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A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus is visible as a small black circle moving across the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus reoccur periodically.
Point Venus Lighthouse, Tahiti (LMS, 1869, p.) [4]. In 1663, Scottish mathematician James Gregory came up with the idea of using Venus or Mercury transits to determine the astronomical unit by measuring the apparent solar parallax between different points on the surface of the Earth. [5]
Transits of Venus directly between the Earth and the Sun's visible disc are rare astronomical events. The first such transit to be predicted and observed was the 1639 transit of Venus, seen and recorded by English astronomers Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree. [18]
Neith is a hypothetical natural satellite of Venus reportedly sighted by Giovanni Cassini in 1672 and by several other astronomers in following years. It was 'observed' up to 30 times by astronomers until 1770, when there were no new sightings and it was not found during the transit of Venus in 1761 and 1769. [1] [2]
The transit as seen from Japan by Pierre Janssen Map showing the visibility of the 1874 transit of Venus. The 1874 transit of Venus, which took place on 9 December 1874 (01:49 to 06:26 UTC), [1] [n 1] was the first of the pair of transits of Venus that took place in the 19th century, with the second transit occurring eight years later in 1882.
2012 transit of Venus, projected to a white card by a telescope. A transit of Venus is the appearance of Venus in front of the Sun, during inferior conjunction. Since the orbit of Venus is slightly inclined relative to Earth's orbit, most inferior conjunctions with Earth, which occur every synodic period of 1.6 years, do not produce a transit ...
The transit of Venus occurred on June 3, 1769. Rittenhouse's great excitement at observing the infrequently occurring transit of Venus (for which he had prepared for a year) resulted in his fainting during the observation. In addition to the work involved in the preparations, he had also been ill the week before the transit.
The Venus transit of 1882. The 1882 transit of Venus on 6 December 1882 (13:57 to 20:15 UTC), was the second and last transit of Venus of the 19th century, the first having taken place eight years earlier in 1874. Many expeditions were sent by European powers to describe both episodes, eight by the United States Congress alone. [1]