In early 1927 Cookes was contacted by the Resita Company in Romania with reference to their geodetic or surveying 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.
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On October 17th 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.
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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 Brodie from his observatory at Uckfield in Sussex using an 8.5 inch Cooke.
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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
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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.
No bright columns were seen this evening
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Join me, Martin Lunn tonight and every Monday evening from 7.00 pm-9.00 pm on the Astronomy Show, 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 A-Z of Constellations and Astronomy in Yorkshire - God’s Own Country.
The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio 102 and 103.5 FM the Astronomy show can be heard live on line at www.drystoneradio.com and can also be heard later on the Drystone Radio Podcast.
In August 1947 a social evening was held to commemorate the retirement of 5 veteran craftsmen at Cookes. Messrs A Harrison, T Dwyer, C Grewer, W Wrigley and J Danby all had worked for over 50 years at Cookes, they all stared at the end of the 19th century.
The social evening was held at the clubhouse where Mr E W Taylor joint managing director and son of HD Taylor who designed the Cooke Portrait Lens attended to present the proceeds of collections to each of the retired men.
Some of Mr Taylor’s anecdotes were enlightening to a younger generation, whilst others created amusement which continued with responses from the honoured guests.
It was a very pleasant evening.
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