Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9607
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Venus at first internal contact with the Sun
Date
1769
Creator
William Bayly (1737 - 1810, British) , Astronomer
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 184mm
width (painting): 312mm
width (painting): 312mm
Subject
Content object
Description
View taken at Mageroya, Nordkapp, Norway, during the 1769 Transit of Venus. Inscribed “The appearance of Venus on the Sun at Magger & near the 1st internal contact - by Wiliam Bayley.” The painting shows the solar edge and “black drop” effect, described by the observer: “Venus’s outer limb seemed to be in contact with the Sun’s limb; but no light of that part of the Sun’s limb could be seen, Venus being apparently joined to the Sun’s limb by a black ligament...”.
Published as plate 13 for the paper “Astronomical observations, made at the North Cape, for the Royal Society”, by William Bayly, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.59, 1769, pp.262-272.
William Bayly was employed as an assistant by Nevil Maskelyne at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich and would later act as an astronomer to James Cook’s second and third Resolution expeditions. He had charge of the Society’s two Arnold chronometers aboard HMS Adventure on the second circumnavigation.
Published as plate 13 for the paper “Astronomical observations, made at the North Cape, for the Royal Society”, by William Bayly, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.59, 1769, pp.262-272.
William Bayly was employed as an assistant by Nevil Maskelyne at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich and would later act as an astronomer to James Cook’s second and third Resolution expeditions. He had charge of the Society’s two Arnold chronometers aboard HMS Adventure on the second circumnavigation.
Associated place