Charles Mason - 1761 Transit of Venus

1761 Transit of Venus

In 1761, Mason was assigned to travel to the island of Sumatra to observe the Transit of Venus as part of an international effort to record data that would enable scientists to determine the distance from the earth to the sun. Mason was joined by Jeremiah Dixon, a surveyor and amateur astronomer from Cockfield in the County of Durham. Owing to an attack by a French man-of-war, they did not reach their destination in time for the transit and were forced to record their observations from the Cape of Good Hope. On the way back from the Cape they visited St. Helena where they made a series of observations with the astronomer Nevil Maskelyne.