The Rambling Astronomer

The first of out women astronomers Florence Taylor 1865-1932 was a member of the Leeds Astronomical Society and was the first woman tompresent a lecture to the society. That title was the woman astronomer Mary Somerville. She was a great supporter of women in astronomy.

A Classic rags to riches story. Thomas Cooke would become one of the greatest telescope makers of all time. He made York one of the optical instrumnet centres of the world. He built in 1869 what was the biggest telescope in the world. He evn made a telescope for Prince Albert.

Cooke lenses are still used todayand many classic films such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings were filmed using Cooke Lenses.

Anne Sheepshanks inherited the estate of her brother Richard Sheepshanks, who was secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society. Although not an astronomer herself she would donate vast amounts of money, books and equipment to astronomers.

These are adopted Yorkshire astronomers.

When I was Curator of Astronomy at the Yorkshire Museum in York I christened John Goodricke and Edward Pigott as the 'Fathers of Variable Star Astronomy' because of the work they did.

John Goodricke was deaf and Edward Pigott dressed like a 'dandy' but in just 5 years between 1781-1786 they changed the face of astronomy by explainimng what variable stars are, discovering new ones and even Pigott even discovered a comet from York. Their discoveries and ideas were 100s of years ahead of their time.

Jesse Ramsden was the great grand nephew of Abraham Sharp, there was clearly an astronomical gene running through this family. The instrumnets he made were of exceptional quality and he even invented a type of eyepice, the Ramsden Eyepiece.

Alhough his instruments were very good one critism of Ramsden was that he was nearly always late in delivering the instruments that had been ordered.

Charles Green 1734-1771 was born in Wentworth South Yorkshire and was the astronomer appointed to go with Captain Cook in 1769 to observe the Transit of Venus from Tahiti.

Although not born in Yorkshire John Michell was born in Nottinghamshire he is ofetn depicted as an honorary Yorkshireman, as he became the rector of Thoirnhill near Dewsbury from 1767 until his death in 1783. Although he made may sciebtific contributions in astronomy was the coming up of the idea of Black Holes!

Although Henry Hindley was not born in Yorkshire he spent most of his life in York , he was a clock maker. However he attracts my attention brcuse he designed the first true equatorial mount for a telescope. He did it not for astronomical purposes but to show how good he was mechanically at making things.

Jeremiah Shakerly another unknown Yorkshire astronomer. Born in Halifax he moved to India to make his fortune and made the first planned telescopic observation there as well as very nearly discovering a comet.

Another Yorkshireman who is probably unknown. Abraham Sharp fro near Bradford was the assistant to John Flamsteed the first Astronomer Royal. Without the massive help from Sharp, Flamsteed's great star catalogue would not have been completed.