Object Details
- Description
- In preparation for the 1874 and 1882 Transits of Venus across the face of the Sun, the U.S. Congress authorized a Commission to organize eight parties of astronomers, equip each party with identical apparatus, and send them to far-flung locations where there was a good chance of capturing these rare astronomical events. For photographic work, each American expedition was equipped with a heliostat that threw sunlight into a long-focus horizontal telescope, and then onto a glass photographic plate. This image of Venus passing in front of the Sun was taken with that equipment, probably in 1882.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- Date made
- ca. 1882
- Measurements
- overall in box: 8 in x 8 in x 4 3/16 in; 20.32 cm x 20.32 cm x 10.63625 cm
- Object Name
- Glass Plate (Photographic)
