This retrospective map in 18th-century style shows the general location of William Wales' and Joseph Dymond's transit of Venus station, where they wintered over in 1768-1769. Image courtesy of Specula astronomica minima (©Specula astronomica minima).

Professor John Winthrop, Harvard College’s Hollisian Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy, successfully observed the 1761 transit from Venus Hill, now thought to be somewhere in the vicinity of St. John's (Kenmount Hill?).

Thomas Wright published his successful transit observations, complete with a full disc image of the course of Venus on the Sun, and sunspots, in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions, vol. 59 (1769), 273-280. This is a recreation of an 18th-century manuscript copy of his report. Image courtesy of Specula astronomica minima (©Specula astronomica minima).

Thomas Wright, Deputy Surveyor of the Northern District of America, observed the 1769 transit of Venus successfully from Île aux Coudres in the Saint Lawrence River, Quebec. The quality of his observations was praised by the Astronomer Royal, the Rev'd Neville Maskelyne, in the pages of the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions. Unbeknownst to both Wright and Maskelyne, the Île aux Coudres transit station was slap in the middle of an ancient meteorite impact site, the Charlevoix crater. This drawing is a recreation of the island site in 1769.

Recreation of 18th-century drawing of the black drop effect. Image courtesy of Specula astronomica minima (©Specula astronomica minima).

Recreation of the pre-fab observatory brought to the Prince of Wales transit of Venus station by William Wales and Joseph Dymond. The observatory was designed by John Smeaton, the father of civil engineering. Note the ice; according to the observers, the extreme cold was a challenge. Image courtesy of Specula astronomica minima (©Specula astronomica minima).

Image courtesy of Specula astronomica minima (©Specula astronomica minima).

Image courtesy of Specula astronomica minima (©Specula astronomica minima).