Occultation of Mars seen with a Cooke telescope in 1929

 Occultation by Mars of BD +24’ 1659 bf A F Bennett April 21^st 1929 using a 6 inch Thomas Cooke and Sons Telescope

The observation was made from Leiston in Suffolk under good sky conditions. A bar had been fixed at the focus of the eyepiece, a Zeiss orthoscopic being used and giving a magnification of 240 on the 6 inch Cooke.

The star presented a minute sharp image, which without taking advantage of the bar to reduce the glare from Mars could be kept clearly in view until it had approached to within about 10” distance of the latter.

The star was held unmistakeably under observation until 20 h 39m 11s, when it could no longer be seen. The bar was now shifted so s to show the extreme edge of the Western limb of Mars, an the star was first glimpsed again, on reappearance at 20h and 50 min. The mean of these times gives 20h 45m for mid occultation.

The Zodiacal Light

    If you have a very good horizon in the west where the Sun sets we are approaching the time       of the year when it might be possible to see the Zodiacal Light. The sky does have to be very      dark and clear.

     The zodiacal light is a cone of eerie light that can be seen in the sky just after the evening twilight ends in the spring, or before it begins at dawn in the autumn. These are periods during the year close to the equinoxes where the period of daylight and night-time are equal.

    The best time to look for the zodiacal light this year will be the first two weeks in March. Although the spring equinox is not until March 20^th the Moon will be nearly full making the sky too bright.

    People used to think zodiacal light originated somehow from phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

    However today we know that the zodiacal light is produced as sunlight is reflected off dust grains that circle the sun in the inner solar system. These grains were once thought to be left over from the process that created our Earth and the other planets of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago.

    Today some astronomers believe that the grains of dust may have been blown into space during massive dust storm from the planet Mars.

The Astronomy Show

 Join me, Martin Lunn MBE 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.

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening only on Drystone Radio live on line at www.drystoneradio.com DAB radio in Bradford and East Lancashire, or 102 and 103.5 FM and can also be heard later on the Drystone Radio Podcast.

Aurora seen over Liverpool in 1872

On November 10^th 1872 Samuel Barber observed aurora over Liverpool at 11.20 pm. He described it was of the usual form, ruddy and radiating from a horizontal band of light in the north.

It was followed by a week of much colder weather than had preceded it.

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Meteor over Blackpool in 1872

 On November 6^th 1872, D.Winstanley whilst looking over the sea a few minutes before 10.00 o’clock saw a meteor of large size. It was accompanied by a short scintillating train and moved slowly quite parallel with the horizon directly north. Its elevation was about 15 degrees and its rate of motion was about 1.5 degrees per second. The night was dark and somewhat cloudy, and the line described by the meteor was seemingly quite straight.

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Moon passing close to Regulus on February 23rd

 The Moon will pass very close to the bright star Regulus on the night of 23^rd February.

Regulus, Arabic for the ‘Heart of the Lion’, is the brightest star in the constellation of Leo the Lion. Leo looks like a giant backwards question mark in the spring sky. In Harry Potter, Regulus Arcturus Black was the younger brother of Sirius Black.

Regulus was one of the four Persian Royal Stars, the others being Aldebaran, Antares and Fomalhaut.

The green line in the image shows the path that the Sun follows across the sky.

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Jodrell Bank and Zimenki radio observatories begin joint work in 1964

 On February 21^st 1964 the first exchange of signals between Jodrell Bank and Zimenki observatories is made using the Echo 2 satellite. The test opens a series of joint US/UK/USSR communication experiments for later in the year.

The observatory which was built in 1947 was located in the village of Zimenki around 20 miles from the city of Nizhny Novgorod which lies to the east of Moscow. The observatory is derelict today. It was part of the Radiophysical Research Institute.

The Zemenki observatory was used for research including solar flares, radio monitoring of solar activity and observations of the ionosphere.

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