Planetário

In 1882 occured a Transit of Venus over the solar disc. This event was observed by several Brazilian expeditions – see the book “Eclipses – da Superstição à Previsão Matemática” (Eclipses – From Superstition to Mathematical Previsions), 1993 from Ronaldo Mourão).
The book “O Sábio e o Idioma” ( The Learned and the Idiom) page 104 informs us that the event ocured on the 6th of october in 1882 but the fac-simile of Brazilicio’s drawing informs correctly to have happened on the 6th de 10br, 1882. Brazilico abreviated the name “december” as “10br”.

The drawing shows 2 times:

v  =  Venus position at 2h.,5m
v’  =  Venus position ats 4h.,30m

The record suggests that the time is pm of GMT (Universal Time), since it is in agreement with the values calculated by the software Occult 4.2 (©1999 D.Herald).
The position  v shows the moment when the center of Venus crosses the solar disk.

Following that’s the transcript from Brazilicio’s log:

1882 - December 6 (8h. AM.) Therm. 71° Fahr.t Rain continues. At 9 o'clock the rain stoped an I observed the sun's disk by few moments. Venus  wasn't detached in it yet. 10 o'clock. Sky enterily closed and rains. 11 o'clock. Therm. 70° Fahr.t The rain continues abundantily. 12 o'clock. Rain yet, but weak. 1 o'clock PM. Fine drizzling rain ever. More rarified nimbus. 2 hours and 5 minutes. Finally! In a brief 5 minutes space the Sun remained half uncovered and using the spyglass I saw Venus well detached perfectly from the sun's disk. It seems to occupy the medium point of the chord that it have to pass over. 4 hours and ½ After rains enough the sun appeared again. In this occasion Venus  quit from sun's disk. More than it hemisphere was out. That's the path that it [Venus] followed in the sun's disk, according my few data.

Than how did he know about this rare event? The transits of Venus are shortly mentioned in the book Geographia of Thomaz Pompeu (c.1870) and the year 1882 is mentioned as one of the two next transits. It is possible that books like that were the source of information for Brasilicio

T R A N S I T    o f   V E N U S       1882 Dec  6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- F l o r i a n o p o l i s E Longitude - 48º 35.9'   Latitude -27º 35.6'   Altitude    25m Event                          UT        P.A.   Alt   Differential Corrections h  m  s       o      o       A       B Ingress, exterior contact   13 57 20     145     74     -3.21   +6.96 Ingress, interior contact   14 17 17     148 Least angular distance      17 03 15             63 Egress, interior contact    19 50 18     243 Egress, exterior contact    20 10 30     246     22     -0.51   -6.01 (secs per deg) At least angular distance Distance from Centre of Sun    637.2''     65.4% Radius of Sun   974.3'' of Planet    31.6''

Translation by Helga Szmuk and Alexandre Amorim

Mean Bibliography:

SOUZA, José Brazilício, Agenda Astronômica e Meteorológica, 1882-1909.
SOUSA, Abelardo, O Sábio e o Idioma, IOESC, Florianópolis, 2002.