Year: 
1769

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

Thomas Wright's 1769 ToV observing station at Île aux Coudres, Lower Canada