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Refining the Astronomical Unit: Queenstown and the 1874 Transit of Venus

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Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 422))

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Abstract

The 1874 transit of Venus was regarded as a major event which promised to produce an improved value for the solar parallax, and hence the Astronomical Unit. As a result, the United States dispatched eight different observing parties to far northern and southern hemisphere locations. This chapter documents the activities at the Queenstown transit station in the South Island of New Zealand and examines the scientific outcome of the overall American 1874 and 1882 transit programmes. It also traces the early development of astronomical photography in New Zealand at a time when this innovative methodology was emerging internationally as a valid tool of the ‘new astronomy’, astrophysics.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The following biographical account of Bass differs from that published in Orchiston et al. (2000), and is based on documentation that has become available since that paper was researched and written.

  2. 2.

    Of these four photographers Israel Cook Russell would go on to achieve prominence as a pioneering geomorphologist and glacial geologist. After returning from the New Zealand expedition he added a geology qualification to the B.S. and C.E. degrees he already possessed, and after serving as an Assistant Professor in the School of Mines at Columbia University in 1880 joined the United States Geological Survey and explored Alaska. In 1890 he was appointed Professor of Geology at the University of Michigan, and at the time of his death—in 1906—was the President of the Geological Society of America. In honour of his achievements (including numerous publications), a fiord, two glaciers and three mountains have been named after him. For further details see Aalto (2009) and Sylvestre (2008).

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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the following for their assistance: Dr Steve Dick (ex-U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington); the late Peter Hingley (former RAS Librarian, London), Tom Love (ex-Carter Observatory, Wellington, NZ), Gregory Sheldon (U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington), Dr William Sheehan (USA), and staff at the National Archives (Washington). Finally, I wish to thank Dr Steven Dick (USA), Dr Richard Dodd (Martinborough, NZ) and Dr William Tobin (Vannes, France) for reading and commenting on the first draft of this chapter, and the U.S. Naval Observatory and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (Launceston, Australia) for kindly supplying Figs. 15.9 and 15.12.

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  1. National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Wayne Orchiston

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Orchiston, W. (2016). Refining the Astronomical Unit: Queenstown and the 1874 Transit of Venus. In: Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 422. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22566-1_15

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