The nineteenth century transits of Venus: an Australian and New Zealand overview

Abstract

Because of their fortuitous locations, Australia and New Zealand hosted overseas expeditions, various local government-funded observing teams and a plethora of dedicated amateur astronomers intent on observing the 1874 and 1882 transits of Venus. Even though the ingress phase occurred before local sunrise in 1882, and inclement weather foiled some New Zealand-based observers in 1874 and many sited in Australia in 1882, these trans-Tasman nations collectively were able to play an important role in the quest to determine one of astronomy's fundamental yardsticks: the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun.