Telescope and Transit of Venus Projection, c. 1760

Engraving of a large reflecting telescope, and a projection of the transit of Venus. This diagram, entitled An Apparatus adapted to the Reflecting Telescope for shewing The Transit of Venus, appeared in Benjamin Martin's The Young Gentleman and Lady's Philosophy, published between 1755 and 1763 in the General Magazine and aimed at explaining astronomical principles to amateur astronomers. Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary alignments. Only eight such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope. A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth (or another planet), becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. Venus transits are historically of great scientific importance as they were used to gain the first realistic estimates of the size of the Solar System

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1760 Diagram Phemomena Projection Reflecting Telescope Transit

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