Jeremiah Horrocks, Pier Head Telescope – Liverpool, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 24.242 W 002° 59.805
30U E 500216 N 5917217
A poem from Jeremiah Horrocks, the scientist who first observed the transit of Venus across the sun using a telescope projecting the image onto a card.
Waymark Code: WMC5W5
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/29/2011
Views: 12
Jeremiah Horrocks was born in Toxteth, a suburb of Liverpool in 1619. He attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he became familiar with the works of Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe in the subject of astronomy.
As young as 17 he found inconsistencies in their work and was the first person to realise the Moon had an elliptical orbit around the Earth.
He also studied Venus and was convinced that tables of data describing its orbit were inaccurate. He predicted that it would pass in front of the Sun in 1639. Using a telescope he projected an image of the Sun onto a card, and was able to see an image of Venus passing in front of the Sun.
This monument is in the form of a telescope pointing to the Sun and Venus and on the base a poem he wrote describing the long wait until people would be able to see the next transit of Venus.
Horrocks died suddenly at tyhe young age of 22 and it is believed he would have been able to contribute greatly to the field of astronomy if he hadn’t died so young.
The poem and inscription is as follows...
THY RETURN POSTERITY SHALL WITNESS;
YEARS MUST ROLL AWAY,
BUT THEN AT LENGTH THE SPLENDID SIGHT
AGAIN SHALL GREET OUR DISTANT CHILDREN'S EYES.