By Steven van Roode
On the occasion of the transit of Venus in 1874 December 9 new possibilities could be used of: steam engines made travelling much faster and photography opened up new vistas for astronomy. At first, not all astronomers were enthusiastic about the new technique of photography: would it enable them to make more accurate measurements of the transit?
Netherlands
In 1874 the Dutch astronomical institutes of Leiden and Utrecht organized a scientific expedition to observe the transit of Venus across the solar disk. Led by Jean Oudemans, the members of the expedition traveled to the Indian Ocean and set up a well-equipped observation camp at Saint Denis on the island of La Réunion. There is a plate commemorating the Dutch expedition.
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Location: 20°52′20″.7 S, 55°26′52″.4 E times of contact
The site of the Dutch expedition at Saint Denis.
In the Dutch East Indies the transit of Venus was observed from fifteen ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy angored at eleven different harbours along the archipelago, as well as by observers on the main land located at Batavia, Buitenzorg and Penoengalan. At Batavia F W Hudig observed the transit from the meteorological station Uitkijk. Today this watch tower is called Menara Syahbandar and can still be visited.
Location: 6°07′38″.4 S, 106°48′32″.0 E times of contact
The meteorological station Uitkijk in Batavia on a pre-1870 picture. (Picture courtesy of the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde)
Great Britain
For the 1874 transit of Venus George Biddell Airy at the Royal Observatory organised and equipped five expeditions to different parts of the world. A British party travelled to the Hawaiian Islands. An auxiliary station was set up in Waimea, on the island of Kuaui, by Richard Johnson. He made use of a 3.5-inch achromatic telescope by Dollond. On the day of the transit, the weather was fine and the ingress could be timed. Just outside the enclosed observatory, the Reverend Robert Dunn observed the transit with a 2.7-inch achromatic telescope by Dollond. The site is marked by a small concrete pier bearing the inscription ‘Transit of Venus’ and dated ‘March 23, [19]32’. Learn more…
Location: 21°57′25″.5 N, 159°40′00″.7 W times of contact
The main station in Hawaii was set up by George Lyon Tupman at Honolulu on an open piece of grassland in the district called Apua, situated south of Punchbowl Street and west of Queen Street. The site was enclosed with a wooden fence. Learn more…
Location: 21°18′11″.9 N, 157°51′38″.2 W times of contact
The Honolulu site. The observatory with the photoheliograph is in the centre. At the left is the house with the transit instrument. (Picture courtesy of National Maritime Museum, London)
A member of the Hawaiian expedition, George Forbes, set up an auxiliary station on the Hulihee Palace grounds in Kailua on the Island of Hawaii. Princess Ruth had granted permission to use her residence. The site is marked by a concrete slab built in 1929 by Charles L. Murray of the Hawaii Territory Survey. Learn more…[1] [2]
Location: 19°38′20″.6 N, 155°59′39″.9 W times of contact
Memorial plate in the grounds of the Hulihee Palace in Kailua. The bronze button is centered over the pier that supported the transit instrument. (Picture courtesy of David Chapman)
In 1874 the Royal Observatory at Cape Town was under direction of Edward James Stone. He observed the egress of the transit of Venus with the 7-inch Merz refractor at a power of 200 from the 14-feet dome. The weather couldn’t be better: no clouds and no wind. Other observers were William Henry Finlay and George William Hershel Maclear.
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Location: 33°56′03″.8 S, 18°28′38″.6 E times of contact
Another British expedition went to Cairo in Egypt, where a site was selected on the Mokattam Hills, on the western extremity of the ridge known as Jebel Juishi. The team was led by Charles Orde Browne. Unusually for the time, the party included two women. On the day of the transit infantery and police were posted so as to form a cordon round the station to prevent the approach of strangers. Just after the last contact at egress a ring of light appeared round the planet’s edge, which so much perplexed Browne that he lost some good measurements of the cusps. The party erected a memorial stone, but I don’t know if it still there.
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Location: 30°01′44″.3 N, 31°16′38″.0 E times of contact
Captain Browne superintends the conveyance of his materials up the Mokattam heights. (Engraving from London Illustrated News, December 12, 1874)
At the Royal Alfred Observatory, a meteorological station at Pamplemousses on the island of Mauritius, Charles Meldrum observed the 1874 transit of Venus. He obtained two sets of distance measurements and he saw third contact. In 1961 the observatory was pulled down to make place for the present Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam National Hospital and consequently there are no remains of this site to be seen.
