The 1882 Transit of Venus

Given the extraordinary space images we have grown used to seeing today, watching The 1882 Transit of Venus (1882), the telescopic chronophotographic work by David Peck Todd, is a remarkable experience, pointing to the invaluable role photography and film have played in astronomy. When Janssen experimented with his photographic revolver for recording Passage of Venus (1874), he set a pattern for how the new medium could help astronomers gain deeper insights into the laws of the universe. Todd continued this approach eight years later during the construction of the Lick Observatory in California. Our curiosity about worlds beyond had driven the desire to observe, and most importantly to document, the cosmos. Employing early techniques for capturing movement allowed scientists to explore space through the camera’s eye.