And also in Hartford for the first one. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy TabletAlan Eliasen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:On 06/05/2012 12:48 PM, Taylor Roberts wrote: > In getting ready for tonight's Transit of Venus, I wonder if SLC > witnessed the previous pair in 1874 and 1882. We can immediately rule out the transit of 1874-12-09 if SLC was anywhere on the American continents, as the transit was neatly and precisely not visible from anywhere on the continent. See: http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/nao/transit/V_1874/index.html The transit of 1882-12-06 was, however, visible from the Americas. If anyone has detailed information about SLC's whereabouts and activities on the date in question, I can easily plot the circumstances for the transit as he could have seen it. I can do high-precision calculations of astronomical phenomena. For example, if he were in Elmira, NY, (Lat. 42.0897 N, Long. 76.8081 W) the transit would have begun at about 9:04 AM EST, and finished at about 3:05 PM EST. Its closest approach to the center of the sun was at 12:04 PM EST. It made a neat little arc along the "bottom" of the sun. It was a quite nice transit designed to last for a large fraction of a short day of a cold winter month. If we know his daily activities on 1882-12-06 (note: this is ISO date format. It means December 6, 1882,) then we would be able to determine if he could have seen the transit or not. Does anyone have that detailed information? Note that a transit of Venus cannot be seen with the naked eye, and is hard to see with appropriate filters with the naked eye. One is better with a telescope (with appropriate solar filters. I'll have to research the state of the art of solar telescopy in 1882.) -- Alan Eliasen [log in to unmask] http://futureboy.us/