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 Rylands Brothers? a Thomas Cooke telescope and the Liverpool Astronomical Society

 In 1864 John Rylands of Oxford Lodge Warrington purchased an eyepiece from Thomas Cooke to go with his 3 inch telescope he bought the previous year for the Thomas Cooke shop in London.

I don’t know if he was the brother of Thomas Rylands of Heath House who purchased a 5 inch telescope from Thomas Cooke in 1865. This telescope would later be donated to the newly formed Liverpool Astronomical Society in 1888.

Thomas Rylands was the son of John Rylands a wire manufacturer and on his father’s retirement ran the company with his brothers Peter and John

                                                        www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

R C Johnson, comet Perrine 1902 and a Thomas Cooke telescope

On October 2^nd 1902 Richard Cowan Johnson observed from Liverpool comet Perrine using his 4.5 inch Cooke refractor. The comet was discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at the Lick Observatory using the 12 inch refractor on August 31^st 1902.

I am not sure when R C Johnson obtained his 4.5 inch Cooke telescope but in May 1865 he Purchased a 2 inch Cooke on a brass mounting plus a Huyghenian eyepiece.

RC Johnson would go onto to become President of the Liverpool Astronomical Society from 1882-1884.

                                                       www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

25 inch Newall telescope at the Athens observatory and observations of Jupiter

 In early 1964 the 25 inch 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The Newall Telescope was originally made for Robert Newall in Gateshead in the north east of England in 1870. In 1885 it was donated 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.

                                                         www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

The Maria Mitchell Observatory and a Thomas Cooke telescope

The Maria Mitchell Observatory was founded in 1908 in Vestal Street, Nantucket, Massachusetts. The observatory was named after Maria Mitchell America’s first professional woman astronomer.

In 1952 the observatory housed a 5 inch clark telescope which was given to Maria Mitchell in 1859 by the women of America and used as a guide scope for a Cooke photographic triplet telescope of 7.5 inches aperture.

I do not know when the observatory acquired the Cooke and how long it was used there if it indeed is still there today?

                                                       www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk

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.

Leeds Astronomical Society visit Thomas Cooke works in York in 1920

On Saturday afternoon October 9^th 1920 members of the Leeds Astronomical Society of which Mr David Booth is president and others visited the works of Messrs Cooke and Sons Ltd Bishophill, York where an interesting and instructive time was spent.

During their tour around the works they saw how lens are ground down and polished and how various instruments are used and adjusted.

Among the other things pointed out were various parts of the 18 inch telescope for Brazil. In the show room there were various telescopes including one made by Mr Cooke in 1850.

The visitors were surprised to find that in York there were such large and extensive works equipped with the various modern and accurate machines capable of making the most precise scientific instruments for the exacting demands of today.