Jeremiah Horrocks – A Very Curious Astronomer
– by Mike Frost
On Sunday 24th November, 1639,
Jeremiah Horrocks observed a Transit of the planet
Venus across the face of the Sun, from Much Hoole,
a village south of Preston, Lancashire,
England.
Horrocks and his friend William Crabtree, observing
from Salford, Lancashire,
were the only people to see the first ever observed Transit of Venus. Horrocks had successfully predicted an event that
nobody else knew was going to happen. To see the Transit, Horrocks had to overcome the vagaries of Lancastrian
weather; whilst giving due to attention to “greater things, which it was
certainly not proper to neglect for these subordinate pursuits”, at St Michael’s
church, Much Hoole.
I have a few things in common with Jeremiah
Horrocks. We’re both astronomers; we both grew
up in Lancashire; we both have (had) relatives in Rhode
Island, America.
We both attended Emmanuel College in Cambridge (as did a surprising number of
other historical characters, some of whom knew Jeremiah). This lecture is
a guided tour through Jeremiah Horrocks’s brief,
extraordinary life.
Next talk Jeremiah
Horrocks, Samuel Foster, Nathaniel Nye - A Detective
Story
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