The English Copernicans: the Moving Earth in England 1558 to 1660 Dr Allan Chapman

The Almagest which apparently means “The Great Book” or “The Great Syntax” was actually a collection of thirteen separate books written in ancient Greek in around 170 AD, it was the first ever large scale attempt to objectively record humanity’s knowledge about the cosmos of which it was a part. It defined, introduced and established the concep

ts and terminology that have defined astronomy in the 21st century. Terms such as the ecliptic, parallax, zodiac, magnitude, retrograde, equinoxes were first explained 2000 years ago amongst those 13 books. It also established that the planets and the stars move in concentric spheres centred on the Earth. The Earth according to Ptolemy did not move.

Allan’s presentation focused on the activities of a handful of British scientist who understood, explored and popularised the work of

Nicolas Copernicus. Copernicus died in 1543 and for the next hundred years there was a “mini” renaissance in northern Europe through which his ideas conclusively replaced those of Ptolemy and through the early days of colonialisation, spread to the “new” world.

Observations of the motions of Mercury and Venus from Earth were easy to understand. The outer planet however, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto had yet to Discovered) displayed an odd looping behaviour where they would appear to go back on their trajectory and repeat this habit systematically. Mars would do it twice a year, Jupiter 12 and Saturn nearly 30. This looping back or retrograde motion could be completely understood if the Sun was in the centre and not the Earth. Copernicus, through intense mathematics explained that the retrograde behaviour was simply the Earth overtaking the outer planets in its smaller swifter orbit.

The firs English Copernican was a Welshman from Tenby - Robert Recorde. They have a saying in Wales that without him we would not be able to add up, he invented the “=” sign. He was warmed to Copernicus’s ideas as an influential mathematician spread Copernicus’s ideas throughout England. The same year that Copernicus died, 1543 was the year his book - On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres was first printed in the German city of Nuremberg and although still highly technical, his ideas gained even wider appeal.

In 1576 Thomas Digges produced a supplement to a book, Perpetual Almanac, that his late father Leonard had published. This included a short simplif ied version of Copernicus’s ideas and it was in English. In contrast with the title “A Perfit Description of the Caelestiall Orbes according to the most aunciente doctrine of the Pythagoreans, latelye revived by Copernicus and by Geometricall Demonstrations approved” the content were succinct free of complex mathematics. This supplement was also remarkable for its depiction of an infinite universe with the Sun at the centre and the stars stretching away in to the corner of the image.

In the absence of his father, Thomas Digges was brought up under the guardianship of John Dee 1527-1608. Although a respected astronomer, navigator and mathematician he dabbled in magic but still considered as a Copernican. Others also involved (the English Copernicans) in the promulgation of the Copernican ideas included Walter Raleigh 1554 – 1618, Robert Hooke 1635-1703, John Wilkins. (1614-1672), Christopher Wren 1632-1723 , Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) and Thomas Harriot 1560-1621. By the end of this remarkable period the Earth had moved not only from the centre of the Solar System but it now truly moved – around the sun and turned on its axis once a day.
Just as the mince pies were running out on January 6th 2007, Allan was on the way back to the north to address members and visitors of Macclesfield Astronomical Society

on the subject of Robert Hooke at Jodrell Bank.

November – Gravitational Magnification

At 19:12 on Wednesday 8th of November, the shadow of the planet Mercury fell on Earth and with appropriate equipment you could see its silhouette gradually move across the face of the sun from the lower left to the lower right. Mercury is a tiny planet (and casts a silhouette smaller than a sunspot visible at the time) and moves very slowly, completing its journey just after midnight. Of course we can’t see the Sun at 19:12 from Salford in November, so none of this transit was visible to us. However, the Sun was visible at the

Big Bear Solar Observatory, on the Big Bear Lake in California, and they produced this composite image of the transit as part of their imaginatively named Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) observations. Clicking the image takes you to their website with further images.

