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William Crabtree's Venus transit observation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2005

Nicholas Kollerstrom
Affiliation:
Science and Technology Studies Department, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1 E6BT, UK email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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The close collaboration between the two North-country astronomers Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree gave them special insight into the new astronomy published by the recently-deceased Kepler, whereby Horrocks became the only person to apprehend that the Rudolphine tables were in fact predicting a Venus transit in 1639. This paper focuses especially upon William Crabtree's role and contribution. A comparison is made with an earlier, unsuccessful endeavour by these two concerning a possible transit of Mercury. Much of the record of their work was lost during the civil war. Finally, thanks to Christiaan Huygens, Horrock's manuscript was published by Johannes Hevelius in Danzig, in 1662.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
© 2004 International Astronomical Union