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.

 

A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - observatory broken into in 1887

 Wallington & Carshalton Herald Saturday 9^th July 1887

 

WANTON MISCHIEF ! A DISGRACE TO WALLINGTON.

 

To the Editor of The Herald

 

Sometime last night my Observatory was  broken into and the equatorial astronomical telescope mounted there was completely ruined, the object glass, good one by Wray, was stolen. and all the adjusting and clamping screws removed and taken away. 

These things, of course, have  little or no value in themselves apart from the instrument, but  without them the whole machine with all its lenses and accessories, which I kept  for greater safety in the house. is utterly useless. Such wanton mischief ought somehow to be exposed. 

I regret to say that this is not the first time I have had reason to complain, for hardly a month has passed during the year without some damage being done to the observatory itself; it is of very light structure. made of wood and covered with the Patent Willesden Card and has successfully stood the heavy  snow falls and storms of the past winter, but has not been proof against the sticks and stones which has frequently been sent through it. 

The observatory stands in but perhaps too near the footpath across the lavender field from which the  mischief has been done. 

I never expect that my loss can be replaced, it would be no easy matter to get the  missing parts, probably scattered in the lavender field re made, and a new instrument, even if I could afford to buy it, could never have the associations and interesting early study. 

But what can be said for this wanton spirit of destruction, which would have been counted a disgrace, even by the most uncivilised races of the world. 

However let the people of Wallington know what sort they have in their midst to deal with, and be on their guard, for what can be safe?

 

I am yours faithfully 

John  H Haslam 

Penden Wallington, July 5th

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Cooke Telescope Tales - telescope for Thomas Bazeley in 1867

 In July 1867 the polymath Thomas Bazeley purchased a 6 inch telescope from Thomas Cooke & Sons, the telescope cost £365 (today this would be over £45,000) . In 1877 Bazeley donated the telescope to Joseph Baxendell. 

Baxendell was a prolific variable star observer and in fact discovered around 20 new variable stars, including the nova T Corona Borealis in 1866, this would later become known as the Blaze Star because it went novae again in 1846. 

This 6 inch Cooke would allow him to continue his variable star work. Bazley also supplied the timber structure for the telescope. Baxendell renamed his house at 14, Liverpool Road, Birkdale, The Observatory.

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Cooke Telescope Tales - telescope orders for London

 Kilpatrick & Co, 2 Northampton Square, London  are listed as merchants, what is a little confusing is that at the same address is Peter Kilpatrick. I don’t know if he was related in any way he was a jeweller. He also had a branch in Melbourne, Australia.

The following instruments were ordered. 

20.01.1866  3.5 inch Telescope mounted on a tall tripod. with zonal and vertical motions

11.04.1867 Solar eyepiece, sliding wedge of dark glass

21.09.1867 4 inch Telescope mounted on tripod with zonal and vertical motions

20.11.1867 3.5 inch astronomical telescope, 4 feet 6 inch or 4 feet 9 inch length with finder and dew cap. No stand. 4 eyepieces. Adapted for viewing nebulae- to have wide field eyepiece mag x25.

                                                    www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

 

 

Cooke Telescope Tales - transit instrument for Bushy Heath in 1866

 On 16.11.1866, W U Jones, The Warren, Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire  ordered a first rate transit instrument . Later in 1867 he ordered equipment for his observatory including 4 friction wheels and tramway, 10 feet 4.5 inches inside diameter, wheels not more than 8 inches diameter.

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

A little ramble through Monceros the Unicorn

 If you think that finding a Unicorn on the Earth wait until you look for one in the night sky.

A faint but fascinating constellation between Orion and Canis Minor.  Jakob Bartsch, a German mathematician and son in law of Johannes Kepler brought it into general use on his star chart of 1624, although there are references to such a constellation in this position in earlier works by astronomers. there are some reports that in 1564 it was regarded as “The other horse south of the Twins and the Crab”. There are even earlier references to the constellation being represented on Persian star globes.

Its location in the Milky Way ensures that it is well stocked with nebulae and clusters.

The three stars Betelgeuse in Orion, Procyon in Canis Minor and Sirius in Canis Major form what astronomers call the Winter Triangle. The Unicorn is found within this triangle.

Alpha has a magnitude of only 3.9 and lies 148 light years away. It is a G class giant star.

The brightest star is beta at magnitude 3.7, however beta is a system of three stars and under the very best of conditions you might be able to make them out. A pair of binoculars will easily show the three stars. Beta lies at a distance of about 700 light years.

With the Milky Way flowing through Monoceros the area is very rich in faint stars also there are various clusters of stars.

M 50 is an obscure open cluster in an equally obscure constellation If your sky is very clear and dark you might just glimpse it. Its 3,000 light years away. There are over 500 stars.

NGC 2232 an open cluster centred around the star 10 Monoceros. Its brightness is magnitude 4.0 and lies at a distance of 1,600 light years.

NGC 2237 the Rosette Nebula magnitude 9.0 and lies at a distance of 5,000 light years. It is a very complicated region which contains NGC 2238, 2239,2244 and 2246. It is an area often photographed by astronomers. The whole complex of nebula covers an area of 130 light years.

NGC 2261 Hubble’s Variable Nebula which is illuminated by the variable star R Monocertis which varies between 10 to 12. It is so named because it was the first object photographed by Edwin Hubble when the Palomar 200 inch telescope was used for the first time.   It is mag 9.0 and lies at a distance of 2,500 light years.

