Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-09-01
The Approaching Transit Of Venus.

AT the Naval Observatory in Washing
ton preparations are now making for
observing the transit OF Venus that oc-
ours next December. Prof. Harkness
in describing what is being done. said
to the Boston Herdid correspondent:
"This is the last phenomenon OF the
sort which will occur until the year
2OO4, and, although opinions differ in
regard to the Importance and value OF
the possible result. yet the astronomers
OF the next century would not pardon
US should we fail to do everything in our
power on this occasion. The two
transits of Venus occur about once in
every $50 years. The two are eight
years apart. and then there comes an
interval of 120 wears or so. The last
transit was in December, 1874. They
always occur in December or June. In
116l and 1869 they occurred in June,
and in 200i and 2Ol2 they vii. occur in
June. Venus on these occasions will pass
between us and the sun. The first OBJ
servation of transit of Venus was
made by Jeremiah Horrocks, an En-
glish curate. about the middle of the
seventeenth century. He allowed his
religious duties to interfere with his ob-
servations. but the record of them is
valuable. Previous to the transit of
1874 we all thought that the obscrva-
tons which would be then obtained
would give us the solar parallax. We
supposed that l20 years ago the observ-
ers had poor instruments. and failed for
that reason. But when we went at it
ourselves we got into the same difficult
ties they did. Now no one thinks that
we shall get the solar paralax. That
can only be obtained by careful watch
ing of the secular perturbations OF the
planets. These are very slight, but they
are continuous. and, by summing them
up after 400 or 500 years. astronomers
will be able to ascertain exactly the size
and weight of the suns mass. and when
that is learned they will be able to calcu-
late exactly the distance of the sun from
the eareh. In 1874 the United States
sent out eight observing parties. and we
shall send out eight more this time
But it happens that in this case the
United States will furnish, perhaps, the
best field for making observations, and
all of our ObServatories will aid in the
work. We shall have four Government
parties in the United States. and shall
send four to the Southern hemisphere.
one to take station near Good Hope,
two near the southern extremity Of
South America. and one in New Zea-
land. We must have to complete our
calculations two parties at the end of a
very long base line at the beginning of
the transit. We will have base line
between here and the Cape of Good
Hope during the transit, between here
and the southern extremity OF South
America, and at the end between here
and New Zealand. We intend to de-
sote our efforts, as before, largely to
photography. although other countries
do not attach as much importance as
we do TO this method of Observing the
transit. We are now engaged in fitting
up our instruments, for which an item
of $4,000 has been appropriated bv
Congress. We have asked for S85.00C
in all to meet the expenses OF the OBJ
servations. and this will probably be
appropriated in the Sundry Civil bill"