"Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to observe the transit of Venus across the sun, a phenomenon that would be visible from Tahiti on 3 June 1769. He arrived in Tahiti's Matavai Bay, commanding on 12 April 1769. On 14 April, Cook met with Tutaha and Tepau. On 15 April, Cook picked the site for a fortified camp at Point Venus along with Banks, Parkinson, Daniel Solander, to protect Charles Green's observatory. The length of stay enabled them to undertake for the first time real ethnographic and scientific observations of the island. Assisted by the botanist Joseph Banks, and by the"
"Newfoundland's waters for 200 years. Following on from his exertions in Newfoundland, Cook wrote that he intended to go not only ""farther than any man has been before me, but as far as I think it is possible for a man to go"". On 25 May 1768, the Admiralty commissioned Cook to command a scientific voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The purpose of the voyage was to observe and record the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun which, when combined with observations from other places, would help to determine the distance of the Sun. Cook, at age 39, was"
"hitherto we have had little more knowledge of it, than if it had lain in another planet"". In 1769, Lieutenant James Cook in command of , travelled to Tahiti to observe and record the transit of Venus. Cook also carried secret Admiralty instructions to locate the supposed Southern Continent: ""There is reason to imagine that a continent, or land of great extent, may be found to the southward of the track of former navigators."" This continent was not found, a disappointment to Alexander Dalrymple and his fellow members of the Royal Society who had urged the Admiralty to undertake this"
"the voyage made by Captain Cook. One of the historians, Alexander Cook, documented the journey in his 2004 article ""Sailing on ""The Ship"": Re-enactment and the Quest for Popular History"". First voyage of James Cook The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS ""Endeavour"", from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which Cook was the commander. The aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun (3–4 June of that year), and to"
"observe and document the 1769 transit of Venus across the sun. Observation and documentation of the transit was to provide an accurate measurement of the distance between the earth and the sun. The southern ocean in 1769 was known to be the best place to take such a measurement. On his return journey, Cook ""discovered"" the east coast of Australia which he mapped on this journey home. In 1788 the First Fleet, arrived at Botany Bay and then moved on to settle on the shores of Sydney Cove. With the fleet was a young Lieutenant William Dawes, who had had"
"First voyage of James Cook The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS ""Endeavour"", from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which Cook was the commander. The aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun (3–4 June of that year), and to seek evidence of the postulated ""Terra Australis Incognita"" or ""unknown southern land"". The voyage was commissioned by King George III and commanded by Lieutenant James Cook, a junior naval officer"
"1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Campbell Island The 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Campbell Island was an astronomical expedition by French scientists to observe 9 December 1874 transit of Venus on subantarctic Campbell Island in the Southern Ocean some 600 km south of New Zealand. It was one of several such scientific expeditions from various countries sent around the world to observe the rare astronomical event. The expedition was conducted under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences which established a committee to plan the operation. A year before the transit was due the French naval frigate"
"on 13 March 1771, and reached the English port of Deal on 12 July. The voyage lasted almost three years. The year following his return Cook set out on a second voyage of the Pacific, which lasted from 1772 to 1775. His third and final voyage lasted from 1776 to 1779. On 16 February 1768 the Royal Society petitioned King George III to finance a scientific expedition to the Pacific to study and observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the sun to enable the measurement of the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Royal approval was granted for"
"the Indian Ocean, near Mauritius. A fourth expedition went to a site near Cairo in Egypt, and the fifth travelled to a site near Christchurch in New Zealand. Several of the expeditions included auxiliary observation stations that were constructed in addition to the main observation sites. In the United States, the Transit of Venus Commission sent out eight expeditions funded by Congress, one to Kerguelen, one to Hobart, Tasmania, one to Queenstown, New Zealand, one to Chatham Island in the southern Pacific, one led by James Craig Watson in Peking, one to Nagasaki in Japan, and one to Vladivostok in"
"of exploration organised by the Admiralty. He reached Australia but found no wealth so it was not a success. Dampier later took up privateering and rescued Alexander Selkirk, which was the basis for Robinson Crusoe. James Cook was born in Yorkshire in 1728. Having worked in a shop, he decided that a life at sea was what he wanted and he became apprenticed to a firm of Whitby coal shippers. He then joined the navy as a seaman and worked his way up to command. The Royal Society wanted to observe the transit of Venus due in June 1769 and"
"Matavai Bay, the same inlet that the Dolphin had visited 2 years before (4 men from the Dolphin had joined Cook's crew). The islanders welcomed Cook and Banks with green banana branches, calling them TAIO or friend, and giving them gifts of perfumed cloth. Soon afterwards a procession of canoes entered the bay and 'Queen' Purea presented Cook with a pig and fresh food,which was reciprocated by Cook with beads and trinkets. The nearby promontory which Cook named Point Venus was used to observe the Transit of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun on 3 June 1769."
"it before any rival European power would be by using Cook's innocuous Transit of Venus mission. Cook, however, had his own personal doubts on the continent's existence. With the help of a Tahitian named Tupaia, who had extensive knowledge of Pacific geography, Cook managed to reach New Zealand on 6 October 1769, leading only the second group of Europeans to do so (after Abel Tasman over a century earlier, in 1642). Cook mapped the complete New Zealand coastline, making only some minor errors, such as calling Banks Peninsula an island. On 22 January 1770, Cook climbed Kaitapeha peak on Arapawa"
"John Gore, who had served as master's mate on ""Dolphin"". Cook anchored in the bay on 13 April 1769. A sandy spit on the northeast end of Matavai Bay - named Point Venus by Cook - was chosen for the observatory. The location of the observatory would be known as ""Fort Venus."" Cook departed on 13 July 1769. Cook also visited Matavai Bay on 26 August-1 September 1773 and 22 April-14 May 1774 during his second voyage, and 23 August-29 September 1777 during his third voyage. ""Lady Penrhyn"" was a convict transport in the First Fleet. Following her arrival in"
"1874 and December 1882; the following pair will occur in December 2117 and December 2125. The oldest film known is the 1874 ""Passage de Venus"", showing the 1874 Venus transit of the sun. Historically, transits of Venus were important, because they allowed astronomers to determine the size of the astronomical unit, and hence the size of the Solar System as shown by Horrocks in 1639. Captain Cook's exploration of the east coast of Australia came after he had sailed to Tahiti in 1768 to observe a transit of Venus. The pentagram of Venus is the path that Venus makes as"
"of thirteen, using his family connections to secure an immediate ranking of able seaman and a position aboard HMS ""Grenville"" under Cook's command, for a survey voyage off the west coast of Newfoundland. On 27 May 1768, and still ranked able seaman, he transferred to his second vessel, Cook's ""Endeavour"", at Deptford ahead of its expedition to the Pacific to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus and then to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated ""Terra Australis Incognita"" (or ""unknown southern land""). Smith sailed with Cook to Tahiti, then to New Zealand and the east coast of"
"attached to Captain James Cook's ship . This vessel had secretly been ordered to search what is now the Alaskan Coast for the Northwest Passage. Leaving Britain in 1776, the ship reached Tahiti the following year and returned Omai, Captain Cook's translator and guide, to his home. From there, the vessel sailed north and visited the Hawaiian Islands, the Sandwich Islands and was the first European ship to visit and chart the coastline from California to Alaska. During 1778, Cook's behaviour became gradually more unpredictable, until in 1779 he returned to Hawaii to effect repairs on his ship prior to"
"Green, the Astronomer, will set out for Deal, to embark on board the Endeavour, Capt. Cook, for the South Seas, under the direction of the Royal Society, to observe the Transit of Venus next summer, and to make discoveries to the South and West of Cape Horn"". The London ""Gazetteer"" was more explicit when it reported on 18 August 1768: “The gentlemen, who are to sail in a few days for George's Land, the new discovered island in the Pacific ocean, with an intention to observe the Transit of Venus, are likewise, we are credibly informed, to attempt some new"
"Tahiti in time to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. She then set sail into the largely uncharted ocean to the south, stopping at the Pacific islands of Huahine, Borabora, and Raiatea to allow Cook to claim them for Great Britain. In September 1769, she anchored off New Zealand, the first European vessel to reach the islands since Abel Tasman's ""Heemskerck"" 127 years earlier. In April 1770, ""Endeavour"" became the first ship to reach the east coast of Australia, when Cook went ashore at what is now known as Botany Bay. ""Endeavour"" then sailed north along the"
"of , and rises to about above sea level. Its shorelines are steep, rocky cliff faces with erosion gullies on the northern side. The gullies are both caused and used by the little penguins whose tracks and burrows cover most of the island. The island was sighted by Captain James Cook on 22 April 1770 during his first voyage to the South Pacific Ocean. Cook had planned to shelter HMS ""Endeavour"" between the unnamed island and mainland but was prevented by high seas. Instead ""Endeavour"" continued its northward path along the coast, making her first Australian landfall a week later"
