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<< Are you comming to the Christchurch meeting?
Was this one for me? I am unfortunately unable to make it to Christchurch – a really nice part of the world. I hope everyone who goes enjoys the week-end.
Mike Frost
<< And that would be focusing on the history of astronomy….
Nothing wrong with the history of astronomy!
I own a telescope, but I tend to use binoculars, simply for convenience and ease of use. I have a small pair for general use and sky browsing, and some “big buggers” which get wheeled out for total eclipses (totality only!) and other short-duration events. I’m not a dedicated observer and binoculars work for me.
I hope you’ll be able to come along to some historical section meetings (usually held late spring). Are you on our historical section mailing list? If not, send me your email address and we’ll send the section newsletter twice a year.
Mike Frost, Historical Section Director
Thanks Bill, this looks like a really good conference.
Good to see Lee Macdonald among the speakers; also Louise Devoy’s excellent talk on Observatory Life.
A pity it’s a weekday, though. Work might get in the way for me…
Sad news indeed, if Yerkes is to close.
I visited in 2014, and give a talk about my visit – http://www.mikefrost.info/yerkes.html The observatory is a beautiful place with ornate and elegant architecture, and of course it hosts the world’s largest refractor.
The site is prime real estate on the shores of Geneva Lake, and I know Chicago Uni have made previous attempts to realise their asset. But what is to happen to the telescopes? I suspect it would be prohibitively expensive to build a new dome somewhere else.
So sorry to hear the news of John’s passing. He was a member of my home society, Coventry & Warwickshire AS, in recent years, and regaled us with stories of the telescopes he had built.
This is good news! It#’s a great book and an excellent resource. I borrowed the SHA library’s copy of the book to read.
All the more reason to come to our section meeting on Nov 25th!
Mike Frost
Lee Macdonald and I have had some email discussion about this. We’d both heard the story. I think I may have heard it in a lecture to the SHA, but can’t remember any more details.
We think it might have been the mirror for the Isaac Newton telescope rather than the JKT.
Lee also points out that “the Royal Greenwich Observatory was not run by the Admiralty in the 1980s. The Admiralty relinquished it in the mid-1960s and by the mid-1980s the RGO was part of the Science and Engineering Research Council.” But ties and loyalty to the Admiralty might still have held.
Mike F
Results are in for the Leicestershire County Council vote for Green Plaques – and my candidate, Revd Dr William Pearson, co-founder of the Royal Astronomical Society, was successful. Yeahhhh!!!!!
https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/news/latest-green-plaque-winners-are-announced
Thanks to everyone who voted for Revd Dr Pearson – Team Pearson (BAA/RAS/SHA/South Kilworth Village/Market Harborough Historical Society/Leicester AS) got him over the line.
I will keep you posted on when the unveiling of the plaque will happen – it won’t be for a while yet.
Thanks for making this available, Denis. I’m sure people will enjoy finding out more about the technical details and history.
If readers have ever visited Stirling, they may have walked straight past the observatory without noticing it; the hotel is on Spittal Street, which is the main road up the hill to the Castle.
I was also on Tidore with another group. After some dreadful overnight weather forecasts, we were delighted to see fairly clear skies – there was a little cloud around third contact, otherwise totality was in open sky. My highlights were the lovely prominence, visible as soon as totality commenced, the gorgeous golden colours on the southern horizon. And also our Indonesian hosts, who embraced the event with enthusiasm, friendliness and endless selfies. Great day, lovely eclipse.
Thanks David,
As a Lockyer afficionado (living close to his birthplace) I’d love to know if Bangay and Lockyer had any connections.
Mike
Hi David,
I’m not sure I can shed too much light on your questions, but I had a potter around my book collection. There’s a good discussion of “The Julian and Gregorian calendars” in section 1.10 of “Historical Eclipses and the Earth’s Rotation” by F Richard Stephenson. (Contact me off list if you’d like a photocopy of the relevant pages) I get the impression that Scaliger’s work was part of the concerted efforts around the reformation of the calendar in the late C16. But I’m not an expert (just the Historical Section director).
Mike Frost
On eclipse day I was also on the beach at Longyearbyen, Svalbard with a small group from the Totally Insane Travel Society.
You can see an interview we gave to Norwegian TV at
This was my ninth TSE, and in so many ways the most spectacular. One thing that stood out for me was the visibility and longevity of the shadow bands, especially after third contact. I grabbed my tablet (still working at -22 deg C) and shot 51 seconds of video, which I’ve uploaded toI stopped filming at 51 seconds because I needed to sort out the frostnip in my fingers!I met Kathleen once, at a Society for the History of Astronomy event in Chethams Library, Manchester. She interested herself to me and apologised for not beign able to hear anything I said! She was delighted to hear that I had read and enjoyed a paper by her on the structure of magic squares in the bulletin of the IMA (Institute for Maths and Its Applications).
The previous night I had lectured to Liverpool AS and been completely upstaged by another nonagerian, Eric Strach. The world is a poorer place for the passing of these two characters.
