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Fort Venus located on the north coast of Tahiti. On 3 June 1769, navigator Captain James Cook, naturalist Joseph Banks, astronomer Charles Green and naturalist Daniel Solander recorded the transit of Venus from the island of Tahiti during Cook's first voyage around the world. [1]
On 16 February 1768 the Royal Society petitioned King George III to finance a scientific expedition to the Pacific to study and observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the face of the sun to enable the measurement of the distance from the Earth to the Sun. [2] Royal approval was granted for the expedition, and the Admiralty elected to combine the scientific voyage with a confidential mission ...
Sketchings of the 1769 Venus Transit by Captain James Cook and Charles Green, showing the black drop effect. Green joined Cook's first voyage of circumnavigation in 1768, accompanied by a servant. Green was one of two official astronomers appointed by the Royal Society to observe the transit; the other was Cook himself, who was a capable ...
Captain James Cook FRS (7 November [O.S. 27 October] 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular.
The first voyage of James Cook was a discovery expedition to the south Pacific Ocean, with aims of observing the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun [1] and seeking evidence of the alleged southern territories, named by that time as Terra Australis Incognita. [2] The ship chosen for the voyage was HMS Endeavour.
As part of the plans of the Royal Society to make observations of the June 1769 transit of Venus, which would lead to an accurate determination of the astronomical unit (the distance between the Earth and the Sun), Wales and an assistant, Joseph Dymond, were sent to Prince of Wales Fort on Hudson Bay to observe the transit, [3] with the pair being offered a reward of £200 for a successful ...
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy.Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European discovery of eastern Australia, Hawaii and undertook the first circumnavigation of New Zealand.
His observations allowed him to make a well-informed guess for the diameter of Venus and an estimate of the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun (59.4 million mi (95.6 million km; 0.639 AU)). His observations were not published until 1661, well after Horrocks's death.