Reconstructing the "Artificial Transit"

The Museum has reconstructed Benjamin Martin's working demonstration of the transit of Venus, as seen at London in 1769. Martin's original “artificial transit” was a lecture demonstration, shown in his Fleet Street shop in the period immediately before the 1769 transit.

To find out more about Martin's original, see catalogue numbers 5 and 6.

Our example has been publicly demonstrated several times a day as part of the exhibition. Check the Flash video or MPEG files below to see it in action.

The reconstruction in action

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Also available to download (MPEG format): 56k modem (10Mb) or broadband (28Mb).

Rewinding the sun

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Available for download as an MPEG file: 56k modem (3Mb) or broadband (8Mb).

Behind the scenes

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MPEG downloads: 56k modem (4Mb) or broadband (13Mb).