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Location: 20°05′49″ S, 57°33′33″ E times of contact
In 1874 James Ludovic Lindsay privately funded an expedition to Mauritius. Together with David Gill, who led the expedition, and Ralph Copeland he set up an observatory at Belmont, the estate of Eduard de Chazal. The day of the transit started cloudy, but soon cleared up to enable observations with the heliometer. The foundations of the observatory were recovered a few years ago and the site is now a historic monument.
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Location: 20°03′01″.0 S, 57°40′13″.6 E times of contact
The foundations of Lord Lindsay’s observatory at Belm
Not far from Port Mathurin on Rodrigues, on a site where the old Fort Duncan was loacted, Charles B. Neate erected his observatory huts. The transit hut was enclosed by a large stone wall to protect it against hurricanes. On the morning of the transit, the observatory was surrounded by policemen and no one was allowed to approach. Neate observed with the 6-inch equatorial. At both ingress and egress the black drop was very apparent. Today, there is a plaque commemorating the event (with the wrong year 1894), attached to a large concrete block.
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Location: 19°40′36″.0 S, 63°25′43″.5 E times of contact
The transit hut at Point Venus, surrounded by a wall to protect the hut against hurricanes. (Picture courtesy of National Maritime Museum, London)
The Reverend Stephen Joseph Perry led his party to Kerguelen Island. He set up a chief station at Observatory Bay and two auxiliary stations. The site was excavated in January 2007. There are two white limestone monoliths for mounting the transit telescope, one standing and one laying down, broken into two parts. The stone standing has been slightly displaced after the British left. In due time, the original stones will be replaced by casts.
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Location: 49°25′11″.6 S, 69°53′07″.5 E times of contact
One of the auxiliary British stations on Kerguelen Island was set up by Cyril Corbet at Supply Bay.
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Location: 49°30′47″.3 S, 69°46′13″.2 E times of contact
The other auxiliary British station on Kerguelen Island was set up by Sommerville Goodridge at Thumb Peak, just two days before the transit would take place.
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Location: 49°31′11″.8 S, 70°10′18″.1 E times of contact
The two monoliths at Observatory Bay in January 2007. (Picture courtesy of TAAF)
At Roorkee in India, James Francis Tennant had a small observatory building from where he observed the transit of Venus. The observatory consisted of a larger building with an altazimuth and a photoheliograph, and a separate tower with a 6-inch equatorial by Cooke and Sons. Tennant using the equatorial, he didn’t see first external contact owing to the sun’s low altitude, but could secure the other conttacts. At the altazitmuth was Captain Campbell and at the photoheliograph Captain Waterhouse.
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Location: 29°51′50″.2 N, 77°53′18″.9 E times of contact
At Madras Observatory in Madras at Nungambakkam, Government Astronomer Norman Robert Pogson made observations of the 1874 transit of Venus. Today all that is left of Madras Observatory are four pillars and a granite slab kept in an enclosure at the Regional Meteorologic Centre.
Location: 13°04′07″.8 N, 80°14′49″.3 E times of contact
From his extensive private observatory in Daba Gardens at Visakhapatnam in India, astronomer Ankitam Venkata Nursinga Row observed the 1874 transit of Venus. Due to clouds only egress was observed with a 6-inch clock-driven equatorial. The site of Daba Gardens Observatory is now occupied by the Dolphin Hotel. Efforts are being made to install a commemorative monument.
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Location: 17°42’46″.3 N, 83°17′51″.4 E times of contact
Indian and European observers of the transit of Venus at Daba Gardens Observatory in Visakhapatnam, India. (Picture courtesy of Royal Astronomical Society Library)
The British party led by Major Henry Spencer Palmer enclosed a space of about an acre near the Industrial School at Burnham near Christchurch. In this were fixed four observatory huts and four square military tents. One wing of the school was set apart as a residence for the expedition’s members and the chemicals were stored in the outbuildings. During the transit, dense masses of clouds obscured the sun, making it hard to obtain observations of Venus on the face of the sun. Just seconds before internal contact at ingress, the planet was lost from vision.
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Location: 43°36′40″.7 S, 172°18′09″.3 E times of contact
Germany
A German expedition, led by photographer Gustav Fritsch, went to Isfahan in Persia. The party set up its station in the vicinity of the garden palace Bagh Zereshk. On the day of the transit only a few photographs of the sun could be taken due to clouds. After the transit, the stone plates of the foundation of the heliograph were incised with an inscription. These plates are now at the courtyard of the nearby Vank Cathedral in Julfa.
Location: 32°38′19″.8 N, 51°39′55″.8 E times of contact
The German observers at the photoheliograph in Isfahan. From left to right: Franz Stolze, Ernst Becker, Gustav Fritsch, Ernst Hoeltzer and Hugo Buchwald.
German astronomer Karl Nikolai Jensen Börgen arrived at Betsy Cove on Kerguelen Island on board of the Gazelle in November 1874. He set up an astronomical, meteorological and magnetic observatory consisting of several sheds for various instruments. A total of 150 men levelled the terrain and brought the observatories and instruments ashore. Upon their leave in February 1875 the expedition left the brick piers and a couple of thermometers, sunk into the ground.
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Location: 49°09′17″.8 S, 70°10′57″.7 E times of contact
The German station at Betsy Cove on Kerguelen Island. On the left is the iron observatory for the photographic refractor, in the middle is the living house and on the right the astronomical observatory, consisting of two iron domes.
On the beach of Terror Cove, near the settlement of Port Ross on Auckland Island, a German expedition led by astronomer Hugo Seeliger built an observing station. The temporary observatory consisted of a wooden house, constructed during a short stay at Melbourne, and several domes for the astronomical equipment, including a photoheliograph. The day of the transit started with rain, but the transit could be seen until shortly before last contact, when the sun was obscured by clouds again. All that is preserved to the present is the red brick pillar of the passage instrument.
Location: 50°32′10″.4 S, 166°12′45″.5 E times of contact
The German station at Terror Cove on Auckland Island.
Austria
Together with Edmund Weiss, Theodor von Oppolzer travelled to Jassy (Iasi) in modern Romania to observe the transit of Venus. The two astronomers of the Wiener Universitätssternwarte installed their instruments in the southern front garden of the Präfecturgebäude. Between 1906 and 1925 the new neo-Gothic Palatul Culturii was constructed on the old ruins of the Royal Court of Moldavia (which was destroyed by fire in the late 1800′s). In the morning of December 9 the two Austrian astronomers could see the egress of Venus. Intertior contact was lost due to fog, but the exterior contact could be timed, although their timings were uncertain because of atmospheric undulations.
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Location: 47°09′23″ N, 27°35′13″ E times of contact
United States
Eight well-equiped expeditions were fitted out in 1874, organized by the U.S. Transit of Venus Commission, with Simon Newcomb as Secretary. On Kerguelen Island, George Ryan set up a station at Molloy Point. Today, the two iron piers for the heliostat and the photographic plate holder, as well as the brick pier for the transit instrument are still present.
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Location: 49°21′22″.1 S, 70°04′52″.7 E times of contact
Robert Headland of the Scott Polar Research lnstitute next to the remains of the pier for the heliostat.
An American expedition under direction of James Craig Watson chose a vacant space on the premises occupied by the English Church Mission in Peking to erect the observatory buildings. During his stay at Peking, Watson also discovered an astroid, 139 Juewa, which was named by the Chinese prince Kung. A week before the transit a busy street near the station was closed, because the traffic produced anoying vibations. Learn more…[1] [2] [3]
Location: 39°54′13″.2 N, 116°22′23″.5 E times of contact
A party led by George Davidson went to Nagasaki in Japan. Davidson choose the steep, bare hill Ohira Yama (modern Hositori Yama) south of the city to set up his observatory. They missed first contact because of clouds, but second contact could be timed. At egress, a dense cloud drifted over the sun just at the moment of third contact. Then, the sky became overcast and it started to rain.
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Location: 32°43′17″.5 N, 129°52′37″.5 E times of contact
The American station at Nagasaki. From left to right: the transit house, the heliostat with clockdrive, the equatorial house and the photographic house. North is to the left.
Emiritus professor of mathematics and astronomy at Columbia College, New York, Henry J. Anderson travelled to Australia on his own expense to observe the transit of Venus. He observed from the fenced and cultivated land of William Jameson Turner, a local watchmaker, at 38 Loch Street in Beechworth, Victoria. He used a telescope by Secretan of Paris with an aperture of 77 cm and a focal length of 1.125 m. Initially, observing conditions were ideal and the internal contact at ingress didn’t show anything resembling a black drop. After this contact the weather suddenly changed and clouds obscured the sun. On his homeward journey Anderson died in India from a malignant disease.
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Location: 36°21′21″.9 S, 146°41′21″.9 E times of contact
In Hobart, Tasmania, William Harkness set up an observation station in the grounds of the military barracks at Davey Street, next to a war memorial. The Tasmanian government inclosed so much of the ground as was needed and furnished a policeman to protect it.
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Location: 42°53’19″.2 S, 147°19′38″.2 E times of contact
The station at Hobart with the hut for the transit instrument, the clock drive and the pier with the heliostat. The war memorial is in the back. (Picture courtesy of George Eastman House)
Another American expedition set up its instruments in Tasmania as well. The party led by Charles Raymond was originally designed to occupy a station at the Crozet Islands, but owing to heavy storms a landing could not be effected. Finally a station was selected and occupied in the grounds of The Grange, the house of William Valentine in Campbelltown. Today the brick pier for the transit instrument and the wooden hut for the equatorial are still present. Also, the two iron piers have survived to this day, but they are not in their orignal positions. A sundial commemorates the momentous observation.
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Location: 41°55′42″.4 S, 147°29′44″.1 E times of contact streetview
The wooden hut for the equatorial in the grounds of The Grange at Campbelltown. (Picture courtesy of Martin George)
Under the direction of Christian Peters an American station was set up in Queenstown, situated on Melbourne Street on a terrace northeast of the city. At the time, there were only a few scattered houses and inhabitants, but streets and sections were laid out for the future growth of the city. Melbourne Street passed right through the northeast section of the station, with the photographic house standing entirely on the street. There is a memorial plate in the grounds of the Millennium Hotel.
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Location: 45°01′59″.9 S, 168°40′02″.5 E times of contact
The transit house and the observatory with the equatorial at Queenstown. (Picture courtesy of Hocken Library, University of Otago)
At Whangaroa Harbor on Chatham Island, a party under direction of Edwin Smith set up its instruments to observe the 1874 transit of Venus. This expedition was ill-fated. On its way to Chatham island, the chief photographer died of yellow fever. When it arrived, the members had much trouble erecting the pier for the photographic plate holder. On the day of the transit, just one hour before first contact, the spring driver of the equatorial’s driving clock was found broken. During the larger part of the transit, the sun was obscured by thin clouds and just before third contact it started to rain.
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Location: 43°48′56″.4 S, 176°42′41″.6 W times of contact
From left to right the transit house, the heliostat and the photographic house with a barrel rack for water supply. (Picture courtesy of U.S. Naval Observatory Library)
France
In 1874 the Académie des Sciences organized a couple of expeditions to observe and photograph the transit of Venus. A party under direction of Ernest Mouchez set up its instruments on Ile Saint-Paul in the Indian Ocean. This expedition was very lucky, because Ile Saint-Paul was in the middle of a heavy storm, except for the six hours of Venus’ transit. The team managed to secure several pictures of the transit. Upon his departure, Mouchez left a large pyramid with an engraved stone at the flagstaff to commemorate the observation. When the stone nearly survived a cyclone in February 1998, it was decided that it was to be replaced by a mold before the 2004 transit of Venus.
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Location: 33°42′54″.5 S, 77°31′55″.6 E times of contact
The observatory of Ernest Mouchez on Ile Saint-Paul. The two domes contain 8-feet equatorials, the cabin on the left is the photographic house and the building in the back holds the alt-azimuth. (Picture courtesy of the Institut de mécanique céleste et de calcul des éphémérides)
French astronomer Georges-Ernest Fleuriais was in charge of an expedition to Pekin in China. He was offered to use a part of the garden of the French Legation and a pavillion next to it, all close to the Forbidden City. Four huts were erected for the two equatorials, the transit instrument and the photographic equatorial. On the day of the transit the sky was clear and all four contacts were timed. Learn more…[1] [2] [3]
Location: 39°54′08″.1 N, 116°24′17″.0 E times of contact
When the two French astronomers Pierre-César Jules Janssen and Félix Tisserand had just installed their instruments on Mount Kompira near Nagasaki in Japan, Tisserand’s telescope and micrometer were broken in a storm. Fortunately, the other instruments survived. One of these was a photographic revolver invented by Janssen. After the succesfull observation of the transit, a commemorative monument was erected on the site by Janssen. In 1993 the original foundations of the observatory were discovered.
