 1837

Thomas Cook optician of Stonegate in York was objected to being able to vote in the general election of 1837  by a Mr Graham because he believed that Mr Cook was not a £10 Freeholder. At this time unless you owned a freehold property to the value of £10 you were unable to vote. 

However on checking it was found that Mr Cook had a previous rating that showed he was a £10 Free holder owning his opticians shop in Stonegate and was therefore allowed to vote. 

The 1837 election was won by the Viscount Melbourne. I do not know which way Thomas Cook voted.

 

Also note that his name is spelled without an ‘e’, he went from Thomas Cook to Thomas Cooke sometime in the early 1840s.

                                                       www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - Columbia College Observatory in 1873

 Nature July 3^rd 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.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk