1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Campbell Island
The 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Campbell Island was an astronomical expedition by French scientists to observe the 9 December 1874 transit of Venus on subantarctic Campbell Island in the Southern Ocean some 600 km south of New Zealand. It was one of several such scientific expeditions from various countries sent around the world to observe the rare astronomical event.
Expedition base on Campbell Island, 1874
Observatory built by the expedition on Campbell Island, 1874.
A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen as a small black circle moving across the face of the Sun.
William Richard Lavender, Jeremiah Horrocks (1618–1641) (1903), Astley Hall Museum and Art Gallery
Diagram from David Rittenhouse's observations of the 1769 transit of Venus
Image: NASA's SDO Satellite Captures First Image of 2012 Venus Transit (Full Disc)
Image: SDO's Ultra high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit (171 Angstrom Full Disc)