Transit of Venus Culture
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Transit of Venus images reflect on how the astronomical phenomenon has intrigued the public over centuries. This collection of images were edited down for Chuck Bueter's presentation at American Astronomical Society, HAD-1 Special Session, Jan 08, 2012, Austin, TX. file: Aas austin12-01-06
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Transit of Venus Culture
- 1. Transit of Venus Culture: A Celestial Phenomenon Intrigues the Public Chuck Bueter bueter@nightwise.org American Astronomical Society HAD-1 Special Session Jan 08, 2012 Austin, TX
- 3. 121 ½ 121 ½ 105 ½105 ½ 8888 8
- 7. Text “I hope to be excused for not informing other of my friends of the expected phenomenon, but most of them care little for trifles of this kind, preferring rather their hawks and their hounds, to say no worse; and although England is not without votaries of astronomy, with some of whom I am acquainted, I was unable to convey to them the agreeable tidings, having myself had so little notice.” Jeremiah Horrocks
- 22. George Alexander Stevens Songs, Comic and Satyrical (1772)
- 29. 1848
- 30. 1859
- 32. 1874
- 43. De Venere in Sole Spectata ______________ MATER SAEVA CUPIDINUM - Horace ____________ Be careful, saucy Cupid, how you frisk, And keep your garments on, and give no lip, or Your ma’ll perform a transit on your disk, By frequent applications of the slipper. — Ourself. The eventful 6th of December, 1882, has come and has passed away. If the solar parallax has not been ascertained, the probabilities are that the present generation will never ascertain it. In the Bureau of Astronomy, business commenced at an early hour. The Board was in session at half-past seven. Some distinguished members of the Law Class were the first to make their appearance. They wanted to know if a “Stoppage in Transitu” could not be effected. The Secretary, however, promptly gave them to understand that all attempts at intimidation, legal or otherwise, would be severely frowned down. The exhibition at which they were preparing to assist was regulated by a “higher law.” The Committee on Local time were active in endeavoring to communicate with Washington by telegraph, so as to secure the necessary corroboration to the testimony of their own chronometer. But the electrician was, unfortunately, absent, and the amateurs who volunteered to supply his place did not seem to “catch on,” as it were. At length, they concluded that the apparatus must be out of order. The fateful moment was now approaching. Enthusiasm, in some cases rising to frenzy, was manifested by the crowd surrounding the telescope. Still the heavenly bodies were veiled by slowly dissipating clouds. At nine (9) a.m. the Committee on Atmospheric Disturbances reported indications of a squall arising in the Sow-Sow-West, and a little more Sow. They hoped that this would clear the sky. On examination, however, the squall proved to be of a domestic rather than a meteorological character, being the natural result of a spanking a refractory child on Lowell Heights. It was then proposed to ring the big bell, so as to break up the clouds. Some members of the committee were of the opinion that this would break them down rather than up. During the debate, the clouds became sufficiently attenuated to allow furtive glimpses of the sun to be obtained, and the planet was already performing her transit. At a quarter past ten (10:45) everything was serene. Venus was looking extremely well, considering her age. Not a wrinkle appeared to mar the charming embonpoint of her exquisite contour. How much of this is natural, of course, we will not pretend to say. She never once seemed to lose her self-possession, in spite of the numberless telescopes levelled at her. Mrs. Langtry has here a formidable rival, where perhaps it was least expected. We are happy to say that the old scandals once associated with the name of Venus are now regarded as more mythological fables. She has completely regained her social position, and moves in the highest circles. The decorum with which both she and the Sun conducted themselves on this trying occasion cannot be too much admired. There was nothing in the performance which could raise a blush to the cheek of the most fastidious. We must not conclude this article without giving due praise to the various committees for the manner in which the affair was conducted. The Committee on Parallax will report as soon as they hear from the Cape of Good Hope, or some point in South America.
- 44. The fateful moment was now approaching. Enthusiasm, in some cases rising to frenzy, was manifested by the crowd surrounding the telescope...Venus was looking extremely well, considering her age. Not a wrinkle appeared to mar the charming embonpoint of her exquisite contour. How much of this is natural, of course, we will not pretend to say. She never once seemed to lose her self-possession, in spite of the numberless telescopes levelled at her.
- 45. “In the City Hall Park a telescope was erected and so great was the rush of people to take a look through it that the services of a Park policeman were required to keep them in line awaiting their turn.” “Enterprising proprietors of telescopes of all sizes and powers...reaped a large harvest ...at a rate of 10 cents a sight. “
- 46. “If Venus only comes to time, (And prophets say she must and shall,) To-day will hear the tinkling chime Of many a ringing silver dime, For him whose optic glass supplies The crowd with astronomic eyes,— The Galileo of the Mall.” The Flâneur Boston Common, December 6, 1882, During the Transit of Venus By Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
- 47. I go the patient crowd to join That round the tube my eyes discern, The last new-comer of the file, And wait, and wait, a weary while, And gape, and stretch, and shrug, and smile, (For each his place must fairly earn, Hindmost and foremost, in his turn,) Till hitching onward, pace by pace, I gain at last the envied place, And pay the white exiguous coin: The Flâneur Boston Common, December 6, 1882, During the Transit of Venus By Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
- 62. 1876
- 67. J.G. Brown N.A. 1883 Harper's Weekly April 28, 1883
- 73. First Meeting ("lorsque Vénus est tout entière entrée dans le disque") When you are the flower I am the shadow cast by the flower When I am the fire You are the mirror reflecting the fire And when Venus has entered the disk of the Sun Then you are that Venus and I am the Sun.
- 74. “Photoheliograph” from Shadows of the Sun by Harry Crosby (1927)
- 75. “Photoheliograph” from Shadows of the Sun by Harry Crosby (1927)
- 77. “Mixed collection including two supernatural tales...rejected by magazines as 'too horrible for inclusion.'” The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
- 86. Croston Carvers
- 87. Tim Wetherell
- 89. 2004 Transit of Venus
- 100. “venus transit” #1 Most Popular Event June 2004 Source: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/zeitgeist-jun04.html
- 101. “Venus Transit” #1 Most Popular Event June 2004 Source: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/zeitgeist-jun04.html
- 103. June 5, 2012
- 134. 134
- 157. Transit of Venus Culture: A Celestial Phenomenon Intrigues the Public Chuck Bueter bueter@nightwise.org AAS History of Astronomy Division Special Session Jan 08, 2012 Austin, TX
Editor's Notes
- The trajectory of my talk will follow the timeline of the ToV since well recorded history. i.e. since invention of telescope
- There is a growing body of work pertaining to the ToV expeditions themselves, but I want to track the broader ToV experience among the populace, and how that experience has evolved while maintaining some characteristics through the centuries. Talk will parallel ToV timeline, which looks like this--a cluster of two transits, shown in color, will be separated by eight years, followed by over a century. Like the pattern of the transit itself, in which there is a flurry of action around the 8-year span between transit pairs, my talk will step through these clusters.
- I begin in 1639, with Jeremiah Horrocks’ seminal observation.
- From Hoole, England, Horrocks calculated--that is, he did the heavy lifting of math--just weeks in advance that a transit of Venus would indeed occur. Horrocks was in it for the science, with a significant question being, “What’s the angular size of Venus when she is stripped of her veil, leaving just the body in silhouette?” My guess is Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree are the first persons of many in the history of the transit of Venus to say, “That’s it? That dot? I thought it was gonna be bigger.” 1696: The present pulpit 1719 West tower and gallery 1858 Chancel (Horrocks chapel) 1859 Tower clock 1859 Memorial tablet 1874 Memorial windows 1994 Digital computer organ 1997 Floodlighting
- He wanted to share the spectacle with others, but lamented both their lack of interest and his lack of time. His summary paper, Venus In Sole Visa, is commemorated here in a window at St. Michael’s Church in his hometown Hoole. Horrocks notes the science is upstaged by sports, a shortcoming that holds today, as he writes... [hawks/hounds/time]...
- In the 21st century we will return to those notions of sports as a priority and lack of time. For now, we leave the 17th century will little or no public awareness about the ToV.
- Edmund Halley’s appeal is two-fold. He calls on his countrymen with an appeal for nationalistic advancement, and he calls on the astronomy community.
- 1742 nearly two decades before the next transit (1761), Doppelmayer is featuring it in his Atlas Coelestes
- illustration beautifully depicts...
- And the phenomenon is duly predicted to be visible from Nuremburg?
- 1764 (per Adler, first published in 1756) Book: Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles : and made easy to those who have not studied mathematics : to which are added, a plain method of finding the distances of all the planets from the sun, by the transit of Venus over the sun's disc, in the year 1761 : an account of Mr. Horrox's observation of the transit of Venus in the year 1639 : and, of the distances of all the planets from the sun, as deduced from observations of the transit in the year 1761
- To convey complex notions, models of artistic quality simulate the circumstances that permit a ToV National Museum of Australia Orrery (mechanical planetarium) demonstrating the transit of Venus, about 1760, made by Benjamin Cole, London. The Royal Society.
