Book by Richard Proctor

History

Three Sets of Excerpts and Images from Richard Proctor

Plus...

http://chestofbooks.com/science/astronomy/Leisure-Hours/The-Coming-Transit-Of-Venus-And-British-Preparations-For-Observing-It-Part-6.html
The Coming Transit Of Venus, And British Preparations For Observing It. Part 6, from the book "Light Science For Leisure Hours", by Richard A. Proctor.

http://dlib.stanford.edu:6520/text1/dd-ill/transits-venus.pdf
Entire scanned text of A Popular Account of Past and Coming Transits...by Richard Proctor; 1882; availed online by Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources. (30.7 MB)

(Click thumbnails to enlarge.)

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Plate I ; shows paths of Venus across the sun for past and future transits of Venus.

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Plate III; world map shows the area in which the 1639 transit was visible.

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Plate IV

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Plate V

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Plate VI

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Plate VII

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Plate VIII

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Plate IX

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Plate X

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Plates XII & XIII

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Plates XIV & XV

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Passage right page; Richard Proctor, 1882

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2004-2012 transits of Venus; Richard Proctor, 1882

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From the "Quotes" page:

I think the astronomers of the first years of the twenty first century, looking back over the long transit-less period which will then have passed, will understand the anxiety of astronomers in our own time to utilise to the full whatever opportunities the coming transits may afford...;and I venture to hope...they will not be disposed to judge over harshly what some in our own day may have regarded as an excess of zeal."

Richard Proctor, Transits of Venus, A Popular Account, 1875

From Richard Proctor's Essays on Astronomy: A Series of Papers on Planets and Meteors, the Sun and Sun-Surrounding Space, Stars and Star Cloudlets; and a Dissertation on the Approaching Transits of Venus Preceded by A Sketch of the Life and Work of Sir John Herschel; London: Longmans, Green, and Co.,1872.