Fifteen minutes after the start of the Mercury transit on the “day side” of the hemisphere, members and visitors of Salford Astronomical Society were taking their seats on the night side for an illuminating presentation from two “local stars”. Kevin Kilburn from Manchester Astronomical Society talking about his latest research into the life and work of James Naysmith, a Scottish Engineer and Astronomer who worked and lived in the western suburb of Salford called Patricroft. That Naysmith lived in a house called Fireside was well documented but no one had to place a X on the map to mark its position. Kevin, with the assistance of the Eccles & District History Society has finally pinpointed the location of Fireside and probably the site used by James Naysmith for the 20 inch telescope, too. The most remarkable discovery was the plan that Naysmith had for a huge 60 inch telescope for nearby Worsley. Had it been built, it would have been the world’s second largest telescope at that time. The picture provided by Dr Norman H Reid (University of St Andrews Library) shows the tiny image of the observer, seated at the pivot point.

Following the electricity reconnection, repair work on the dome recommenced. Although some, mainly cosmetic, work remains, the heavy duty welding on the observatory was completed over six weekends of hard labour by Richard, Jeremy, Jim and Ken.

On 22nd November, Andy Newsom from Liverpool John Moores University eloquently illustrated his research in detecting stars in the halo of Andromeda galaxy and the highly automated technology of robotic telescopes and data processing. A modern astronomer, it seems, rarely puts her eye to an eyepiece, nor is she troubled with the physical requirement of visiting an observatory. Astronomers world-wide lament as astronomy becomes less of a globe trotting adventure than it used to be only a decade ago. The upside is the enormous increase in productivity from data collection, processing and publishing.

They now use the same technology of automation to offer Distance Learning Courses in Astronomy to people who live in Liverpool, Lisbon or Los Angeles.

Andy described how microlensing techniques lead to the discovery of the smallest (to date) extra solar planet in which Liverpool (along with 9 other Universities) had participated. Microlensing, an effect predicted by Albert Einstein in 1912, is a technique employed by radio - not optical - astronomers. But if you could see it it would look something like the following.

On the evening of July 3rd 1989 Titan, the largest moon of Saturn occulted a distant 5.4 magnitude star in the constellation of Sagittarius (28 Sgr). A very short video (frame size=160 by 120, duration 10 sec, size= 757KB) version of the observation made by Ken Irving of Salford Astronomical Society shows Titan obscuring 28 Sgr at 4.09 on the foreground clock, Titan’s atmosphere (the only moon in the solar system which has one) acts a magnifying glass, temporarily brightening the “still obscured” star. Ken’s observations along with many others helped NASA to plan the 2004 Cassini-Huygens probe to explore Titan and its atmosphere.

Although radio astronomers don’t work with light, habits die hard and they still use the term “light curve” and the light curve of a microlensing event from July/August 2005 illustrates the discovery of the extrasolar planet. The diagram represents observations over two months from multiple observatories. The main peak represents the temporary brightening of the distant star as the gravitational force of the unseen foreground star plays the role of a magnifying glass. The minor peak at about 15th August (a larger version "planetary deviation" in the top right hand corner) is the tell-tale sign of the orbiting planet. It is equivalent to the 28 Sgr brightening event on the video but that of course was result of atmospheric refraction, not microlensing. A more technical description is provided online at LJM’s Angstrom project. here.

During Christmas 2003 you, like me, may have followed the Beagle 2 mission via the Yahoo Group which is no longer active following the premature demise on landing. The Yahoo Group was established and managed by Doug Ellison who now runs the popular and well respected www.unmannedflight.com. Doug gave a talk at the Manchester University’s “Students for the Exploration and Development of Space”, MANSEDs. You don’t have to be a student nor young to attend - anyone can.

Doug has been studiously following the Mars Rovers since their landing and has a wealth of knowledge about their exceptional achievements. He had brought along some incredible pictures from the surface of Mars. This one above, for example, shows Opportunity observing its own heat shield which it discarded during entry and the impact it made on the surface of Mars. The two NASA rovers designed for 90 days, are still operating after and incredible 700 days!

A picture from the orbiting NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Opportunity and its tracks in the Martian sand.

October – Message in a bottle

We had an AGM in April to close the 2005/6 session, and started the 2006/7 session in September. They were pretty parochial events, which is my excuse to jump from March to October. Some of the things that took place in the interim include - an Astronomical Garden Party on Sunday June 25th, the observatory’s mains electric power supply reconnection in early July and the local historians Carl Barry & Lilian Fletcher's research project “William Crabtree of Broughton: Salford’s Great Astronomer” now available via the SAS’s website.

In the 1997 Hollywood movie Contact, Jodie Foster travels through space time using a superior technology machine built from data encoded in an extraterrestrial radio signal detected by SETI researchers. On arrival at the alien planet, this first contact with another civilisation is played out in a scene simulating her long dead father on a beach in Pensacola. In the ensuing dialog she discovers that there are many civilasations in the galaxy and asks the alien if “they all travel using the transport system they had built”. “We didn’t build it, we don’t know who did” the alien replies.

Our speaker for October, Andrew Lound, painted the picture where something like that could happen to us, although the level of technology could not be described as “advanced”. The only evidence of our civilisation that may one day be encountered by another are a couple of gold plated video discs attached to Voyager 1 and 2, launched 20th August and 5th September 1977. The disks contain images, greetings in 50 different languages, electrical signals from a human body and music. With passion and enthusiasm (and with the aid of a well produced multi media presentation), he painted the background against which the discs and their contents were eventually agreed and finalised. In that process all the noble human characteristics of equality, altruism, tolerance, compassion and love competed against personal egos, racial prejudice, political dogma and national ideology. This end product, a message in a bottle, is likely to outlast the civilisation which created it. At some distant time and place, it may represent who we are – or more likely, who we were.

Talking of man-made probes leaving the solar system. Here is something else that was launched in the 1970’s and is making the headlines once again:

Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973. They were the first man-made objects to travel through the asteroid belt and visit Jupiter and Saturn and also on a one way ticket out of the solar system. Their original missions long accomplished, they were subsequently used in Project Phoenix by the SETI institute to “calibrate” their detectors at the outset of their regular SETI observations runs from Aricebo between 1995 and 2004. February 23rd 2003 was the final contact with Pioneer 10, which was supposed to be formally the end of the mission.

During the nineties, as both spacecraft headed out of the solar system on apposing trajectories, an anomaly in their expected positions was detected and has since been slowly developing, now known as the “Pioneer Anomaly”. Radio tracking data from both Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 exhibit a Doppler frequency shift indicating a small (8.74 ± 1.33) × 10−10 m/s2) acceleration towards the Sun – a sort of unexpected “slowing down”. Radio tracking of the two Voyager probes does not show a similar anomaly.

In an attempt to resolve this mystery, a recently created “Pioneer Anomaly team” is attempting a unique experiment. The team are on the hunt to gather all the Pioneer data since launch, then model it within a computer simulation and replay it one second at a time. With original data on punched cards, paper tapes and magnetic tape from over 3 decades ago, gathering and consolidation of the data is a formidable undertaking. The planetary society is sponsoring this investigation to resolve this anomaly, and the stakes are high. According to NASA this anomaly has the potential to undermine the laws of physics. The journey of discovery for the Pioneers is not over yet.

Back to Earth. October 28th marked the 35th anniversary of the opening of Salford Observatory in Chaseley field. The day was marked with an afternoon of food and socialising and the odd speech. The most remarkable was a recollection from Alan Vause who was actually there on the day – thirty five years ago. Alan recounted the formality and joy of the event, the presences of the lord mayor, Arthur Taylor, Tom Fern and many others who were instrumental in the founding of the Society only four years earlier. I would like to think they would be happy in the knowledge that the society has since that day in 1971 continued to serve the people of Salford and beyond.

March – All about the Sun

It was all about the Sun this (last) month. But first, here's a useful link. The Federation of Astronomical Societies publishes an online "what's on" at Federation of Astronomical Societies. I highly recommend that you fit in a 5 minute browse every week or so. Be prepared to be disappointed though, so rich is this resource that you can't possibly participate in everything that you would like to.