- "Benjamin Martin devised a large demonstration of the appearance of the 1769 transit. The device was 7 by 5? feet in size and mounted on a wall in his shop where he gave lectures. It showed the appearance of the transit at London, with a mechanical arrangement to reproduce the movement of Venus over the sun as it sank towards sunset. Jean Bernoulli attended one of Martin's lectures in January 1769 and remarked on his use of the 'artificial' transit. This engraving was published as a frontispiece to Martin's "Institutions of Astronomical Calculations" (London, 1773)." http://transits.mhs.ox.ac.uk/contribute/record.php?recnum=1&compiled_name=Museum+of+the+History+of+Science%2C+University+of+Oxford&contributor_id=3
- Martin charging for his explanatory lectures...”Each person to pay...” Popularization becomes a cottage industry?
- Written by John Winthrop “beyond comparison...the most curious and uncommon appearance the heavens afford...of the greatest consequence...and it is no wonder if a general curiosity should be excited among other persons [other than astronomers]
- Stories start to appear in common publications.
- George Alexander Stevens (1710?–1784) Theſe Sonnets took their birth ; But are diſh’d up, as pleaſant Food, For SONS of SOCIAL MIRTH” (Stevens, Songs, 1772, p. 16) Comedy: the great popularizing tool “that is, he saw his audience as “popular”, unlearned, and non-elite (note that the membership of such a social entity is remarkably hard to determine with precision today). His poem could be evidence that despite the accurate notices in the polite press about the transit, a portion of the functionally literate 18th-century British public preferred to make sport of the transit astronomers rather than try to understand what they were attempting to achieve.” Randall Rosenfield
- 19th century new tools, same scientific ambitions “In the 19th century, the transit enterprise was clearly regarded as a repeat of the attempts made in the 1760s. For all involved, including the politicians, astronomers and journalists, the Victorian effort was a modern re-enactment of the Georgian effort, complete with the improved methods and technologies, such as photography, steam travel and telegraphy, that so distinguished the era. The self-regard of the Victorian transit participants as an exercise in modernity or progress, or perhaps as a duty to the history of British science, may even explain to some degree the sizeable interest in the Victorian effort.” Jessica Ratcliff, pp. 11-12. meanwhile...
- Mark Butterworth's Transit of Venus magic lantern and the image of Deane Walker meanwhile, public astronomy lectures attract a large crowd of gentry recall comment about “The general content of all lectures was somewhat similar, representing an outline of the astronomical knowledge of the time, couched in non-technical language. Occasionally the lecturer added particular points he wished to emphasize such as probable causes of the great flood or other biblical events.”
- Mark Butterworth's Transit of Venus magic lantern "The slide has a complex winding mechanism that pulls a glass disk diagonally across the body. On the moving glass disk is a small dark spot to represent the planet Venus. There is a fixed orange glass disk representing the sun. As you wind the ivory handle, Venus’ disk appears at the edge of the slide and moves onto the solar disk. Then as the training edge of Venus reaches the edge of the Sun the “black drop effect” appears, with Venus apparently ‘bleeding’ into the edge of the sun. Suddenly, the planet appears to ‘jump’ away from the edge and appears as a circular disk again."
- Brickel starts his campaign. In 1848 he was writing of hometown hero... “Romance in Science”- no disguising
- Horrocks Chapel, Rev. R. Brickel, Rector 1859 1696: The present pulpit 1719 West tower and gallery 1858 Chancel (Horrocks chapel) 1859 Tower clock 1859 Memorial tablet 1874 Memorial windows 1994 Digital computer organ 1997 Floodlighting
- 1874 Back in Hoole, the commemoration of Horrocks begins the public celebration--recognition that this achievement in science is deemed valuable and worth honoring/recognizing. This being the backside of the famous St. Michael’s stained glass window. If we zoom out...
- As an aside, note the headstone...two others--woman and baby--buried day before 1874 transit by Rev. Brickel. Imagine being days before ToV 1696: The present pulpit 1719 West tower and gallery 1858 Chancel (Horrocks chapel) 1859 Tower clock 1859 Memorial tablet 1874 Memorial windows 1994 Digital computer organ 1997 Floodlighting
- Window in 1874 1696: The present pulpit 1719 West tower and gallery 1858 Chancel (Horrocks chapel) 1859 Tower clock 1859 Memorial tablet 1874 Memorial windows 1994 Digital computer organ 1997 Floodlighting
- From Adler: George Forbes The Transit of Venus London and New York, 1874 QB 509 .F6 These diagrams (top image), based on accounts of what the black drop effect looked like in 1769, illustrate a book about the transit of Venus published for popular audiences in 1874.
