Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: historical astronomy question



At 12:01 PM -0700 10/18/00, I wrote:

My copy of the Cambridge Encyclopedia does not list a second transit 8
years before or after the one in 1639, but does list other pairs in
1761/1769 and 1874/1882. Does any one have better information, or know
for sure if Galileo saw a transit?

The 1639 transit was quite nearly central, and the usual two transit
pattern was broken.

My mistake. There was a brief transit (two hours from first to fourth
contacts) on 7 Dec 1631, almost a graze. I think that a single transit
is possible, but the 1639 event was not sufficiently central to produce
it then.

Leigh