"Bark ""Endeavour"" under the command of R.N. Lt. James Cook, bound for the Society Islands (present-day Tahiti). They arrived there in 1769, where the observations of Venus were taken during the transit on June 3. Spöring had to repair the astronomical quadrant after it had become damaged when it was taken by the local Polynesian inhabitants. Leaving the Society Islands, the expedition sailed southwards, reaching New Zealand, where Spöring and the other naturalists spent the ensuing months gathering and documenting specimens of native plant and animal life. At a bay now known as Tolaga Bay (not far from the modern"
"renamed by Captain James Cook when he came here in November 1769 to observe the transit of Mercury. Cook was accompanied by Charles Green, the Royal Society expedition astronomer who died on the homeward journey in 1771. From Cook's journal - ""my reasons for putting in here were the hopes of discerning a good harbour and the desire I had of being in some convenient place to observe the Transit of Mercury, which happens on the 9th instant and will be wholly visible here if the day is clear between 5 and 6 o'clock."" Cook also named the Whitianga Harbour"
"Cook on his first voyage of discovery, to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia from 1769 to 1771, using Australian places named by James Cook. Examples include: Cape Dromedary, Point Hicks, Byron Bay, Cape Tribulation, Cape Byron, and Cape York. The purpose of the voyage was to observe the transit of Venus, to accurately measure the distance to the Sun, then to explore lands found on the return journey. The crater is understood by the 2010s to have two main rock types, the Shoemaker Formation and the Matijevic Formation. It has been classified as a complex crater and it is thought"
"and members of the transit committee in Paris, as well as for other expedition-related objects, including: The Campbell Island expedition was one of six French expeditions sent to observe the 1874 transit. The other two sites in the southern hemisphere were Saint Paul Island in the Indian Ocean and Nouméa in New Caledonia, while in the northern hemisphere French astronomers visited Nagasaki in Japan, Peking in China, and Saigon in Vietnam. Other countries which sent similar expeditions were the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany and the United States. 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Campbell Island The 1874 Transit of Venus"
"a telescope in the possession of Daniel Solander and another provided by the Navy. The expedition arrived at Tahiti, the chosen site for the observation of the transit, on 11 April 1769, anchoring in Matavai Bay on the north-western coast of the island two days later. A camp (Fort Venus) was established and the astronomical equipment was in place by the start of May. Of paramount importance for Green was the calculation of an accurate position of the location, which he calculated using the lunar distance method and by observation of the moons of Jupiter. The removal of the quadrant"
"exam and was appointed master's mate of HMS ""Dolphin"". Aboard the ""Dolphin"" Gore circumnavigated the globe twice—first under John Byron and then Samuel Wallis. His experience in the Pacific Ocean and on extended navy expeditions led to him being called up to join James Cook's mission to record the Transit of Venus in Tahiti and search for ""Terra Australis"" in 1768 aboard HMS ""Endeavour"". On ""Endeavour"", Gore was initially third-in-command (i.e. 3rd Lieutenant) behind Cook (1st Lieutenant) and Zachary Hicks Gore had previously been part of the Royal Navy crew aboard Wallis's ""Dolphin"" that had ""discovered"" Tahiti and he became"
"were sent to collect wood and water, while Banks and his team gathered hundreds of plant specimens from along the icy shore. On 17 January two of Banks' servants died from cold while attempting to return to the ship during a heavy snowstorm. ""Endeavour"" resumed her voyage on 21 January 1769, heading west-northwest into warmer weather. She reached Tahiti on 10 April, where she remained for the next three months. The transit of Venus across the Sun occurred on 3 June, and was observed and recorded by astronomer Charles Green from ""Endeavour""'s deck. The transit observed, ""Endeavour"" departed Tahiti on"