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Location: 32°45′51″.0 N, 129°52′59″.0 E times of contact
The photographic revolver of Janssen in Nagasaki, operated by Brazilian astronomer Francisco Antônio de Almeida.
Janssen also set up an auxiliary station at Suwayama in Kobe, Japan. The observations were performed by Delacroix and Chimizou using a 6-inch telescope by Bardou and a photographic telescope by Steinheil. They observed all four contatcs. A commemorative monument was later erected, and the site came to be referred to as Kinsei-dai (Venus Hill).
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Location: 34°41’44″.3 N, 135°10′48″.7 E times of contact
Commemorative monuments at Suwayama Public Garden in Kobe. The pillar to the right commemorates the observation of the transit of Venus.
Another French expedition went to Nouméa in New Caledonia to observe the 1874 transit of Venus. Charles André, astronomer at the Paris Observatory, set up his instruments just outside Nouméa at Anse Vata Bay. The photographic house demanded special care beacuse of the sensibilty of the photographic plates to cold. Ingress couldn’t be observed due to clouds, but fortunately the sky cleared during the transit and egress could be timed perfectly. The location was roughly determined by means of the drawing by Albert Tissandier. Learn more…
Location: 22°18′12″.3 S, 166°26′46″.6 E times of contact
Site of the French expedition at Nouméa. (Drawing by Albert Tissandier)
On the remote and inhabitated Campbell Island the French astronomer Jean Jacques Anatole Bouquet de la Grye installed several observatory huts to observe the 1874 transit of Venus. On the day of the transit it was cloudy and only five minutes before first contact the sun began to show. Venus was seen against the sun’s corona. De la Grye also had a very short glimpse of Venus half onto the solar disc – and nothing more. The bay where the French station stood, was aptly called Venus Bay.
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Location: 52°33′39″.0 S, 169°08′29″.6 E times of contact
Observatory huts at Campbell Island. Left the transit house, in the middle the dome with the parallactic telescope and to the right the magnetic house.
Egypt
Near Abbasiya, east of Cairo and not far from the British station, stood the Khedivial Observatory. It was an astronomical and meteorological observatory with a characteristic drum shaped dome, directed by royal astronomer Mahmud Ahmad Hamdi al Falaki. Before the transit, Al Falaki practised on the model at the British station. On the day of the transit, Al Falaki used the observatory’s 6-inch equatorial to observe the transit and timed the contacts at egress. The observatory moved to Helwan in 1903, but the building remained until at least 1936. Today the site is occupied by the building of the Faculty of Arts of the Ain Shams University.
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Location: 30°04′35″.8 N, 31°17′14″.9 E times of contact
The former observatory at Abbasiya on a 1906 postcard.
Australia
At Adelaide Observatory its director Charles Todd used the newly purchased 8-inch Cooke refractor to observe the 1874 transit of Venus. For the transit, the instrument was stopped down to 4 inches. Due to clouded weather Todd missed ingress, but favourable weather conditions allowed him to time egress. An independent observer, F.G. Singleton, who had set up his 3-inch refractor in the observatory’s grounds, also saw egress. Adelaide Observatory, located at the corner of Glover Avenue and West Terrace, was demolished in 1940.
Location: 34°55′31″.7 S, 138°35′13″.3 E times of contact
At Melbourne Observatory Robert Lewis John Ellery supervised the operations. Ellery and John White made visual observations with the Troughton and Simms 8-inch refractor. William Kernot used the new Dallmeyer photoheliograph, which was purchased by the Colony of Victoria and was installed at the observatory just in time to photograph the transit. A Janssen’s device could be attached to the photoheliograph and 180 frames of the transit were taken on at least nine circular plates. The instrument was restored and reinstalled in the dome in time for the 2004 transit of Venus. Joseph Turner planned to take photographs with the Great Melbourne Telescope and succeeded in producing excellent results.
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Location: 37°49′45″.9 S, 144°58′31″.2 E times of contact streetview
William Kernot operating the Dallmeyer photoheliograph at Melbourne Observatory, assisted by his students. (Wood engraving by Samuel Calvert)
An expedition of Sydney Observatory set up its instruments in the middle of the Market Square (modern Belmore Park) of the city of Goulburn. This expedition was led by Archibald Liversidge. The day of the transit was very hot and all coloured glasses of the telescope became fractured. All contacts at ingress and egress could be timed and photographs were taken during the time in between. In 1910 a plaque was placed on a concrete block in Belmore Park, indicating the co-ordinates of Goulburn en commemorating the observation of the transit of Venus. In 1997 this plaque was moved a short distance and placed on a new pier to allow the construction of a playground.
