XLVII. Observations of the transit of Venus over the Sun, and the eclipse of the Sun, on June 3, 1769; made at the Royal Observatory

The weather, which had been cloudy or rainy here, with a south wind, for the greatest part of the day, began to clear up at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the wind having returned to the west, the same quarter in which it had been the afternoon before, which was remarkably fine and serene, though it changed early in the morning preceding the transit. Towards the approach of Venus's ingress on the Sun, the sky was become again very serene, and so continued all the evening, which afforded as favourable an observation of the transit here as could well be expected, considering that the Sun was only 7° 3' high at the external, and 4° 33' at the internal contact. I observed the external contact of Venus at 7h 10' 58" apparent time, with an uncertainty seemingly not exceeding 5"; and the internal contact, by which I mean the completion of the thread of light between the circumferences of the Sun and Venus, at 7h 29' 23" apparent time, with a seeming uncertainty of only 3"; for so long was the thread of light in forming, or the Sun's light in flowing round and filling up that part of his circumference which was obscured by Venus's exterior limb.