Dear Friends, With regards to the recent (and off-topic) discussion of the observation of the transit of Venus by Capt. James Cook, I have a "Dance of the Planets" 'resume' file on-line that you can download to see an animated view of what Capt. Cook saw.
You must have the "Dance of the Planets" software to view the animation, but there is a still screen capture on-line. Visit http://www.shadow.net/~bobt and click on "Astronomy" Also, If you have "Dance of the Planets" and are getting a "divide by zero" error when you try to run it on a Pentium II machine, there is a patch available at the same location that will fix it. Here is the text that describes the resume file: In 1768 Captain James Cook set out on his first voyage. His principal assignment was to convey gentlemen of the Royal Society to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun's disk. This resume shows that transit which occurred on June 3, 1769. Kepler's laws gave astronomers the proportions of the solar system, but not the dimensions. By observing and timing transits such as this simultaneously from various widely separated locations on earth astronomers could determine the true distances between the planets. Two dudes named Mason and Dixon were also involved in timing these Venusian transits from South Africa. Later they surveyed the well known line which bears their names. Bob Terwilliger
