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On June 5 and 6, 2012 the planet Venus will pass in front of the Sun for the last time this century. Millions around the world will witness this rare astronomical phenomenon.
This website is entirely devoted to the transit of Venus: its history, where and when you should watch it and what you can do to get involved in the observation. Learn more...
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Tag Archives: Hell
We are still following James Cook and Father Maximilian Hell on their expeditions to observe the transit of Venus in June 1769. By Christmas 1768, Hell had already established himself comfortably at Vardø and had to cope with the severe … Continue reading
As I’m sitting at Boston airport, hoping to be able to get out before a snow storm is going to hit Massachusetts, I’m thinking of Jesuit priest Maximilian Hell who exactly 243 years ago, at the end of October, was … Continue reading
On 13 September 1768, James Cook arrived at Madeira, an island in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast. The following entry in the diary of Joseph Banks, a naturalist assigned to Cook’s expedition, already makes clear that the voyage … Continue reading
Around this time of the year in 1768, astronomers set off to the far flung destinations they were assigned to observe the 1769 transit of Venus. In an age when making long journeys around the globe wasn’t without risk, these … Continue reading
Jesuit Father Maximilian Hell left his home town Vienna about a year before the 1769 transit of Venus, in company of his assistant Father Johann Sajnovics. In October 1768 they arrived at the northern Norwegian village Vardø, which by then … Continue reading
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