Thomas Bauchope and a Cooke in Scotland

 

Thomas Bauchope and a Cooke in Scotland

Thomas Bauchope 1823-1889 was born at Brucefield in Midlothian, he succeeded his father as factor or property manager on several estates in Midlothian. His main leisure interest was in the sciences and in particular astronomy.

He had an observatory in his garden with a 4 inch Cooke telescope. His telescope is listed as a Cooke rather than a Cooke and Sons which suggests that the telescope is a pre 1857 model. He contributed a series of articles on astronomy to a local paper. He was known to try to encourage working class people to take an interest in either astronomy or another science.

Thomas Bauchope died on December 8^th 1889 and his telescope was offered for sale at £70 at today’s price that would be just over £9,000!!!

Mr Maw and Two Cookes

 

Mr Maw and Two Cookes

William Henry Maw (1836 – 1924) was born in Scarborough on December 6^th 1836, when he was growing up he was friends with the sons of Dr Harland, two who would become the founders of the Harland & Wolf ship builders. Both his parents died when he was in his teens, without influences and an advantage of a higher education he was still able to raise himself to become a leading authority in the fields of mechanics and engineering.

His leisure time was however devoted to astronomy. In Kensington, London in 1887 he built an observatory for his 6 inch Cooke telescope which he used to study the Moon. Later from 1897 when he lived in Surrey he built an observatory for a larger 8 inch Cooke telescope. This had originally been owned by the Rev R W Dawes and would later be located at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge and known as the Thorrowgood Telescope.

W H Maw made extensive observations of double stars using both Cooke telescopes. In particular the double stars from the Struve catalogue. His observations were considered to be very accurate. Maw was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and one of the founders of the British Astronomical Society.

Astrognome 100 Great Stars No 94 V Hydra

 

V Hydra

This is a semi regular red variable star in the constellation of Hydra the Water Snake that was discovered by S C Chandler at Harvard in 1888. It is one of the rare very red carbon stars and possibly it resembles R Leporis. Dr Copeland at Dunsink in March 1876 described as a ‘brown red star’ Both V Hydra and R Leporis are both low temperature giants who show carbon in the spectrum.

V Hydra appears on many lists of unusually red stars long before it was discovered to be variable. The star varies between magnitude 6.0 to 12.3 and varies with a period of about 530 days but then around every 16 years it fades down to magnitude 12.0.

The star lies at a distance of around 2,000 light years. There appears to be a companion star which orbits the primary star every 8.5 years.

The Astronomy Show

 

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.

Eclipse of Moon seen from Godlee Observatory

 

Eclipse of Moon seen from Godlee Observatory

On Monday 7^th December 1908 a penumbrial eclipse of the Moon was seen from Manchester. A penumbrial eclipse differs from the total lunar eclipse in that the Moon passes into the penumbra or secondary shadow of the Earth, without coming into contact with the deeper cone.

The eclipse on December 7^th was fairly well observed from the point of vantage of the Godlee Observatory in Manchester, this was thanks to the absence of the astronomer's ‘bete noir’ -the fog. The first contact was due at 7.53 pm and the last at 12.12 am. The middle of the eclipse was registered at 9.55 pm at which the Moon was only 100^th part of its diameter away from the main shadow.

Astrognome 100 Great Stars No 93 Vega

 

Vega

The second brightest star in the northern hemisphere, Vega is in the constellation of Lyra the Lyre. Vega is overhead during summer months it is the brightest of the 3 stars that form the summer triangle. From the south of England it is circumpolar which means it can be see all year round and it never sets although it is very close to the horizon when at its lowest.

Vega shines at a magnitude of zero and lies at a distance of 25 light years. It is an A0 class star which means it is hotter than our Sun. Its name Vega means the Harp Star. Due to the wobbling or precession of the Earth in about 9,000 years time Vega will become the North Star.

Vega was the first star to ever be photographed On the night of 16-17 July 1850by John William Draper at Harvard Observatory with the 15 inch refractor. The exposure time was 100 seconds.

Astrognome 100 Great Stars No 92 UV Ceti

 

UV Ceti

UV Ceti also known as Luyten 726-8 as well as Gliese 65, is a red dwarf system in the constellation of Cetus the Whale and is of unusual interest. It is the prototype for this class of flare stars. The system was discovered in 1948 by William Jacob Luyten. The system is made up of two stars of magnitude 12.7 and 13.2 which cannot be seen with the naked eye, telescopes are needed to see them. The two stars orbit each other in a period of 26.5 years.

UV Ceti is the 6^th closest star to the Sun, lying at a distance of 8.7 light years. The title UV Ceti applies to the fainter member of the system and is sometimes also called ‘Luyten’s Flare Star’. The UV Ceti stars are extreme examples of flare stars they cannot brighten several magnitudes not in days but in minutes and then fade in brightness just as quickly. In 1952 UV Ceti was observed to increase in brightness from magnitude 12.3 to 6.8 in only 20 seconds!