February 2022 — News is the remains of the scuttled ship Endeavour, commanded by Lt. James Cook, have been discovered in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, where they lay for more than 200 years. The ship sailed to Tahiti to observe the June 3, 1769 transit of Venus. Endeavour was, of course, involved in far broader explorations of the South Pacific, but the news of her discovery reminded me of my own experience: the June 5, 2015 transit of Venus — observed 246 years after Cook — from Hiram at a public event we hosted.

Recalling that day, the afternoon was cloudy and rainy and I thought we would miss out. But mere minutes before the silhouette of Venus was to appear on Sun’s face mists faded, clouds parted, and Sun shined brightly. I quickly finished setting up the telescopes, peered through the eyepiece to focus, and saw the same “black drop” phenomenon Cook sketched. My camera was set up too late (due to the aforementioned weather) to record the “black drop” for later sharing.

We hosted visitors at our mobile telescope site — the former location of Hiram Elementary School — until Sun sank below the treeline to our west, the transit still in progress. In the end more than 100 (estimated count lost) men, women, and children saw that big black dot moving across the sun. It was a lovely experience.

A transit of Venus is the passage of the planet across the face of our Sun as seen from Earth. Transits of Venus are rare; they come in pairs, 8 years apart, separated by approximately 120 years. Our next opportunity comes in December 2117. See you then?

NASA Article on Cook and the transit of 1769: https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/28may_cook

— James Guilford, Stephens Memorial Observatory