The Astronomy Show

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.

The shoemaker from Barnard Castle who made telescopes

 Sheffield Daily Telegraph Tuesday 4^th February 1896

On Sunday morning- there was carried to the grave at Darlington Cemetery Mr. W. H. Harris, who was a working shoemaker, living in a poor neighbourhood, at Hank Top, Darlington. Mr. Harris, who was 54 years old the time his death, was born at Barnard Castle.

Though working hard at his trade, he had attained local celebrity as an astronomer, and maker of telescopes with 9 inch and 12inch mirrors, which he, ground, figured, and silvered. This work required nice mathematical calculations, which he carefully worked out. He had intimate knowledge of optics, botany, astronomy, electricity, etc., and was a good French scholar. Mr. Harris was self-taught.

Trailes Comet 1819

 Leeds Intelligencer Monday 12^th July 1819

THE COMET.

The following communication from Mr. Christie of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, contains probably all that can be yet known of this celestial phenomenon:—• “I first observed the comet," observes Mr. Christie, “last night (Saturday) a minutes before 11 o'clock, and judge that it came to the meridian about 12. Its elevation above the horizon appeared about 10°, and the sun being at the time nearly below, its distance from the sun cannot much exceed 25°.

The night was remarkably light, and the moon uncovered by clouds—circumstances extremely unfavourable to the brilliancy of its appearance; and considering this, I should judge that, under more favourable circumstances, its splendour would be equal to that of any comet upon record—the head viewed with Capella (to the east of it) in brilliancy. The length of the tail, which, when the comet was on the meridian, pointed somewhat to the west of the zenith, extended about 15degrees; and unlike the comet of 1811, it appeared to proceed immediately from the nucleus.

I viewed it for some time through an excellent small reflector, by Watson, and observed, that the nucleus was much denser than that of the former comet, and that there was no separation between it and the coma, but that the body became gradually rarer, and in the upper part expanded into the tail; which appearance may arise from a very dense atmosphere surrounding the nucleus, and reaching to the rarer fluid forming the tail, if there be any distinction between the two fluids, as appears to have been the case with the comet 1811.

I may observe, that this as in all other comets, the appearance to the naked eye is much more striking and brilliant than through telescope. The Comet passed the meridian below the Pole, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on Saturday, July 3, about midnight, when its place was determined as follows

Apparent right ascension 6h. 51m. 56S

North polar distance, corrected for re fraction 43 d 18 m 47.s

Mean time of observation .12h 6m 56s

The Comet was again observed on Monday night (July 5), but not till it had passed the meridian, when the following observations was made :

Apparent right ascension . 7h. 0m 9s

North Polar Distance 43 d 34m 48s

Mean time of observation 12h 36m 04s

This was comet 1819 also known as Trailes comet that was discovered on July 1^st 1819 by the German astronomer Johann Georg Trailes. The comet was an easy naked eye object reaching between magnitude 1 to 2.

August Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon

 August is both a supermoon and blue moon month.

This month’s full moon on August 1st is called the ‘Sturgeon Moon’. This is the month when, in past centuries, sturgeon would have been caught in the rivers of Britain. They were considered to be royal fish and the first caught had to be given to either the King or the King’s representative.

August is both a supermoon and blue moon month,

 There will be two full moons this month, falling on August 1 and the 31. The second full moon in a month is referred to nowadays as a ‘Blue Moon’. The Moon takes around twenty-nine and a half days to orbit the Earth once and except for February all months have either thirty or thirty-one days, meaning it is possible to have two full moons in a calendar month.

This use of the term ‘blue moon’ only goes back to the 1940s when a letter, sent to the American astronomy magazine ‘Sky and Telescope’ which incidentally is still published, asked the question ‘what is a blue moon?’. The answer was that it is the second full moon in a calendar month. The publishers of the magazine, realising that their answer was unproven, retracted their original statement. However, it was too late; the genie was out of the bottle, and for the last seventy-five years everyone has accepted this definition.

I have my own theory about the term ‘blue moon’. Each month I give the name of the next full moon, and as I often say, these names go back to the times of the monastic period in Britain around 1,000 years ago. The monks, who were amongst the cleverest people around during the middle ages due to their vast monastic libraries, knew full well that in some years there were thirteen full moons rather the normal twelve.

Monks liked order in their lives. They kept diaries and special dates were always marked in red ink; you may have have heard of the phrase ‘a red letter day’ which is a monastic saying going back over 1,000 years. I just wonder if, when this thirteenth full moon occurred, it was marked in diaries in blue ink as a source of irritation because it messed up a very orderly system. I once checked the reference library in York minster without success, but a future researcher will check the Vatican library and discover a monk’s diary with a full moon marked in blue ink!

In August we will see the second of the four supermoons visible in 2023. When the Moon rises on August 1 and 31 it will be closer to the Earth than normal, and consequently will appear to be 7% larger than usual. This will make it a wonderful sight. Of course, cloud can spoil the occasion, but with two supermoons in August and another in September, we would be very unlucky not to see at least one of the three.

The average distance between the Moon and the Earth is 238,900 miles, (384,472km). When the moon is closer than that we have a supermoon. The August 1 supermoon will be 222,158 miles (357,530km) while the August 31 supermoon will be slightly closer at 222,043 miles (357,344km).

Accident at York Observatory in 1851

 On July 24^th 1851 A plumber of Fossgate, City of York met with a serious accident at the York Observatory of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society.

He was superintending some repairs to the conical roof, when altering his position he fell from the roof and hit the ground with great violence. Many bones were broken, on being taken to hospital it was reported that he was progressing favourably.

The Astronomy Show

 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.