THE TRANSIT OF VENUS ITS MEANING AND USE BY Thomas Hayward T. H. BUDD, F.R.A.S. Ci LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1875 All rights reserved PREFACE. A QUESTION was asked in Punch not long ago, whether any one would explain the Transit of Venus.' It has occurred to the writer that an explanation in simple and untechnical language might indeed instruct as well as amuse those who are sufficiently curious to think about the matter, but who, perhaps, from want of time and leisure, cannot bring themselves to face the apparently overwhelming difficulties connected with the study of Astronomy in general, which they think they must overcome before they can arrive at the meaning of the (astronomically speaking) great event that occurred in December, 1874. Let me, however, assure my readers it can be made intelligible even to those who have never looked into a book on Astronomy. A perusal of the following pages will, I hope, prove my assertion. |