Transit of Venus, 3 June 1769

James Cook’s Observations and remarks

Transit of Venus

If Cook had not been sent to make the observation of the transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun in Matavai Bay, Tahiti, he would not subsequently have sailed south to chart both the coasts of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia.

And it was a close-run thing. Preparations were made for observing this astronomical phenomenon from a number of sites around the world. A site in the Pacific was highly desirable. The discovery of Tahiti had been made by Samuel Wallis only in June 1767 and was not known in England until Wallis’s return there in May 1768. It was immediately decided that Tahiti would make the perfect location. Moreover, rumours brought back by Wallis’s crew that mountain tops had been sighted south of the island led to Cook’s additional instructions to investigate waters to the south.
Transit of Venus, 3 June 1769

 

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