The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-01-01
The Boy Astronomer.

Hezekiah Butterworth, in st. Nicholas for Decem-
The first transit of Venus ever seen
by a human eye was predicted by
boy, and was observed by that boy just
as he reached the age of manhood.
His name was Jeremiah Horrox. We
have a somewhat wonderful story to tell
you about this boy.
He lived in an obscure village near
Liverpool, Eng. He was a lover OF
books of science, and before he reach
ed the age of 1S he had mastered the
astronomical knowledge of the day.
He studied the problems of Kepler, and
he made the discovery that the tables OF
Depler indicated the near approach OF
| the period of the transit of Venus
| across the suns center. This was
about the year 1886.
Often on midsummer nights the boy
Horrox might have been seen in the
fields watching the planet Venus. The
desire sprang up within him to see the
transit of the beautiful planet across
the disc of the sun, for it was sight
that no eye had ever seen, and one that
would tend to solve some of the great
est problems ever presented to the
mind of an astronomer. So the boy
began to examine the astronomical
tables of Kepler, and by their aid en-
deavored to demonstrate at what time
the next transit would occur. He
| found an error in the tables, and then
he, being the first of all the astrono-
mers to make the precise calculation,
discovered the exact date when the
next transit would take place.
He told his secret to one intimate
friend, a boy who, like himself, loved
science. The young astronomer then
awaited the event which he had predict
ed for a number of years, never seeing
the loved planet in the shaded evening
sky without dreaming of the day when
the transit should fulfill the beauti-
full vision he carried continually in his
mind.
| The memorable year came at Last
| 1889. The predicted day of the transit
came, too, at the end of the year. It
was Sunday. Itfound Horrox, the boy
astronomer, now just past twenty years
of age, intensely watching sheet of
paper in private room, on which lay
the SUMS disc on the paper where he ex-
pected, moment by moment, to see the
planet pass, like a moving spot or a
shadow.
Suddenly the church bells rang. He
was a religious youth, and was accus-
toned to heed the church bell as a call
from heaven. The paper still was spot
less; no shadow broke the outer edge of
the suns luminous circle
Still the church bells rang. Should
he go, cloud might hide the sun be-
fore his return, and the expected dis
closure be lost for q century.
But Horrax said to himself: s'I must
not neglect the worship of the Creator,
to see the wonderful things the Creator
has made"
So he left the reflected image of the
sun on the paper, and went to the sane
tuary.
When he returned from the service he
returned to the room. The sun was
still shining, and there, like shadow
on the bright circle on the paper, was
the image of the planet Venus It
crept slowly along the bright centre, like
the finger of the invisible. Then the
boy astronomer knew, that the great
problems of astronomy were correct,
and the thought filed his heart with re-
ligious Joy.
Horrax died at the age of twenty-five.
Nearly 130 years afterward, Venus was
again seen crossing the sun The
whole astronomical world was then in
terested in the event, and expeditions
of observation were fitted out by the
pri incipal European governments. It
was observed in this country by David
Rittenhouse, who tainted when he saw
| the vision