On Wednesday March 23rd, Dr Barbara Bromage from University of Central Lancashire gave us a fascinating talk (it has been a busy month, (hence the March Blog in April!) about the Sun, its inner working and some spectacular images from Earth and space based observatories. Despite my interest for over three decades, astronomy has not lost the power to surprise and amaze me. I did not know that the eleven year solar cycle (a repeating period of increased solar activity generating sun spots and intense aurora) was matched by a magnetic field reversal. Such field reversals are well documented and occur on the Earth (a cornerstone scientific evidence for sea floor spreading, plate tectonics and age of the Earth) and take tens of thousands of years, the last one occurring almost a million years ago. I had no idea that something so similar was happing on the Sun every eleven years.

Dr Bromage also went on to remind us of the Maunder minimum when the Sun went AWOL between 1645 and 1715, ignoring this eleven year cycle. To date no one has really understood the mechanism of that minimum and thus unable to predict a potential repeat. Her continuing research and that of the wider Solar scientist community is an essential contribution to informing all of us - media, industrialists, politicians and private citizens involved in the current "hot" debate on global warming. The evidence from such scientific work appears to be clear, global warming is a real and measurable outcome of our way of human life on Earth and should be urgently addressed. In stark contrast are the politically spun comments from many powerful politicians in defence of their short term political goals.

As an academic, a decade ago I was involved in the initial development of distance learning programs. The feeble attempts of those days have now been firmly replaced by high quality courses reflecting the substantial research in pedagogy and a huge development in computer technology and communication. As www.astronomy.ac.uk indicates, the University Central Lancashire along with Liverpool and Manchester offer a series of Astronomy related distance learning courses.

The Solar Eclipse of Wednesday 29th March was naturally the highlight for March and is my excuse for this tardy blog. The flight landed during a thunderstorm at 1.30am on Friday 24th in Antalya, the fastest growing city in Turkey. As we taxied in the deluge, thunder and lightening reminded me of August 1999 in Cornwall. Then I had a plan B, but now, travelling with my wife and her parents, I did not.

Turkey was a good compromise; good weather prospects, easy to travel to and to find accommodation in, on the centre line, and ample ancient theatres for my classicist wife to visit and explain to me the differences between "Roman", "Greek” and "Amphi-" theatres. The plane stopped and as I waited to disembark, I looked out through the window and saw the baggage handlers handling the baggage with as much delicacy as anyone would in driving rain at 1.30am.

The small town of Cholakli about 65km east of Antalya was going to be our base. Visiting Side (pronounced Seedeh) a further 15km east along the coast on the first day became the first and eventually final option as the observing site. Side's temples of Apollo and Athena, or what was left of them, had long been used as special place for taking sunset photographs and would be an ideal venue for an eclipse. I didn't know it then but the locals, tourists, amateur astronomers, local and foreign media and the local government had also concluded likewise.

I had read "the" source of eclipse information from Fred Espenak and J Anderson. I was set for the over 150km wide moon's shadow racing over the Mediterranean half a km per second across the Mediterranean to provide us with a three and half minutes of totality.

The weather prospects were good, with only one day in the previous ten years when it rained on March 29th. The weather had continuously improved every day of our stay. On the day of the eclipse, we had had an excellent blue sky as had been forecasted. We arrived at ten am in Side and quickly located an elevated area with a good view of the sky, the sea and the temple's white portico. Talking to just a few people it was clear that people had been arriving since four am and apparently a couple had stayed through the night in their sleeping bags.

It was both incredible and fascinating to see that the local council had arranged for a live orchestra to be positioned at the base of the temple. Several media vans with their outstretched satellite dishes were neatly parked to one side, camera crews trailing long black cables had already secured the key positions. Groups of amateur astronomers, some in matching t-shirts, from Spain, Czech republic, Austria, Japan, Germany, England and other places milled around the site. Several had cordoned themselves and their high tech equipment off in various parts of this unique site of historical interest.