- A Popular Account of Past and Coming Transits...by Richard Proctor; 1882 public-witnessed debate about whether Halley’s method (Proctor, for 1874) or Delisle’s method (Royal Astronomer George Airy, for later 1882) was favorable ; popular press attention around 1873 The Times in London published the controversy Proctor continued as a regular ToV contributor to the New York Times
- A Popular Account of Past and Coming Transits...by Richard Proctor; 1882 “Historians of science have argued that in this period the traditional rhetoric of internationalism and science was increasingly matched by an ideology connecting science to national identity.” Jessica Ratcliff
- “No wonder that countless eyes in various parts of the world have been gazing to-day with intense interest on the rare and important phenomenon...My purpose is even loftier; namely, to unfold and apply a great moral lesson which the transit of Venus suggests and confirms. Earlier...The general content of all lectures was somewhat similar, representing an outline of the astronomical knowledge of the time, couched in non-technical language. Occasionally the lecturer added particular points he wished to emphasize such as probable causes of the great flood or other biblical events.
- Illustrated London News equivalent of popular press Note: telegraph line : not only bringing the news of ToV results, but bringing it faster “In the popular press, the degree of precision required of the observations was often highlighted by dramatic analogies. ‘Suppose a human hair to be set up a distance of half a mile from the observer...” jessica ratcliff [Compare to modern Kepler analogy with gnats around streetlight.] James Clerk Maxwell: ‘The only occupation which will then be left to men of science will be to carry on these measurements to another place of decimals.” from Jessica Ratcliff p. 4
- Illustrated London News
- Satirized... Other college in 1882 to witness incl. Columbia College in NY, where “students wearing mortar board caps climbed to the top of the new law school building of the college yesterday to catch a glimpse of the transit.” (Princeton’s commencement day in 2012)
- New York Times: Enterprising proprietors of telescopes of all sizes and powers stationed themseles in favorable places all over the City, and reaped a large harvest by exhibiting the planet on its journey across the sun at a rate of 10 cents a sight. In the City Hall Park a telesopewas erected and so great was the rush of people to take a look through it that the services of a Park policeman were required to keep them in line awaiting their turn.
- Fred G. Skillin
- I saw Venus in the Sun. Venus crosses the Sun. The Venus is a Planet. The Sun is the center. I looked through the smoked glass at the Sun. Venus is a black spot in the Sun. Some boys and girls see it. It is a pretty planet. Venus began to cross at 9 o'clock A.M. and will end at 3 o'clock P.M. I saw it at 11.15 o'clock A.M. The Sun is 92 or 3 000 000 miles miles [sic] from the Earth. The Sun shine on it every day. Venus is seen every day, but it is seen in the sun only once but it will never be seen for one hundred twenty one years. When Venus is [___] the Sun, she is very bright. But when she is in the Sun, she becomes black. The Transit of Venus. [1882+121=2003]
- Not spoken of much, til 21st century, e.g. book Transit of Empire Collision of cultures documented When popularizing, we don’t aggrandize the negative aspects
- The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 celebrated the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, PA, USA. In a demonstration of pioneering science, the U.S. Naval Observatory set up an exhibit using the actual American transit of Venus observation station from Queenstown, New Zealand. William Harkness, who led the 1874 transit of Venus party to Hobart, Tasmania, was appointed to the task of rebuilding the portable station for public display. The structures on the exhibit site were a transit house, a photographic house, and an equatorial house. [Top: Observing station of William Harkness in Hobart Town, Tasmania (1874).]
- Rather, mint a coin to tout our exploits and triumphs
- Role of humor Photogravure plate entitled "The Transit of Venus," circa 1888; artist unknown; printed by the Typographic Etching Company.
- Cynicus CHAPTER V. SOME DISCONNECTED ANECDOTES IN the early days of my association with The Idler, I had the pleasure of meeting Martin Anderson, otherwise " Cynicus," the caricaturist and satirist. He had aban- doned his native Scotland to take London by storm, and, indeed, achieved no inconsiderable success. Who does not remember his loathsome but powerful Transit of Venus, a drunken woman being carried off on a stretcher by two policemen and addressing frantic objurgations to them as she went? " Cynicus " was the soul of good-nature,
- Price realized at December 2010 auction: $122,500. Color image appeared as black and white print in Harper's magazine. Lot Description John George Brown (1831-1913) The Transit of Venus signed and dated 'J.G. Brown N.A./1883.' (lower right) oil on canvas laid down on board 30¼ x 25 in. (76.8 x 63.5 cm.)
