Tránsito de Venus por el sol, noticia histórica de las observaciones practicadas en Santiago de Chile el día 6 de diciembre de 1882.

8vo (title loose, some min. offsetting).

Mod. blue cloth, flat gilt titled spine.

Very rare first edition by the Chilian physicist at the Universidad de Chile L.L. Zegers (1849-1925) on the 1882 transit of Venus which took place on 6 December (13:57 to 20:15 UTC). Ill. with 1 photograph, 4 lithographic portraits (a.o.Octave de Bernardières, leader of the expedition) and 6 plates. It was the second and last transit of Venus of the 19th c. The Belgian astronomer Jean-Charles Houzeau organised an expedition to Santiago de Chile to describe the transit. During the observation they used an identical copy of the Houzeau heliometer with unequal focal lengths, invented in 1871. The whole enterprise was the first major expedition in the history of Belgian science.
Ref. BnF. - COPAC.
Prov. Société de Géographie Commerciale de Paris (stamp).