And for a discussion of the transit of Venus, teaching astronomy, and love, read Stephen Leacock's short story "The Transit of Venus." :-)
On Mon, 15 Mar 1999, Dave Bell wrote: >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 > > =============================================================================== Richard B. Langley E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geodetic Research Laboratory Web: http://www.unb.ca/GGE/ Dept. of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering Phone: +1 506 453-5142 University of New Brunswick Fax: +1 506 453-4943 Fredericton, N.B., Canada E3B 5A3 Fredericton? Where's that? See: http://www.city.fredericton.nb.ca/ ===============================================================================