NGC 2264 The Christmas tree or Cone nebula Magnitude 4.0 and 2,600 light years away inside the nebula is a the bright luminous star S Monocerotis or 15 Monocerostis which varies very slightly S has a magnitude of 4.6

                                                     www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

Cooke Telescope Tales - small telescope in 1868

 I have come across another astronomer who purchased a small Thomas Cooke & Sons telescope. 

In this case it is J. Hullett of Clarence Lodge, Purbrook, Cosham, Hampshire who in 1868 purchased  a 2.75 inch refractor, which I would assume would have been mounted on a small tripod. 

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A little ramble through 19th century library - book donation to RAS library in 1876

 Nature March 16^th 1876

Miss Sheepshanks has presented to the Royal Astronomical Society 200 volumes of works on astronomy, some of them very rare; Lord Lindsay has presented a large and valuable collection of the late Mr Carrington’s MSS on the subject of sun spots.

                                                       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 - telescope sent to Calcutta in 1903

 In 1903 Thomas Cooke & Sons of York supplied a 4.5 inch telescope to the Government Observatory in Calcutta, India. The head of the observatory was Mr Evershed, Attached to the telescope was a 5 inch Camera also supplied by Cookes.

The telescope was mounted on a Cooke iron pillar which were housed in a shed. This shed was mounted on wheels and rails that allowed it to be moved when the telescope was to be used.

                                            www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

Cooke Telescope Tales - University of Toronto Observatory in 1880

 The University of Toronto’s David Dunlap observatory at Richmond Hill near Toronto, Canada today houses a 74 inch Grubb Parsons reflector that was installed in 1935. However there was a much older observatory in Toronto. 

This was the Toronto Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory at the University of Toronto which  housed a 6 inch Thomas Cooke & Sons telescope that was installed in 1880. The Cooke was used in particular for the study of sun spots in conjunction with magnetic measurements made at the observatory. I believe that the Cooke may have been used until around 1910.

                                                       www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

 

 

A little ramble through astronomy - The Dog Days of Summer

The “dog days of summer” is a phrase used to describe the hot and humid days of summer. It can be traced back thousands of years. It refers to the dates from July 3 through August 11, which is 20 days prior and 20 days after the star Sirius rises and falls in conjunction [sharing the same spot in our sky] with the sun. Sirius was known as the “Dog Star,” because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog).

Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. The name Sirius comes from an ancient Greek word for “scorching” or “glowing.”

Since Sirius is in conjunction with the sun on July 23, the dog days of summer center around then. The dog days of summer fall between July 3 to August 11, and that’s when we have many of our warmest days in the Northern Hemisphere.

Now we often have very hot days before or after July 3 to August 11 however the legend of the dog days has survived.

                                                     www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - comet 1840

 Nature March 16^th 1876

Comet 1840

In Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 2079, Dr Kowalczyk, of Warsaw, publishes I his investigation of a definitive orbit for the comet discovered at Berlin by prof Galle, the present Director pf the observatory at Breslau, on the 25^th January 1840.

This comet which was last observed at Kremsmunster on the 1^st April, had already been made the subject of extensive calculation b y Professors Plantamour and Loomis. The former in 1843, discussing his own series of careful observations taken at Geneva, found (Astron Nach, No. 476) that a parabolic orbit represented the comet’s course within the probable limits of error of observation; on including the series taken at Berlin he found the most probable orbit to be an ellipse, but of great eccentricity  to which little weight was considered to attach.

Loomis on his side, taking into account the effect of planetary perturbation  during the interval of the comet’ visibility, also found an ellipse, but with a mote moderate eccentricity, the period of revolution being about 2,400 years; the sum of the squares of  the errors of the ellipse is diminished to one third the amount with the best determinable parabola.

Loomis’s investigation will be found in the Transactions of the American Academy vol viii; his orbits are not in the included in the extensive collection in Dr Carl’s “Repertorium der Cometen-Astronomie”, a work which notwithstanding, its great utility  to the student of this branch of science, is yet not complete or free from numerical errors.

Kowalczyk starts with the parabolic elements obtained by Plantamour in 1843, comparing them with the whole course of observations. After introducing the corrections for aberrations and parallax , and the earth’s position from Leverrier’s tables, instead of those from the tables of Carlini used by previous computers and by the usual method of equations of conditions for ten normal places, he finally arrives at an elliptical orbit, very closely agreeing with observations, and showing a period of revolution of 3,789

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 years.

A little ramble through astronomy - Happy Aphelion Day July 6th

 On July 6, Earth will be at aphelion, the furthest point from the Sun it can reach on its yearly orbit. At aphelion, Earth will be 94,502,963 million miles (152, 087,778 million km) from the Sun. Earth was at perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, during January, when it was only 91,403 ,640 million miles (147,099,900 million km) away. 

The seasons are caused not by how close Earth is to the Sun, but by which hemisphere is tilted towards it. In July the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, so we have summer, while in January, when Earth is closest to the Sun, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from it and we have winter.

                                                      www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

Cooke Telescope Tales - Rothschild's observatory in 1889

 A report from 1889 says that Baron Albert von Rothschild’s observatory within the precincts of his palace is a bijou. A splendid equatorial by Thomas Cooke & Sons with a 9 inch aperture, to which the Baron has fitted notions of his own. Observations of double stars are made by him, and astronomers may in a year or two receive published results. Dr Palisa is the Baron’s court astronomer.

                                                       www.theramblingastronomeer.co.uk