By noon, arranged by the local authorities, free wine (red and white) and beer was available, as were baseball caps inscribed with "Side Belediyesi 1989". Not sure what Side commemorated in 1989, but I was feeling the temperature of the rising sun and was really grateful.

As the morning slipped into the afternoon, the local population density gradually increased. At first contact, the start of the eclipse generated a subdued round of applause, cheering and whistling. More tourists, families, the local police and even a dog wearing eclipse glasses did not look too much out of place. As totality approached, still more people filed in and now in the fading light, the owners of tripods with cameras and telescopes became even more anxious of a passer-by, a mother with a pram or perhaps a short sighted dog, a gentle nudge of a tripod could cause the loss of a long awaited observation.

Thin cirrus cloud had appeared and although unlikely to impact the visual spectacle of totality, it would be sufficient to influence exposure settings and our ability to see Mercury and Mars. About five minutes before totality, Venus shone brilliantly through the thin cloud. Thinking totality was imminent, I prematurely removed the filter from my video camera only to replace it quickly. There was still about another minute to go. The cheering and whistling grew as the horns gradually moved in and the crowd exploded in cheers as if someone had scored at Old Trafford, as the diamond ring appeared. In October 1995 in India, the diamond ring was brief and almost instantaneous, but here it appeared to linger for about four seconds. The chants, whistling and applause continued into totality accompanied by cameras (and mobile phones) clicking and flashing.

Scanning the corona with binoculars I could see at least two prominences and the naked eye brilliance of the corona was surprising, since there had not been much time for dark adaption. The magnetic field lines were clearly visible arcing on either side just like iron filings and a bar magnet but lacking the perfect symmetry. A couple of minutes into totality I took the camera off the eclipse and panned all the way around my twilight horizon as if the sun was setting in every direction. The cheering, whistling and applauding was now accompanied by a multitude of conversations, perhaps exchanges of awe from those overwhelmed or "is that it?" from those with no sense of wonder. The now even brighter Venus was impeccably placed above the temple, a tour ship bearing eclipse observers was visible sailing slowly between the pillars, and an enterprising observer had hired a Cessna 172 circling Side through the space between the eclipsed sun and Venus. Given the number of upturned cameras, the light aircraft probably made for some unique pictures for some and ruined others.

The end of totality came when I was not looking and the sudden brightness was a surprise which immediately turned to disappointment that it was all over. The moment was marked once again by whistling, cheering and clapping. On previous eclipses someone somewhere always kicks off a version "2001 A Space Odyssey" on a CD player, but not today. I then noticed that the orchestra had not really made any contribution at the start, during or end of totality, no doubt wishing to experience the event in full themselves.

A couple of minutes later a huge exodus started, believing that the end of totality was the end of the eclipse. At the nearby Side theatre the wonderfully named Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception from San Francisco teamed up with NASA had set up shop for a live webcast. Their excellent webcast is available for download in streaming video from their archives. Don't try it unless you have broadband and even then go for the twenty two minutes "highlights" rather than the full one hour and sixteen minutes "webcast".

I know you were wondering. A Greek theatre is the oldest and with a circular orchestra in front of a raised and rather short stage; Roman theatres have a semicircular orchestra with a longer stage and frequently in Turkey are Greek theatres renovated by Roman builders. An amphitheatre is not really a theatre at all but more like a football stadium or a circus ring with spectators seating all the way round.

Feb. 24th 2006 Gerard Gilligan

William Lassell 1799 - 1880
Gerard along with others had arrived early and set up his Carrousel slide projector for the evening's talk about one of the Northwest's beer brewers who had used his amazing wealth to support his interest in astronomy. Through the presentation, Gerard patiently and eloquently painted a picture of a shrewd businessman who used the profits from quenching the thirst of labourers demanded by the industrial revolution in the Northwest of England to build a 9, 24 and 48 inch telescopes during an active observing career lasting over half a century.

