Bright meteor seen over Manchester in 1902

 On March 29th 1902, Mr J. Halton of Manchester saw a meteor brighter than Sirius shooting across the sky towards the head of Serpens.

Eli Shaw and a Cooke in Barnsley

 

 Eli Shaw (1821-1869) was a self taught mechanic from Barnsley. He had a Thomas Cooke & Sons 3 feet achromatic telescope. I would assume that this would have a lens of around 3 inches but I have no definite proof of that just the length of the telescope to go by. He observed the Sun, Moon and planets.

He made his own reflecting telescope, I do not know the size of this instrument. He also made his own astronomical clock. On his death he left a large scientific library and various scientific instruments.

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.

John Joynson, Liverpool observes occultation using a Cooke

 On March 28^th 1868 Mr John Joynson (1820-1895) of Waterloo near Liverpool observed an occultation of the star gamma Taurus by the Moon. The star disappeared at 9 hours 02 minutes 48.5 seconds and reappeared at 9 hours 58 minutes and 04 seconds according to Greenwich Time. Joynson was using a 3.5 inch telescope made by the York based telescope maker Thomas Cooke.

An occultation occurs when a body such as the Moon or a planet passes in front of a star, sometimes the Moon passes in front of a planet and very rarely a planet will pass in front of another planet.

Joynson also had 6 inch Cooke telescope that he brought in 1863, in 1930 after Joynson’s death the 6 in Cooke was given to the University of London Mill Hill Observatory which had been opened in 1929.

 The Joynson telescope was used extensively particularly between 1982 and 1997 when their 8 inch Cooke was being restored. The |Joynson telescope is now in store.

A Cooke for Old Trafford

 

In 1856 the  Rev Thomas Buckley of Old Trafford Manchester purchased a portable 3.5 inch Thomas Cooke telescope for £50. I have not been able to discover any references to observations he might have made with the Cooke telescope.

All I know regarding Buckley is that he appears to be the Honorary Secretary of the school for deaf children in Old Trafford. The school was built in 1860 and adjoins the Botanic Gardens in Old Trafford

Early photos of the Moon taken from York with a Cooke

 

John Phillips 1800-1874 was an eminent geologist. He would become the first keeper of the Yorkshire Museum which was built by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society in 1829, he also had a great interest in astronomy and photography.

He brought a Thomas Cooke 6.25 inch telescope in 1852 which he set up in the Museum Gardens and in 1853 took some of the earliest photographs of the Moon. He was a keen observer of the Moon and the Sun. He used the 6.25 inch Cooke to observe both objects.

He left the Yorkshire Museum in York around 1854 and moved to work at the University of Oxford firstly as deputy reader in geology and then in 1856 he became professor of Geology.

He was still using the 6.25 inch in the early 1860s, but as with so many Victorian telescopes after his death in 1874 it just disappeared and I have no idea what happened to it.

Comet Morehouse observed from Australia with a Cooke

 

James Nangle observed comet Morehouse on March 19^th 1909 form his observatory at Marrickville New South Wales. He had a 6.25 inch Cooke telescope.

Nangle described the comet as having a long tail that was distinctly seen. He said that the telescope was not that well equipped for studying comets as the lowest power on the 6.25 inch Cooke was 150 magnification. With this power the comet was a very unsatisfactory object, the head only being slightly visible, and that an indistinctly defined mass showing a bright condensation at the centre.

James Nangle 1868-1941 would go on to become Government Astronomer for New South Wales in 1926. One point of interest about the 6.25 inch telescope is that Nangle refers to the lens of his telescope being made by the elder Cooke. This suggests that this is a pre 1857 telescope made before the firm became Cooke & Sons. It also suggests that the telescope was made for someone in the UK and then made its way to Australia.

In 1910 Nangle worked out that to reduce the glare of an object he was looking at it was useful to place a piece of mosquito netting in front of the lens. Simple but effective!!