1769 Transit of Venus observed from Tahiti while voyaging to (unsuccessfully) observe the 1761 Transit in Sumatra. Using the solar parallax values obtained from the 1769 transit, Hornsby wrote in "Philosophical Transitions" December 1771 that "the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun (is) 93,726,900 English miles." The radar-based value used today for the astronomical unit is . This is only a difference of eight-tenths of one percent. Considering what these astronomers had to work with, their results were "absolutely remarkable". 1769 Transit of Venus observed from Tahiti On June 3, 1769, British navigator Captain James Cook, British naturalist Joseph Banks, British astronomer Charles Green and
Tahiti monarch Tahiti monarch The Tahiti monarch or Tahiti flycatcher ("Pomarea nigra") is a rare species of bird in the monarch flycatcher family. It is endemic to Tahiti in French Polynesia. There are fewer than 50 individuals remaining. The Tahiti monarch was originally described in the genus "Muscicapa". Formerly, the Maupiti monarch was considered as a subspecies of the Tahiti monarch until re-classified as separate species in 2012. This bird is 15 centimeters long and black in color with a pale blue bill. The juvenile is reddish brown. The call sounds like "tick-tick-tick" and the song is "flute-like". This bird is found