24th November is an important day for the science carried out for Venus. However, it is the Julian calendar date. The Gregorian calendar date is 4th December. In 1639, Jeremiah Horrocks observed the first ever transit of Venus from Earth. A transit is observed when a planetary body passes between the Sun and a planet.
 |
| The transit of Venus as observed in 2012 captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Spacecraft. |
From his calculations in 1631, he had predicted the next transit would take place 8 years later. He had a simple wooden telescope that he used to observe the transit.
He also calculated the solar parallax and concluded that the distance between the Earth and the Sun was more than what was assumed previously.
 |
| A painting of Jeremiah Horrocks observing the 1639 transit of Venus by Eyre Crowe in The Founder of English Astronomy, 1891 |
0 comments:
Post a Comment