On 24 November 1639, Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree etched their names into astronomical history by making the first recorded observation of the transit of Venus across the Sun.
Using rudimentary telescopes and projecting the Sun’s image onto a screen, they meticulously documented the event, marking a pivotal moment in science.
Horrocks’s calculations refined Johannes Kepler’s predictions, while Crabtree’s observations corroborated the data, enabling a groundbreaking step in celestial measurement.
This achievement helped estimate the size of the solar system with unprecedented precision, laying the foundation for modern astronomical studies.