Read Nick Lomb's book "Transit of Venus 1631 To The Present" from cover to cover in two sittings. Simply couldn't put it down.
Detailed information on transits from when Kepler first predicted the 1631 transit.
Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree the first know observers of a transit.
Edmond Halley devising a method to use the transit to measure the distance from Earth to Sun and hence have the ability to measure the size of the Solar System.
Interesting reading about the pitfalls of travelling to far off locations over land and see to observe transits and being at the mercy of the weather. The discovery of new phenonema including black drop, shadowy envelope, and polar light patches. Cooks "Voyage of Discovery" and the development of photographic techniques and later a detailed history of observations in the new colony. The wonderful work of Australian astronomers Henry Russell, John Tebbutt commerated on the paper $100 note and later the destruction of the Great Melbourne Telescope in the Mt. Stromlo bushfire of 18th January 2003.
Lomb mentions the subsequent decline in interest and then the rawakening in 2004, the first observations from space using NASA's Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) and the newly built land based Swedish 1m Solar Telescope.
Lomb gives an explanation of NASA's Kepler spacecraft's discovery of a star known as Kepler-11 with at least six planets orbiting it, discovered using transit techniques.
The final pages include tables of details to assist in observing the transit from different locations in Australia, USA, Europe and Asia with an exlanation on safe viewing.
Hardcover 226 pages. Published by NewSouth Publishing.
ISBN: 9 781 74223 269 0
Available for $49.95 from the Australian Museum shop.
Transit of Venus
