Astrophysics and Space Science Library 422 Wayne Orchiston Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy Trials, Tribulations, Telescopes and Transits Astrophysics and Space Science Library Volume 422 Editorial Board Chairman W.B. Burton, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA, USA ([email protected]); University of Leiden, The Netherlands ([email protected]) F. Bertola, University of Padua, Italy C.J. Cesarsky, Commission for Atomic Energy, Saclay, France P. Ehrenfreund, Leiden University, The Netherlands O. Engvold, University of Oslo, Norway A. Heck, Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, France E.P.J. Van Den Heuvel, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands V.M. Kaspi, McGill University, Montreal, Canada J.M.E. Kuijpers, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands H. Van Der Laan, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands P.G. Murdin, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK B.V. Somov, Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Russia R.A. Sunyaev, Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5664 Wayne Orchiston Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy Trials, Tribulations, Telescopes and Transits 123 WayneOrchiston National Astronomical Research Institute ofThailand ChiangMai Thailand ISSN 0067-0057 ISSN 2214-7985 (electronic) Astrophysics andSpace Science Library ISBN978-3-319-22565-4 ISBN978-3-319-22566-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-22566-1 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2015947953 SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon ©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2016 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerInternationalPublishingAGSwitzerlandispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia (www.springer.com) Contents 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 An Emerging Interest in Observational Astronomy. . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 John Tebbutt and Astronomical History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.3 About This Book: What to Include and What to Exclude?. . . . . 18 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Part I Pre-European Astronomy in The Pacific 2 The Skies Over Aotearoa/New Zealand: Astronomy from a Maori Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 2.2 Source Limitations: The Nature of the Evidence. . . . . . . . . . . . 34 2.3 The Initial Settlement of Aotearoa/New Zealand and the Origin of Maori Astronomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 2.4 The World of the Maori Astronomer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.5 The Creation of the Maori Universe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 2.6 Celestial Objects and Events, and Documentation of Maori Astronomical Knowledge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.6.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.6.2 The Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.6.3 The Moon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 2.6.4 The Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 2.6.5 Comets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 2.6.6 Meteors and Meteorites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 2.6.7 Stars and Asterisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 2.6.8 Variable Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 2.6.9 Nebulae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 2.6.10 The Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. . . . . . . . 74 v vi Contents 2.7 The Astronomy-Meeting House Connection, and Astronomical Motifs in Maori Rock Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 2.7.1 Meeting Houses and Astronomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 2.7.2 Are There Astronomical Motifs in Maori Rock Art? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 2.8 Maori Concepts of Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 2.9 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 3 Mahutonga: Did Proto-Polynesian Astronomers Record the Supernova of AD 185? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 3.2 H.M. Stowell and Mahutonga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 3.3 Identifying Mahutonga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 3.3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 3.3.2 Eta Carinae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 3.3.3 A Nova. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 3.3.4 A Supernova . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 3.4 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Part II Cook Voyage Astronomy and New Zealand 4 Astronomy on Cook’s First Voyage: Mercury Bay and Queen Charlotte Sound, 1769–1770 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 4.2 Planning for the Expedition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 4.2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 4.2.2 Finding a Suitable Vessel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 4.3 The Astronomers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 4.3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 4.3.2 Lieutenat James Cook (1728–1779) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 4.3.3 Charles Green (1734–1771). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 4.4 The Instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 4.4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 4.4.2 Securing Celestial Positions: The Telescopes, Quadrants and Sextants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 4.4.3 Keeping Track of Time: The Clocks. . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 4.5 The Astronomical Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 4.5.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 4.5.2 Coastal Mapping and the Transit of Mercury. . . . . . . 136 4.6 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Contents vii 5 Astronomy on Cook’s Second Voyage: Dusky Sound and Queen Charlotte Sound, 1773–1774 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 5.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 5.2 The Astronomers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 5.2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 5.2.2 William Bayly (1737–1810). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 5.2.3 William Wales (1734–1798) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 5.3 The Instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 5.3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 5.3.2 Securing Celestial Positions: The Telescopes, Quadrants and Sextants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 5.3.3 Keeping Track of Time: The Clocks, Watches and Chronometers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 5.3.4 Protecting the Equipment: The Tent Observatories . . . 165 5.4 Pinpointing the Extremities of the South Island . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 5.5 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 6 Astronomy on Cook’s Third Voyage: Queen Charlotte Sound, 1777. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 6.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 6.2 The Astronomers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 6.2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 6.2.2 Captain James Cook (1728–1779). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 6.2.3 William Bayly (1737–1810). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 6.2.4 James King (1750–1784). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 6.3 The Instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 6.3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 6.3.2 Securing Celestial Positions: The Telescopes, Quadrants and Sextants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 6.3.3 Keeping Track of Time: The Clocks, Watches and Chronometers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 6.3.4 Protecting the Equipment: The Tent Observatories . . . 198 6.4 Refining the Location of Queen Charlotte Sound . . . . . . . . . . . 198 6.5 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 viii Contents Part III Fundamental Astronomy: Of Telescopes and Observatories 7 The ‘Cook’ Gregorian Telescope in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 7.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 7.2 The Telescope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 7.3 The Chain of Ownership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 7.4 The Cook Attribution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 7.5 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 8 Stephen Carkeek, the Wellington Time Ball, and New Zealand’s Oldest Surviving Observatory. . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 8.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 8.2 Stephen Carkeek: A Biographical Sketch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 8.3 The Wellington Time Ball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 8.4 Astronomy at Featherston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 8.5 New Zealand’s Oldest Surviving Observatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 8.5.1 Its Condition in 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 8.5.2 Its Condition in 2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 8.6 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 9 The Historic Astronomical Observatories in the Wellington Botanic Garden: A Brief Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 9.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 9.2 The Colonial Observatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 9.3 The Dominion Observatory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 9.4 The Thomas King Observatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 9.5 The Wellington City Observatory (Aka the ‘Green Tin Shed’). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 9.6 The Carter Observatory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 9.7 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 10 The Thames Observatories of John Grigg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 10.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 10.2 John Grigg: A Biographical Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 10.3 Telescopes and Observatories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 10.4 Astronomical Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 10.5 Other Astronomical Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 10.6 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 Contents ix 11 The Wanganui Refractor and Its Remarkable English Equatorial Mounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 11.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 11.2 The English History of the Telescope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 11.3 The New Zealand History of the Telescope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 11.3.1 Transfer to New Zealand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 11.3.2 Role of the Telescope in Recreation and Research . . . 306 11.4 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 12 Joseph Ward: Pioneer New Zealand Telescope-Maker. . . . . . . . . . 315 12.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 12.2 Joseph Ward: A Biographical Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 12.3 Ward Telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 12.4 The Ward Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 12.5 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 13 From Crossley to Carter: The Life and Times of an Historic Cooke Refractor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 13.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 13.2 The Crossley Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 13.3 The Meeanee Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346 13.4 The ‘Green Tin Shed’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 13.5 The Carter Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 13.6 Problems Associated with Cooke Photovisual Objectives. . . . . . 360 13.7 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364 Part IV Transits of Venus: The Quest for the Astronomical Unit 14 The 1874 and 1882 Transits of Venus: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . 371 14.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 14.2 The 1874 Transit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 14.2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 14.2.2 Observations of the Transit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 14.3 The 1882 Transit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 14.3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 14.3.2 Observations of the Transit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 14.4 Discussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410 14.5 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416