An astronomer would be useful


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Posted by Adam Quinan on June 09, 2004 at 00:21:19 from 66.185.85.76 user Adam.

I managed to catch some of the transit of Venus early this morning.

I projected the sun with a small monocular on to a piece of white card. The transit was in progress when the sun rose here in Toronto and there are a large number of trees around so it was quite a bit later and the transit was within an hour of ending before I had a clear view.

But there she was, a little black dot on the face of the sun connecting me to Captain Cook and Joseph Banks. Although the view on the webcast was easier and clearer to see and of greater magnification, the idea of watching the transit personally instead of electronically holds much more appeal for me.

This only occurs twice every three generations or so. Neither Arthur Ransome nor any of my grandparents were yet born when the last transit of Venus occurred in 1882. While the next one is in 2012, it will be more than a century after that before people will again be able to see that little black dot crawling across the face of the sun.

Would the Swallows have like to have organized an expedition like Captain Cook's to take astronomer Dick to a suitable observing site in the South Seas? And would Captain Nancy have mutinied like Fletcher Christian in those same South Seas?


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