Last time I wrote about how Galileo’s discovery of the moons of Jupiter led to accurate determination of time regardless of location.  The British Royal Astronomer, John Flamsteed, published the first tables of Jupiter’s moons in 1707, after Galileo had proposed the method 90 years earlier.

Although sailors had learned to determine latitude (N/S), an accurate time piece was needed for determination of the longitude (E/W).  You need time to the nearest minute to resolve the longitude within 17 miles (at the equator).  If you know the time to the nearest second, you can know your east-west position within 500 yards.The problem remains that it is nearly impossible on a moving, rolling deck of a ship to use a telescope to see the moons of Jupiter.  In addition the weather and the position of the planet in the night sky have to be just right to make an attempt.

Grasshopper escapement invented by John Harrison

Since accurate clocks were sorely needed for ship navigation, the British Parliament in 1714 offered three prizes up to 30000 pounds Sterling for determining longitude on a voyage to the New World. The book, Longitude, written by Dava Sobel is an exciting, suspenseful story about John Harrison (1689 – 1776) who spent most of his life producing a series of five clocks to fulfill the requirements of the prizes.

In 1761, Harrison’s 4th clock, which looked like a large pocket watch, was only 5 seconds slow at the end of a two month voyage on the HMS Deptford from England to Jamaica – an error in longitude of only one nautical mile!  Can you believe it?  But this astounding achievement was labeled “just luck” by Parliament, and the prize refused, even though the requirement was to measure it within 30 miles!

He repeated the feat in 1765; once again the prize was refused.  Finally, he appealed to King George III, who insisted that Harrison be given the prize.  In 1773, at 80 years of age, he was finally rewarded by Parliament – but not the official award, which apparently was never given to anyone.

Harrison's 4th clock that met the challenge

(The H4 clock is running again – click to see the BBC News article)

Although John Harrison was denied the official award, seafarers from that time forward were able to navigate accurately. The designer and maker of the wonders and beauties of our cosmos gave a gift to this man so he could in turn create such marvelous time pieces.
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works. (Ps. 91:14 ESV)

The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty…
The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;

We have all heard the story of Benjamin Franklin sending up a kite during a thunder storm and being shocked through a key tied to the kite string. But I was surprised years ago to find out that this electricity is available on clear, cloudless days as well. Which brings to mind another story from our family chronicles.

Back in the 80′s (last century, to you youngsters), our middle school-age son decided for his science project to investigate this atmospheric electricity by making a static electricity motor.

He worked hard for weeks on the contraption, the design gotten from Scientific American, I believe. It consisted of a circular piece of plastic about 10 inches in diameter, balanced very carefully on a tiny ball-bearing axis.

We gathered the gang – our 2 sons, my wife, and myself – in the front yard and launched a red weather balloon. It was about 4 feet in diameter and full of helium. The tether was made of fishing line, with small copper wire tied along side, plus a static electricity collector made up of narrow strips of metal screen right under the balloon.

We reeled out about 200 or 300 feet of the line and wire, with the plan to connect the wire to the electric motor when we got it up. We tried connecting it at several heights, with nothing happening, when suddenly, our younger son, cried out, “Ouch! Mom, you shocked me!”

I shouted, “Ya hoo – it’s working!” and about that time our older son yelled, “It’s turning!” And we watched as the wheel gradually turned faster and faster while he took notes on the experiment.

How much power is available from this source? The numbers are quite impressive on one scale (volts) but very weak on the other (amps). The voltage goes up about 100 volts (more in winter) every yard in altitude (100 yards = 10,000 volts), but the current is in the microampere range – enough to turn a very delicate motor, but not enough to power anything useful from the motor.

There are different theories about where the electricity comes from. The one that makes sense to me is that it is from the friction of air molecules upon each other as they move with the wind. There is an article on Wikipedia about atmospheric electricity
which may be of interest.

This source of energy is responsible for the amazing display of flashes of lightning that come in thunder storms, another wonderful example of the intricacies of the creation of our God.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords…
To Him who alone does great wonders…
To Him who by understanding made the heavens,
for His steadfast love endures forever;
(Ps. 136:3-5 ESV)

The telescope mount has two drive motors which will swing the telescope to the selected star, planet, or nebula, at least it will after you go through the rather tedious procedure for aligning the mount to two or three known stars. And then the object will be tracked automatically as it offsets the motion caused by the earth’s rotation.

The optics of this telescope seem good, except the eye-piece focuser is of poor quality.  The tripod is fairly heavy duty, and the telecope and mount hold the view steady, unlike a lot of telescopes in the $100 or less range which are usually plagued by vibration.

Here is a photo of the telescope.

Setting up to see transit of Venus across the Sun