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Location: 34°45′19″.1 S, 149°43′13″.1 E times of contact streetview
The pier with two plaques in Belmore Park, Goulburn. On top of the pier is the original 1910 plaque, on one side is a plaque with further information. (Picture by Gordon Thompson, 2007)
In Eden, William Scott erected an observatory on an open space known as Market Square, on a hill overlooking both bays. Scott was using a 7.25-inch equatorial, stopped down to 2 inches. On the morning of the transit clouds came up, but didn’t yet interfere with the observation of the ingress. After ingress, about fifty photographs were taken, but clouds were continually driving over the face of the sun.
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Location: 37°04′04″.9 S, 149°54′27″.2 E times of contact
Waiting for the transit at Eden.
In addition to Sydney Observatory three other stations in New South Wales were selected by Henry Russell to observe the 1874 transit of Venus. One of these stations was set up in the grounds of Woodford, the residence of Alfred Fairfax, a wealthy amateur astronomer. Philip Francis Adams, who was in charge of the observations, observed all four contacts. Moreover, a total of 63 whole pictures and 16 Janssen plates were taken. The presumed location of the station is at 11 Arthur Street. There is a dedicated plaque to commemorate the observation.
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Location: 33°43′55″.0 S, 150°28′20″.7 E times of contact
The station in the grounds of Woodford.
In Windsor, New South Wales, amateur astronomer John Tebbutt had built a small wooden observatory with pine walls and a slate roof and a separate circular building to house his equatorial instrument. Under very favourable weather, he observed all four contacts of the 1874 transit of Venus. In 1879 and 1894 Tebbutt replaced the wooden structures by brick buildings, which still stand today.
Location: 33°36′24″.2 S, 150°49′50″.2 E times of contact
John Tebbutt in front of his wooden observatory.
In 1874 the transit of Venus was observed from Sydney Observatory by the government astronomer Henry Chamberlain Russell. For this event, a new telescope was bought, which is still in use today. On the day of the transit the weather was fine and all four contacts could be observed. A beautiful halo was visible around Venus before the planet was wholly on the sun. With the photoheliograph a total of 180 pictures were taken.
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Location: 33°51′34″.0 S, 151°12′16″.3 E times of contact
From the backyard of his house at 25 Hunter Street in Sydney, not far from the observatory, Frederick Allerding observed the 1874 transit of Venus. His observations were interrupted many times, by allowing a great many friends to have a peep at the transit through a telescope of 3½-inch aperture.
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Location: 33°51′56″.6 S, 151°12′30″.2 E times of contact
New Zealand
In the Botanical Garden in Wellington, New Zealand, stood the Colonial Time Service Observatory. Here, James Hector supervised the observations of the 1874 transit of Venus. Hector used the 4-inch equatorial belonging to the observatory, which was fixed in a tent at one corner of the enclosure. In another tent in the opposite corner William Frederick Parsons observed with a 6-inch reflector constructed by himself. Two assistants, Gore and Bothamley, took the time and recorded each incident. Archdeacon Arthur Stock observed the event with his own telescope from the adjoining cemetery, assisted by John William Allman Marchant, Surveyor for Wellington Province. However, due to clouds, the internal contact at ingress couldn’t be seen.
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Location: 41°16′46″.3 S, 174°46′18″.4 E times of contact
Mexico
A Mexican expedition, originally heading for China, eventually installed at Yokohama in Japan. They set up two separate observing stations. Francisco Díaz Covarrubias was chief of a station at Nogeyama. The observatory hut was constructed by a Chinese worker and was ready by the end of November 1874. On the day of the transit, all four contacts could be timed. Today, a stone base of the observatory can still be seen. Near the site of the Nogeyama observatory is a centenary monument erected in 1974 to commemorate the Mexican expedition.
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Location: 35°26′57″.1 N, 139°37′36″.6 E times of contact
The other Mexican station in Yokohama was located at The Bluff (modern Yamate) in the foreign quarter of Yokohama. Here, a wooden observatory house was erected by Francisco Jiménez. Although the two Mexican observatories differed only 5 seconds of time in longitude, the observed times of contact differed more than 20 seconds.
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Location: 35°26′19″.9 N, 139°38′50″.7 E times of contact
The observatory at Nogeyama (left) and the observatory at The Bluff (right).