VENUS IN INDIA1: ♀☉ THE TRANSIT TALES R C Kapoor
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[email protected] Indian Institute of Astrophysics ABSTRACT This work is about sightings and astronomical observations of transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun made from the Indian region. The sources of the information presented here range from some classic texts and historiographies, publications and records of institutions and chronicles to accounts by some individuals. Of particular interest is the 1761 transit, observed from top of the Governor’s house, Fort St George, Madras by the Rev. William Hirst who made a significant observation – of having seen at the moments of ingress a nebulosity about the planet. That in fact is the discovery of atmosphere of Venus, duly recorded in his communication as presented in the Vol. 52 of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. The discovery of atmosphere of Venus has been attributed to Mikhail Lomonosov alone that he made during the same transit observed from the St. Petersburg Observatory. Key words: transits of Venus, transit observations from India, discovery of atmosphere around Venus. April 2012 1 VENUS IN INDIA1: ♀☉ THE TRANSIT TALES R C Kapoor
[email protected],
[email protected] Indian Institute of Astrophysics INTRODUCTION Transits of planets across the disk of the Sun are among the most fascinating phenomena in the Solar System astronomy. As seen from the Earth, transits of only Mercury and Venus are possible. These have held great importance in early telescopic astronomy when the transits enabled astronomers to determine, using triangulation, the solar parallax with an unprecedented accuracy and size up the Solar System.