Moved by a Rapid Transit
Abstract: Enticing by virtue of its predictability, historical utility, and spectacle, the transit of Venus is a niche event among astronomical phenomena. Though the value of a transit for scientific purposes is now diminished, the brief appearance of Venus silhouetted against the background of the Sun in 2004 moved the artistic community to celebrate the rare alignment. Artists of all ages combined old traditions with fresh technology to create a 21st century tapestry of music, sculpture, paintings, glasswork, quilts, sky shows, and digital imagery. A full catalog of transit-related art generated over the centuries would feature the sampling of entries presented here.
By Chuck Bueter
Presented at the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena (INSAP V) Conference
Chicago, IL
June 28, 2005
Reprinted courtesy of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
The first known observations of the transit of Venus occurred in 1639. A romanticized story suggests that Jeremiah Horrocks may have been at St. Michael Church in Hoole, England, on the day of the 1639 transit, a Sunday. Religious duties of some sort occupied him during much of the day. Horrocks calmly prioritized religion and science by noting that he was "called away [from the transit]...by business of the highest importance which, for these ornamental pursuits, I could not with propriety neglect."1
Such devotedness to faith endeared the young English astronomer to his fellow churchgoers. In a most conspicuous place behind the altar, a pair of roundels adorns the central panel of stained glass.2 The roundel above refers to Venus in Sole Visa, the report authored by Horrocks. The famous roundel below depicts Horrocks projecting the Sun onto a sheet (when in fact he projected it onto a 6-inch piece of paper). In a scene to be repeated to the modern day, the artist does not always depict the science correctly -artistic license trumps scientific accuracy. But the emotional impact of the art is undeniable, reinforced by the Latin banner, which translates into "Behold, a most agreeable spectacle." After having witnessed the 2004 transit myself, I concur fully with this humble assessment.
A vault within an astronomical temple, the Paris Observatory, is adorned with a gorgeous painting of a nude Venus in flight between the feminine earth and the horse-drawn Sun, as an earthbound cherub witnesses the scene through a telescope.
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[Caption image 1: "Detail from Atlas Coelestis, Plate 7, Phænomena Motum Irregularium, Johann Doppelmayer, 1742."]
In his 1742 Atlas Coelestis, cartographer Johann Doppelmayr (1677-1750) anticipated the transit of Venus to come in 1761. Among the insets in one illustration is a beautiful drawing of Venus passing between the Sun and Earth. The stormy weather depicted below the Earth is a reminder of the pitfalls that can confront the observer hoping to see the phenomenon.
A record of 18th-century transit of Venus expeditions was captured in part by the official artists of the expeditions, such as the illustrations by Benard Direx. One drawing shows the portable observatory that housed an accurate clock that allowed Captain James Cook to time the transit from Tahiti in 1761.
In 1774, an anonymous composer memorialized the 1769 event in a song entitled Come Ye Lads and Lasses with Speed: The Transit of Venus, now in the holdings of the British Public Library.3
With the arrival of the 19th-century pair of transits, the scientific community thought a new technique-photography-would capture the elusive moments when Venus just touched the edges of the Sun. This leading scientific technology had a parallel application emerging within the artistic community-photographic art.
William Rau, who was with the transit of Venus expedition in Chatham Island near New Zealand, chronicled more than just the passing of Venus across the Sun. The young photographer recognized that the celestial event was potentially a triumphant moment for his generation's history, and he carefully framed an artistic record.
Consider the artistic merit of the pictures by Rau and photographers from other expedition sites. The photographs addressed the tasks of daily sustenance; seascape photography; local flavor; the countenance of expedition members; and the barren isolation of an observing site.
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[Caption image 2: "An 1874 transit of Venus expedition photograph captures a macabre diversion from astronomy. Photograph courtesy of U.S. Naval Observatory Library."]
One photograph is particularly intriguing. At first, it appears simply to be a group photo of resting military men-until you observe the cannon barrel in the foreground next to a dead body. Suddenly the photograph speaks of armed foreigners and, likely, of a dead local man. Is a photojournalist documenting a skirmish during a transit of Venus expedition?
