Transit of Venus - Live from Hawaii

A L O H A !   View it HERE:

 Approximately a century

 after the great Captain Cook

 had placed Hawaii on the map,

 another British vessel, HMS Scout, 

docked in Honolulu Harbor,

Kingdom of Hawaii.

The day was September 9, 1874,

and the seven astronomers aboard

were  on the same mission

as Cook's expedition of 1769 

– to observe, and to record for science,

a rare transit of Venus across the sun.

The solar system's scale

 was as yet

 not girded with

any real knowledge

 derived from measurement. 

Venus' Transit presents

 an excellent opportunity

 to determine

 something called

 "the Astronomical Unit"

which, according to NASA is:

" - approximately the mean distance

 between the Earth and the Sun. 

It is a derived constant 

and used to indicate distances

 within the solar system."

  LINK

Hawaii's King Kalakaua 

(who had his palace wired for electricity by 

Edison 4 years before the White House was)

 took personal interest in 

the endeavor, granting the expedition

 a suitable piece of open land

 not far from our Honolulu 

 waterfront and downtown.

 A wooden palisade enclosed

 a well-equipped nineteenth-century

 astronomical observatory, including:

 "several temporary structures including wooden observatories, a bathing tent, a cook house,

 and a sappers’ barrack."   

Michael Chauvin

 Simpler  establishments 

were also placed two neighbor islands:

 at Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii, 

and at Waimea on the island Kauai.

 Journals of the scientists speak of 

heat unrelieved by thatched roofing,

even doubled layers of it!

 They mention our winds,

powerful and playful enough

to dispatch a 90-foot coconut palm

 crashing through the observatory fence 

 Apparently it rained enough

 to flood the observatory grounds

 and float the floors

 of their wooden buildings.  

 Mr. Chauvin's timely book

 also gives us the pleasure 

of seeing our beloved Merrie Monarch 

 through the eyes of busy, preoccupied

 'men of science'

One of them, George Tupman journal-ed that:

  "King Kalakaua had not only interrupted

 the astronomers’ work 

with a two-hour evening visit, 

but that he had had the temerity

 to propose that if, as soon as all the instruments 

were mounted, the astronomers would

 open the observatory grounds to the public

 for a week,

 His Majesty would provide 

some additional entertainment

 by sending his own military band 

down every day! "

Hawaiian hospitality was not appreciated

 by these busy men!

  Perhaps this is where our UN-serious reputation

 as a place to conduct serious business

got started?

On the day-

" at about 3 o’clock hundreds of natives 

arrived at the gates in their holiday clothes! "

From a journal of the time quoted by Dr. Chauvin

To make matters worse,

 during the time surrounding the actual Transit,

 the king was abroad in Washington DC attempting to negotiate the Reciprocity Treaty that the Kingdom desperately needed for important political

 and economic reasons.  

" When the Reciprocity Treaty was signed

 in January 1875, it would put Hawaii’s fragile economy

 on a firm basis by permitting Hawai‘i-grown sugar

 to enter the United States duty-free.  

But it would also direct the Hawaiian Islands

 away from their long-standing flirtations with England

 and toward their consummate embrace

 with the United States; "

Chauvin

Pearl Harbor became property

 ( "leased") of the US Navy-

History.

 The transit of Venus was observed

 here in Honolulu on December 8th.

 

 The sun's disk disappeared in the Pacific

 at 5:18 p.m. Honolulu Mean Time.

[No word about any green flash on that day.] 

 The transit was not complete, 

but the observations of it's progress

were sufficient. 

I am indebted

 for this fascinating information 

to a lecture by Dr. Michael Chauvin 

that was originally delivered by him on 

June 7, 2004,

 at the Smithsonian Institution 

in Washington, D.C.   

It is reproduced as an article at 

www.transitofvenus.org. 

Please check out Mr. Chauvin's 

fascinating volume via this  LINK.

Hokuloa: 

The British 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition

 to Hawai'i

Michael Chauvin 

ISBN: 1581780230

 Can also be ordered by phone (808-848-4135),

 fax (808-847-8260)

 LINK

Thank You!

                         Warmly, cloudia