Blimey, what a couple of days it’s been!
On Tuesday night, a group of some 30-40 skygazers gathered in a back garden in Salford in the pouring rain. Why? Tuesday saw the transit of Venus, an event that won’t happen again until 2117. Unless we stay on the whiskey – as advised by Jodrell Bank’s Dr Tim O’Brien – no-one living today will ever have the opportunity to experience it again. One of the first people to view the transit was Jeremiah Horrocks, from Preston. He encapsulated that feeling rather poignantly:
” …Thy return
Posterity shall witness; years must roll
Away, but then at length the splendid sight
Again shall greet our distant children’s eyes.”
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