'Black drop' effect during the 1769 Transit of Venus Size:XS: 30 x 20cm looking south-west

looking south-west

Hunting was a favourite topic for Punch cartoons

with two figures and a dog outside

The town 'consisted of about twelve or fourteen hovels

'Black drop' effect during the 1769 Transit of Venus Size:XS: 30 x 20cm looking south-westSketch showing the planet Venus at ingress on its passage across the face of the Sun. Detail from a letter by Samuel Horsley, giving an account of the Transit of Venus observed at Oxford, England, using an 18 inch reflecting telescope. The illustration appeared as plate 8 of the published paper 'Venus observed upon the Sun at Oxford, June 3, 1769', by Samuel Horsley, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 59 (1769) pp. 183 188.