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Events on Saturday 6 June 1761 2
1761Transit of Venus observed worldwideThe first international scientific observing campaignAstronomers at more than a hundred stations, including Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon at the Cape of Good Hope, timed Venus crossing the face of the Sun in order to measure the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Observing from St Petersburg, Mikhail Lomonosov saw a luminous ring around the planet and concluded that Venus has an atmosphere. The results varied widely, and astronomers refined them using the transit of 1769.
1761Transit of Venus observed worldwideThe first international scientific observing campaignAstronomers at more than a hundred stations, including Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon at the Cape of Good Hope, timed Venus crossing the face of the Sun in order to measure the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Observing from St Petersburg, Mikhail Lomonosov saw a luminous ring around the planet and concluded that Venus has an atmosphere. The results varied widely, and astronomers refined them using the transit of 1769.