On Tue, 16 Mar 1999, John Pickard wrote: > When I was a kid at school more years ago than I care to remember, I > was taught that Lieutenant James Cook RN came out to Australia in > 1770 (or was it 1772??) to have a look around, and also to observe > the "transit of Venus" in Tahiti. > > So my question (which I am sure will be answered) is simple: why > would anyone cross the road (let alone the world in a small sailing > ship) just to see a ToV? > > Thanks, John > Dr John Pickard > Senior Lecturer, Environmental Planning > Graduate School of the Environment > Macquarie University, NSW 2109 Australia
John: Your question intrigued me, as I had always just accepted the bare statement, and hadn't thought about *why*, at least that I can recall. Certainly, one part of the question - "why travel so far?" is clear. The event, like a lunar eclipse, is not visible from all parts of the Earth. In fact, it is slightly more like a total solar eclipse, in that one's position on the Earth affects the view, by parallax. The big question though, is "Why did they care?". Seems the project was basically to determine the radius of the Earth's orbit, still undetermined in the late 18th century. Check out: http://www.dsellers.demon.co.uk/index.htm Dave
