Transits Of Venus Through History 1. “The ancient...

Transits Of Venus Through History
1. “The ancient Babylonian Venus Tables of Ammizaduga contains information about the movements of Venus, but mentions no transit, though the Babylonians had opportunity to see ones in 1512, 1520, and 1641 BC.”
2. “English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks is considered the first human to have witnessed a Venus transit. He concluded that existing information about planetary positions was incorrect, so he gathered his own data, allowing him to correctly predict a transit of Venus in 1639 (which Kepler had not foreseen).”
3. “On June 5, 1761 the transit of Venus was observed by 176 scientists positioned all over the world. Russian astronomer Mikhail Lomonosov noticed a halo of light that surrounded the disk of Venus as it crossed the edge of the sun, and deduced that Venus must possess an atmosphere. Shown here are drawings of Venus and the “black drop effect” by Torben Bergman, later discovered to be caused by image blurring and solar limb darkening. ”
4. “The transit of Venus on June 3, 1769, led to the publication of 400 sightings.” This French cartoon depicts the 1769 event.
5. “Melbourne’s heliograph is the only surviving image from the 1874 transit.”
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