Photography of a different sort-cinema-also had some of its roots in technology developed with the transit of Venus in mind. The astronomer Jules Janssen devised a "photographic revolver" in an attempt to capture the internal contact times from an observation site in Japan. His device, based on the mechanics of a Colt revolver, exposed an image on a rotating daguerreotype plate every 1.5 seconds.4
After the 19th-century pair of transits, English artists commemorated the great deeds of their local heroes. For a historical mural commissioned for Manchester's new Town Hall in about 1880, Ford Madox Brown painted William Crabtree observing the 1639 transit,5 whereas an aged Jeremiah Horrocks witnessing the 1639 transit appears in Eyre Crowe's painting from about 1889.
Not all of the 19th-century artwork associated with transits was stern and science-related. Sometimes it was humorous, as reflected in postcards by Cynicus and a caricature of the Earl of Crawford in Vanity Fair magazine. Another 19th-century drawing entitled The Transit of Venus depicts museum workers bungling the move of a statue of the goddess.
Magazine illustrators contributed to the 19th-century transit of Venus popular image as well. Cover art from the April 28, 1883, issue of Harper's Weekly shows children viewing the transit through smoked glass.
With such an engaging history, the Transit of Venus has been cause for musical creativity as well. The U.S. Library of Congress notes:
Musical compositions, published around the same time and probably related to the same event, include "The Transit Galop," by Ed. J. Case; "Venus Galop," by William G. Dietrich; "Venus Polka Quadrille," by Carl Heinemann; and "Venus Waltz," an arrangement by Thomas J. Armstrong.6
Bandmaster John Philip Sousa composed a piece not to commemorate the transit but to honor the recently-deceased American physicist Joseph Henry. Sousa's Transit of Venus March debuted in 1883. Decades later, Sousa authored a fictional novel entitled The Transit of Venus, which describes the voyage of the Alimony Club, a group of misogynist men who embark on a Transit of Venus expedition to get away from women. The convictions of the women-haters are challenged when the captain reveals the existence of a stowaway-his lovely young niece.7
Other forms of art were not neglected. Poet Oliver Wendell Holmes was more interested in the human drama around the observer than he was of the scientific event. In an excerpt from The Flaneur: Boston Common, During the Transit of Venus, Holmes cites the astronomer at the telescope who charges a few dimes to look at the transit of Venus:
If Venus only comes to time,
(And prophets say she must and shall,)
To-day will hear the tinkling chime
Of many a ringing silver dime,
For him whose optic glass supplies
The crowd with astronomic eyes --
The Galileo of the Mall.8
In the 20th century, there were no transits of Venus, yet the arts saw occasional reference to the topic:
- In anniversary coinage and stamps;
- In Maureen Hunter's 1992 play, The Transit of Venus, which gives a fictional account of the determined yet frustrated French scientist Le Gentil;
- In occasional artwork (now found on the Internet);
- Willow Mackey's 1969 ditty commemorating the 200th anniversary of Captain James Cook's voyage to Tahiti.9
For the 2004 transit the Astley Hall Museum and Art Gallery in Chorley, north of Manchester, refurbished and put on exhibition a subtle yet powerful 1903 painting by J.W. Lavender of a confident Jeremiah Horrocks observing a projected image of the 1639 transit. Back in Hoole, the hometown of Jeremiah Horrocks, St. Michael's Church prepared for a 2004 stained glass window. Local schoolchildren contributed artwork toward this new roundel's design. Also near Hoole, artists of a different sort-stone carvers-were swept up by the local excitement. After much late-night tapping, the Croston Carvers erected a sandstone monument on a site between the village of Bretherton and Carr House, where Horrocks allegedly made his historic observation.
In 2004, John Philip Sousa's Transit of Venus March was revived for over two dozen performances, from small ensembles to full orchestras.
New forms of expression, communication, and education, such as the projection planetarium, that did not exist for prior transits were available in 2004. A planetarium colleague, Art Klinger, and I were inspired to produce a planetarium show that introduced the transit of Venus story using the digital realm. Computer graphics specialists from NASA's Kepler mission contributed animations showing how transits of stars by planets are used to find new worlds in the quest to understand our place in the cosmos.
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[Caption image 3: "A youth's drawing against a computer-rendered sky anticipates the transit of Venus at sunrise."]
