Transit of Venus Plates
Transit of Venus Plates - 1882
The site where these plates were taken is unknown.
Images from photographic plates of the Transit of
Venus (Venus crossing the face of the Sun), a very
rare phenomenon that last occurred in 1874 and 1882.
Wet bromo-iodide plates were used in 1874, but by 1882
dry collodion emulsion plates were available. The
Naval Observatory and Transit of Venus Commission sent
8 parties around the world to observe each of the
transits; the results were important for determining
the scale of the solar system. Only 11 plates survive
from the American 1882 expeditions; none of the plates
from the American 1874 transit expeditions has
survived. The next transits of Venus occur in 2004 and
2012.
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