New Sun Spot Group Thursday 25th October 1905
To the Editor of the Manchester Courier, Sir- There is another naked eye group of stars now on the visible surface of the Sun. The portion which is visible through the smoke and cloud is an immense spot.
Yours &c William C Jenskins
Observer
Godlee Observatory
John Goodricke who was deaf was on one the fathers of variable star astronomy. He worked with Edward Pigott in the city of York between 1781 and 1786 when he died at the tragically young age of 21.
Goodricke and Pigott explored the sky they explained that the variations of the star Algol in the constellation of Perseus were caused by an unseen body eclipsing Algol. The same principal is used by astronomers today to look for planets orbiting other stars. They then went on to both discover a new variable star on the same night, the 10th September 1784, Pigott discovered eta Aquila and Goodricke discovered beta Lyra. I described this as a night to remember in York.
The indefatigable Goodricke then went onto to discover the variability of the star delta Cephei in the constellation of Cepheus the King on the night of October 23rd 1784. This was to prove to be one of the most important astronomical discoveries.
Delta Cepheus is of tremendous value to astronomers today, Goodricke could not know the importance of his discovery. Cepheid variable stars are used to work out the distance to other galaxies. It was in 1912 that Henrietta Leavitt working at Harvard realised that there is a relationship between the Cepheid variable stars a pattern was seen that the brighter ones seem to have longer periods and that cepheids were very luminous stars and there was a relationship between the periods and distance.
If cepheids could be found in other galaxies the distances could be worked out. They were and this allowed astronomers to work out how far away the galaxies were. This was down to the discovery of delta Cepheus in 1784 by the deaf astronomer John Goodricke the discovery of this relation with the cepheids in 1912 by Henrietta Leavitt who was also partially deaf. This relationship is known today as the Period Luminosity Relationship.
On October 24th 1863 Mr Baxendell in Manchester announced the discovery of a new variable star in Delphinus with a magnitude of 8.6. By December it had fallen to magnitude 12. After conjunction with the Sun it was found again on July 29th 1864 as a magnitude 13 object. From then until September 5th it rose to magnitude 8.4.
Although not given a variable star designation at the time I believe this star is Z Delphinus a long period variable star with a period of 304 days and varying between 8.3 and 15.3
On October 22nd 1863 I turned my 6 inch Cooke telescope upon Venus I was much surprised to see almost the whole of the unilluminated disc pf 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
In early 1927 Cookes was contacted by the Resita Company in Romania with reference to their geodetic equipment.
Literature from Cooke Troughton and Simms through their representative Captain Boxshall were sent to the company and secured a very respectable order and it was hoped that this with be the first of many with Romania.
In early 1964 the 25 inch Newall refractor was used at the Penteli observatory in Athens to allow astronomers to make drawings of the planet Jupiter. There were some very good drawings of the Great Red Spot.
The Newall Telescope was originally made for Robert Newall in Gateshead in the north east of England in 1870. Sadly the observing conditions there were not good and it was never used to its best potential.
In 1885 it was donated by the Newall family to the observatory at Cambridge and in 1957 it was sent to the Penteli Observatory in Athens.
The telescope is still in use today at the Penteli Observatory.
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.
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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.
