Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 00:07:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFAlist at WSFA.org
Subject: [WSFA] Two quotes on the transit of Venus
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

This month's Natural History magazine quotes Simon Newcomb:

  "On our departure [from South Africa in 1882] we left two iron
  pillars, on which our apparatus for photographing the Sun was
  mounted, firmly imbedded in the ground, as we had used them.
  Whether they will remain there until the transit of 2004, I do not
  know, but cannot help entertaining a sentimental wish that, when the
  time of that transit arrives, the phenomenon will be observed from
  the same station, and the pillars be found in such a condition that
  they can again be used."

The magazine doesn't say whether the pillars are still there.  What
a tease.

When I googled for the above quote to save myself the effort of
typing it in, I also found an 1882 quote from  William Harkness:

  "There will be no other transits of Venus till the twenty-first
  century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and the June
  flowers are blooming in 2004.  When the last transit occurred the
  intellectual world was awakening from the slumber of ages, and that
  wondrous scientific activity, which has led to our present advanced
  knowledge, was just beginning.  What will be the state of science
  when the next transit season arrives God only knows.  Not even
  our childrens children will live to take part in the astronomy
  of that day."

They just don't write like that anymore, more's the pity.

Reminder:  This once far future event is only about 25 to 31 hours
away, and will be visible (weather permitting) from the DC area at
sunrise, and from the Philippines at sunset.  And from lots of other
places.  But not the western US, unfortunately.