Daily Mail
6 June 2012

Manchester Evening News
6 June 2012

Stargazers from across the globe gathered together to watch one of the rarest astronomical spectacles today.

From the US and UK to South Korea, people around the world turned their attention to the daytime sky to make sure they caught the planet Venus passing directly between the sun and Earth - a transit that won't occur again for another 105 years.The transit of Venus happens in pairs eight years apart - but then with more than a century between cycles.During the pass, Venus appears as a small, dark round spot moving across the face of the sun, like a bug on a dinner plate.

The first observation of the Transit of Venus - where the planet passes directly between the sun and the Earth - was made by Salford stargazer William Crabtree in 1639.

The former Manchester Grammar School pupil's observation - lauded by some as the birthplace of modern astronomy - was made with a helioscope from his bedroom window and proved that planets orbit the sun and not the Earth.

To mark Crabtree's legacy, the room where he made the discovery was transformed to how it would have been in his time, using furnishings from Ordsall Hall.

Organisers linked up with NASA for the special event, which involved actors in period dress recreating Crabtree's moment of discovery.Re-enacting the Ford Madox Brown painting of William Crabtree's observation of the transit of Venus.

Footage from the house at Lower Broughton Road - which retains Tudor features from his day - was beamed to millions of internet users from NASA's site.

CAPTION: Painting by Ford Madox Brown, the pre-Raphaelite painter who lived in Crumpsall and Victoria Park, near Longsight, for inspiration. The picture, which is exhibited in Manchester Town Hall, recreates the look of the period in painstaking detail, although it depicts Crabtree as a mature gentleman, when he was actually just 29 when he made the discovery.

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