"1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Hawaii The 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Hawaii was an astronomical expedition by British scientists to observe the December 8 transit of Venus at three separate observing sites in the Hawaiian Islands, then known as the Sandwich Islands. It was one of five 1874 transit expeditions organized by George Biddell Airy, Astronomer Royal at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The purpose of the expedition was to measure solar parallax obtain an accurate estimate of the astronomical unit (AU), the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Previous efforts to obtain a precise value of"
"Jacquemart Island Jacquemart Island, one of the islets surrounding Campbell Island in New Zealand, lies south of Campbell Island and is the southernmost island of New Zealand. The name commemorates Captain J. Jacquemart, of the vessel FRWS ""Vire"", that supported the French 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Campbell Island. While Jacquemart Island belongs indisputably to New Zealand, New Zealand also claims territory in Antarctica which stretches to the South Pole. Like other Antarctic territorial claims, New Zealand's jurisdiction over the Ross Dependency is not recognised by most nations. Jacquemart Island consists of a stack with an area of ,"
"London; the records of the Royal Society mention making a provision of £50 per annum for his wife for the duration of the expedition. Green's sister Mary married the astronomer William Wales, who was part of a Royal Society expedition to Hudson Bay to observe the 1769 transit of Venus and who replaced Green for Cook's next voyage. Charles Green (astronomer) Charles Green (baptised 26 December 1734 – 29 January 1771) was a British astronomer, noted for his assignment by the Royal Society in 1768 to the expedition sent to the Pacific Ocean in order to observe the transit of"
"Mercury Bay Mercury Bay is a large V-shaped bay on the eastern coast of the Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand. This bay was named by the English navigator Captain James Cook during his exploratory expeditions. It was first named ""Te-Whanganui-a-Hei"", the great bay of Hei, by the Māori. On 9 November 1769, Cook landed on the shores of this bay to observe a Transit of Mercury. In 1919, an area of land around Shakespeare Cliff was set aside, and a small memorial was constructed, based on the erroneous notion that it was the location of Cook's"
"James Cook in December 1774, during his second voyage. It was later named after him. Bahía Cook Bahía Cook, also known in English as Cook Bay, is an irregular bay located between Londonderry Island, Hoste Island, ""Olga Island"" and Gordon Island southwest of Tierra del Fuego in Chile. The bay forms an entrance to the Beagle Channel, the Ballenero Channel and Pomar Channel from the Pacific Ocean, but shipping traffic was unable to use the bay until 2011. The Chilean Navy then installed a lighthouse on the Sandwich Islets, south of Londonderry Island, in order to shorten the voyage from"
"for the America's Cup, in 1987. Mercury Bay Mercury Bay is a large V-shaped bay on the eastern coast of the Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand. This bay was named by the English navigator Captain James Cook during his exploratory expeditions. It was first named ""Te-Whanganui-a-Hei"", the great bay of Hei, by the Māori. On 9 November 1769, Cook landed on the shores of this bay to observe a Transit of Mercury. In 1919, an area of land around Shakespeare Cliff was set aside, and a small memorial was constructed, based on the erroneous notion that"
"It was strongly advocated by Edmond Halley and was applied to the transits of Venus observed in 1761 and 1769, and then again in 1874 and 1882. Transits of Venus occur in pairs, but less than one pair every century, and observing the transits in 1761 and 1769 was an unprecedented international scientific operation including observations by James Cook and Charles Green from Tahiti. Despite the Seven Years' War, dozens of astronomers were dispatched to observing points around the world at great expense and personal danger: several of them died in the endeavour. The various results were collated by Jérôme"