For the planetarium program, we borrowed the artwork from a 7-year old girl's 2003 school project, manipulated the white background with computer graphics, and displayed the sequence predicted by the child. A time-lapse sequence of photographs taken of the transit from the Netherlands by Cees Bassa shows striking similarities to the student's prediction.
The European Southern Observatory was a pivotal institution in engaging the public for the 2004 transit. Among its activities was an art contest that received over 400 entries.
As June 8, 2004 approached, art played a lead role in generating enthusiasm for the upcoming, mysterious transit. In South Bend, Indiana, youths from the local Boys & Girls Club created their interpretations of the transit. In neighboring Mishawaka, Indiana, a local gallery hosted an exhibit of transit of Venus art, of which several pieces were displayed at INSAP V. The exhibit included the NASA collection entitled The Sun as Art, compiled by Dr. Steele Hill. As I shared a few images from that exhibit, I also played John Wesley Barker's 2004 flute music entitled Transit of Venus 3.10 A few of the artistic designs even found their way onto the labels of a flavorful beer, Transit of Venus Sunrise Ale from the Mishawaka Brewing Company, which drew more attention to the celestial apparition.
Eventually, June 8 dawned around the Great Lakes region in the United States. Would anyone show up locally at five in the morning for a fleeting glimpse? I had wondered whether many people would be moved by the 2004 transit. They were. Hundreds of people gathered at advertised sites, such as planetarium locations and science museums. A modern-though unscientific-means to evaluate the appeal of the transit involves the search engine Google. According to Google's Zeitgeist feature, which interprets the search engine's query patterns, the transit of Venus was the "Most Popular Event" in all of June 2004.11
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[Caption image 4: "As third contact approaches, observers are reflected off a rear screen projection of the 2004 transit of Venus."]
That morning, seeing the public's reaction, I anticipated a surge of new transit of Venus art. In addition to the traditional forms, modern media would facilitate a new genre for this event. Just as William Rau had applied the scientist's new tool of his day-in his case, photography-to his craft, so too would observers of the 21st century. Scientists and laymen alike recorded their experiences with digital technology, with the consequence, intentional or not, being artistic imagery.12
This sampling of a catalog of artwork related to the transit of Venus indicates the great inspiration of this astronomical event. Personally, I enjoy the transit of Venus because it is an opportunity to celebrate the multiple disciplines associated with astronomy. It embraces history, science, math, technology, and art.
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[Caption image 5: "The less-seen back side of the stained glass window at St. Michael Church in Hoole, England, depicting Jeremiah Horrocks observing the 1639 transit of Venus."]
In fact, it was the arts that drew me away from the technical aspects in which I had been so immersed, and the arts that showed me a different side. It was the artwork that invited me to step back, to peer safely at the dotted Sun through the eyes of others, and to marvel at how astronomical phenomena inspire the human spirit.
Notes
1 Robert Brickel, B.A., A Chapter of Science in Romance. Privately printed, 1998, p. 30.
2 All images to which I refer in this paper are displayed at www.transitofvenus.org/insap5.htm (through 2009).
3 For a brief listing of transit-related music, see the Library of Congress webpage, Transit of Venus March, "Related Venus Music," at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/venus/venus-othermusic.html.
4 Stephen Herbert, Who's Who of Victorian Cinema, "Pierre-Jules-César Janssen." http://www.victorian-cinema.net/janssen.htm
5 Allan Chapman, Jeremiah Horrocks and Much Hoole. Privately printed, March, 1994, p. 12.
6 Library of Congress, Transit of Venus March, "Related Venus Music." http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/venus/venus-othermusic.html.
7 John Philip Sousa, The Transit of Venus (Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1920.)
8 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. 10, "Before The Curfew, Volume 3 of the 1893 three volume set." The Project Gutenberg EBook, produced by David Widger, http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/zeitgeist-jun04.html
9 Guy Ottewell, Astronomical Calendar 2004 (Cambridge: Sky Publishing Corporation, 2003.)
10 John Wesley Barker, Transit of Venus 3. July, 2004, MP3, 3.7 MB,
http://johnwesleybarker.madasafish.com/compositions/transitofvenus.html
11 Google, Google Zeitgeist - Search patterns, trends, and surprises according to Google, "Popular Events, June 2004." http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/zeitgeist-jun04.html.
12 See www.transitofvenus.org/images.htm for additional examples (through 2009).