Occultation of Iapetus seen from South Africa with a Cooke in 1963

 On October 17^th 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 in 1971.

Maria Mitchell Observatory and a Cooke Telescope

The Maria Mitchell Observatory was founded in 1908 in Vestal Street Nantucket Massachusetts. The observatory was named after Maria Mitchell America’s first professional woman astronomer.

In 1952 the observatory housed a 5 inch Clark telescope which was given to Maria Mitchell in 1859 by the women of America and used as a guide scope for a Cooke photographic triplet telescope of 7.5 inches aperture.

I do not know when the observatory acquired the Cooke and how long it was used there if it indeed is still there today?

Leeds A S visit Cookes in 1920

 On Saturday afternoon October 9^th 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.

Descriptive Astronomy by Chambers and a Cooke Telescope

 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 telescope.

The 1881 BA meeting in York and a big Cooke Lens

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. This I believe would be the lens that would be fitted in the telescope owned by James Wigglesworth in Scarborough.

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.

The Astronomy Show

 Join me, Martin Lunn tonight and every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the Astronomy Show, 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 A-Z of Constellations and the Messier Marathon.

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio 102 and 103.5 FM the show can be heard live on line at www.drystoneradio.com and the show can be heard later on the Drystone Radio Podcast.

Northern Lights seen in Halifax in 1870

On October 20th 1870 Joseph Gledhill who was the assistant astronomer to Edward Crossley at his observatory at Park Road, Halifax and who normally used the 9.3 inch Cooke telescope saw a fine display of Aurora.

At 7.30 pm a bright red magnetic cloud lay in Auriga, a little later it was in Lynx. The large stars in the back of Ursa Major and the Northern Crown in the West marked the upper limit of the bright segment to the westward.

At 10.00 pm the arch of fiery red magnetic clouds was well seen, it extended from N E to W.