Whereas astronomical research these days is the product of funding councils, university departments and collaborative work performed by numerous teams often geographically distributed across several countries, William Lassell was pretty much a one man operation. He made a huge contribution to telescope and mirror making, detailed visual observations of the Sun, the planets and by using Malta as an observing location set the trend for positioning obseravtories high on montains far from light polution. On the evening of October 10^th 1846 with his home made 24 inch telescope he discovered Triton, the largest satellite of Neptune. Although born in Bolton, perhaps he he shouldbe considered as "Galileo of Liverpool". He put Liverpool on the world map long before Liverpool FC and the Beatles.

If you live in the Merseyside area you can listen to Gerard at least twice a month, usually on a Wednesday between 18.00 and 19.00 on BBC radio Merseyside. Of course, you can listen on-line http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/radiomerseyside/ from anywhere. His next slot is on 1st of March.

Finally, Mike Oates had also turned up early and setup his box of tricks to make an audio record of this evening's presentation. So if you missed the lecture, you will soon have access to a high quality audio CD of it. Incidentally, Mike also maintains a website with more information on the remarkable life and work of William Lassell at http://www.mikeoates.org/lassell/.

January 25th 2006 David Ratledge

David is a member of the Bolton Astronomical Society (http://www.boltonastro.org.uk/) and has been well known throughout the UK and international amateur astronomy scene for many years. His website www.deep-sky.co.uk has numerous spectacular pictures, all of which he has taken himself. Browsing through just a few leaves you envious and inspired that he can do all of this from Lancashire. The website is very simple to navigate and I can recommend the “slide show” available from the main page.

His new book “Digital Astrophotography - The State of the Art” is apparently the first Astrophotography book that Springer (the publishers) has produced in colour. There is even a discount code available on his website which gets a 20% discount off the £22.00 price tag by buying on-line. I have only just started to read it so can’t really offer a proper review. My first impressions however are very positive. You know how from time to time you find a book that feels just right. You have a sufficient grasp of the vocabulary and concepts to understand and recognise that it is a book that will offer tangible benefits. I have done basic CCD imaging using a webcam, of Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon. This book is an ideal stepping stone (with the aid of a few good clear, warmish nights over a weekend) I need to progress to more challenging objects. The twelve chapters cover a range of budgets, levels of expertise and provide a great deal of descriptions on the software tools and techniques to assist with image capture and subsequent processing. As the editor David has brought together contributions from over half a dozen observers/authors, the names of many you will probably recognise.

In late January the installation of a temporary generator was initiated, which on February 8th, provided electricity to the observatory for the first time since August 2005. I will provide a little more detail on why we lost the power in the first place and how the more permanent solution pans out in another posting probably near the beginning of summer.

First Light

Hello and Welcome,

You have found your way to a recently created blog for Salford Astronomical Society. Not a "Captain's Log" but rather a "Chairman's Blog". I hope this is a tradition with which future chairmen of the Society will choose to continue.

Through my postings here, I hope to record activities and events taking place within the Society and the wider astronomical community during 2006. I hope that members of the Society, other amateur astronomers in the UK and the public around the world will make a contribution in this blog via the “comment” option. Salford Astronomical Society is a small group of enthusiastic astronomers founded in 1971. Its spiritual home is the Observatory (housing an 18 inch Newtonian Telescope) in Chaseley Field located about a mile from the University of Salford.

I hope to upload at least one article every month. It will briefly cover the monthly lecture and a miscellany of other, I hope interesting or relevant, current affairs in the astronomical community. The blog will start off with January’s lecture but I would like to record here a few of the incidents from December 2005. On December 14th we had the usual excellent Christmas lecture by our honorary president Dr Allan Chapman who spoke as usual without notes, eloquently and with clarity to inform charm and entertain the now traditional large attendance. In addition to the usual filming the session was also recorded in audio by Manchester Astronomical Society’s Mike Oates. Within a week he kindly sent a copy on two audio CDs which are now available for loan by any member of the Society.

On the afternoon of the following day, the 15th December, Allan formally unveiled a William Crabtree Plaque on the junction of Broughton Rd and The Priory. Unfortunately I was unable to attend but all the reports indicated a successful event which included tea and coffee (with biscuits) attended by the lord Mayor of Salford, other dignitaries and some members of the SAS.

Gurbir