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
O Tahiti Nui Freedom O Tahiti Nui Freedom The O Tahiti Nui Freedom project, initiated by , is an outrigger sailing canoe built for an expedition in which she reversed the path of Polynesian expansion through the South Pacific in 2010. The design of the "O Tahiti Nui Freedom" was inspired by a historical plan drawn in Tahiti by Admiral Paris around 1820 (standard plank of wood and stitch construction). The design was then reviewed and modernized by a group of naval architects in order to meet the standards of modern safety while respecting the line and form of Paris' 1820 plan. This modified