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The 2004 Transit of Venus over James Cook University
James Cook - Scientist, Navigator and Explorer
Captain James Cook RN, FRS after whom James Cook University is named.
The James Cook University (JCU) is, of course, named after the English explorer James Cook R.N., F.R.S. (1728 – 1779). The main campus of JCU is situated at Townsville, from where it services the tropical north of Queensland; the north-east part of Australia. Townsville is the unofficial capital for the region and a step-off point for the Australian Great Barrier Reef.
The connection between James Cook and this region is that Cook sailed up the east coast of Australia in 1770, having claimed Terra Australis (Australia) for the Crown of England at Botany Bay on 26th February, 1770. Indeed, Cooks' ship, the HMS Endeavour (His Majesty's Ship Endeavour), ran onto the Great Barrier Reef and was nearly lost, and had to be repaired at the mouth of the Endeavour River where the City of Cooktown now stands. Cooktown is about 450 km to the north of Townsville.
Part of Cook’s chart of the East Coast of Australia showing where the
Endeavour struck the reef and the Endeavour River where it was repaired.
Thus, because of the exploration of Captain Cook, Australia became an English colony, and later, in 1901, an independent country.
Much has been written about Cook and his “discovery” of Australia. Indeed a Google search for James Cook will return some 1.9 million sites!
Of these sites, the following prepared by The Mariners’ Museum of Newport News, Virginia, USA are succinct and very readable:
- James Cook’s First Voyage
- Cook’s Second Voyage
- Cook’s Third Voyage
- A Map of Cook’s Three Voyages
- Background on the Endeavour
Of particular interest to the JCU Centre for Astronomy is Cook's astronomical observations, and the consequence of them. Again, much has been written, and the description below of his astronomical work has been openly plagiarised by me from an excellent paper by Dr Wayne Orchiston – From the South Seas to the Sun; The Astronomy of Cook’s Voyages - that was published in Science and Exploration in the Pacific – European Voyages to the Southern Oceans in the Eighteenth Century, Edited by Margarette Lincon (The Boydell Press in association with the National Maritime Museum, 1998). A small amount of text has been lifted from the modest tome Under the Southern Cross – A brief History of Astronomy in Australia by Bhathal and White (Kangaroo Press, 1991).
Dr Orchiston’s principal work on this subject is Nautical Astronomy in New Zealand – The Voyages of James Cook (Carter Observatory Board, 1998). Scholars interested in the subject of the science of James Cook may care also to read Captain Cook – Navigator and Scientist – papers presented at the Cook Bicentenary Symposium, Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, 1 May 1969 (Edited by G.M. Badger, Australian National University Press, 1970). Of particular interest to astronomers will be the papers by G.M. Badger (Cook the Scientist), Sir Fredrick White (Cook the Navigator) and Sir Richard Woolley (The Significance of the Transit of Venus).
Graeme White
Now to the Astronomy of James Cook ->