- The Transit of Venus, by John George Brown (1831-1913). Lot Description John George Brown (1831-1913) The Transit of Venus signed and dated 'J.G. Brown N.A./1883.' (lower right) oil on canvas laid down on board 30¼ x 25 in. (76.8 x 63.5 cm.)
- From Adler: Camille Flammarion Popular Astronomy: A General Description of the Heavens French translation by J. Ellard Gore London, 1894 R2002.01 The French author Flammarion wrote astronomy books for the general public. In his description of transits of Venus, he includes a stylized illustration of Venus passing across the edge of the Sun. Compare this illustration with the one in Forbes that shows the visual distortion the actually happens.
- Note: music after 1882 ToV
- 1882 Thomas Hardy Two on a Tower serialized in the Atlantic Monthly during 8 months preceding 1882 ToV “like the astronomers, the press was drawn to the transit’s rarity” - Jessica Ratcliffe, The ToV Enterprise in Victorian Britain New York Times called it “a great popular transit” and a “popular exhibition.” SOUSA 1920
- Harry Crosby publishes his poetry in Transit of Venus from Black Sun Press in 1929. "Harry was obsessed with the sun-his poetry and diaries abound with references to it--quatrains, hymns, sonnets, all dedicated to the solar disk. To him it was a symbol of perfection, freedom, heat, enthusiasm, and destruction;" from http://www.banger.com/banger/crosby/bio.html. His signature evolved to include a symbol of a black sun. The poem "First Meeting", courtesy of John Breckenridge.
- Image: Reproduced from Special Collections, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale [Lady Iya Abdy, the dedicatee of "Photoheliograph," was a friend of Manuel Ortiz, a young Spanish painter with whom Caresse was having an affair. In a passage for November 7, 1927, in Shadows of the Sun, Crosby records meeting her among a group of painters. ] Shadows of the Sun is collection of diary-like entries Crosby did not publish
- Image: Reproduced from Special Collections, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale [Lady Iya Abdy, the dedicatee of "Photoheliograph," was a friend of Manuel Ortiz, a young Spanish painter with whom Caresse was having an affair. In a passage for November 7, 1927, in Shadows of the Sun, Crosby records meeting her among a group of painters. ] Shadows of the Sun is collection of diary-like entries Crosby did not publish
- Image: Reproduced from Special Collections, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale [Lady Iya Abdy, the dedicatee of "Photoheliograph," was a friend of Manuel Ortiz, a young Spanish painter with whom Caresse was having an affair. In a passage for November 7, 1927, in Shadows of the Sun, Crosby records meeting her among a group of painters. ] Shadows of the Sun is collection of diary-like entries Crosby did not publish
- Book: Transit of Venus by Michael Harrison. "Mixed collection including two supernatural tales, 'Mother Earth' and 'For Ever and Ever' rejected by magazines as 'too horrible for inclusion.' The latter forms the basis of his later novel THE DARKENED ROOM (1952). Also, 'Where Thy Heart Is,' a nasty antiquarian ghost story." - Robert Knowlton. Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, p. 453.
- Prior to 2004, Maureen Hunter takes liberties with play
- Some good (Hazzard), some not.
- Popularization through stamps A conjoining of recognition by official issuing govt and by users of stamps
- Popularization through stamps A conjoining of recognition by official issuing govt and by users of stamps
- Education initiatives in 2004; reaching out to mass audience with new tech (CD and DVDs)
- Art exhibits appeal to general audience
- art imprints a seal of value
- Tim Wetherell; now part of the University of Western Sydney permanent art collection. Art appeals to kids Art appeals to all ages
- Public viewing embraced; recall experience of previous crowd with nobility setting
- Corporate sponsorship
- Memories of Flaneur
- New optical devices: sunspotter, rear projection screen, Hydrogen-alpha telescope Recall overlapped telescopes so two images converging
- New tools: Satellite imagery with photos immediately available to public
- Modern media and communication outlets
- New tool: Internet
- From 19th century... “In the popular press, the degree of precision required of the observations was often highlighted by dramatic analogies....[from Farmer’s Almanac:] ‘Suppose a human hair to be set up a distance of half a mile from the observer...” jessica ratcliff [Compare to modern Kepler analogy with gnats around streetlight.]
- Instructions by AAS Press Officer Rick Fienberg
- Satirized... Other college in 1882 to witness incl. Columbia College in NY, where “students wearing mortar board caps climbed to the top of the new law school building of the college yesterday to catch a glimpse of the transit.” (Princeton’s commencement day in 2012)
- First record of transit illusion?
- history of astronomy is a “time sink”, but it is not dull thank you Jay...and Jarita Holbrooke (?)