Abstract
TRANSITS of Venus over the disc of the sun have more than any other celestial phenomena occupied the attention and called forth the energies of the astronomical world. In the last century they furnished the only means known of learning the distance of the sun with an approach to accuracy, and were therefore looked for with an interest corresponding to the importance of this element. Although other methods of arriving at this knowledge with equal accuracy are now known, the rarity of the phenomenon in question insures for it an amount of attention which no other system of observation can command. As the rival method, that of observations of Mars at favourable times, requires, equally with this, the general co-operation of astronomers, the power of securing this co-operation does in itself give the Transits of Venus an advantage they would not otherwise possess.
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The Coming Transits of Venus*. Nature 2, 343–345 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/002343a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/002343a0