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Vardø Municipality

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Vardø ( Norwegian pronunciation: [vaɖːø] ; Finnish : Vuoreija ; Kven : Vuorea ; Northern Sami : Várggát ) is a municipality in Finnmark county in the extreme northeastern part of Norway . Vardø is the easternmost town in Norway, more to the east than Saint Petersburg or Istanbul . The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Vardø . Two of the larger villages in the municipality are Kiberg and Svartnes .

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68-462: The 601-square-kilometre (232 sq mi) municipality is the 188th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Vardø is the 284th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,972. The municipality's population density is 3.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (8.5/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 6.9% over the previous 10-year period. The town of Vardø and

136-630: A sunspot for Venus. He used his transit observation to help establish that Venus was, at least sometimes, below the Sun in Ptolemaic cosmology , i.e., the sphere of Venus comes before the sphere of the Sun when moving out from the Earth in the prevailing geocentric model. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler predicted the 1631 transit in 1627, but his methods were not sufficiently accurate to predict that it could not be seen throughout most of Europe. As

204-460: A tundra climate ( Köppen : ET ), but as a result of warming, Vardø now has a subarctic climate ( Köppen : Dfc ) using the official 1991-2020 period, because the monthly mean temperatures in July and August has passed the 10 °C (50 °F) threshold. Excluding high mountain areas, it was earlier the only town in Norway proper (excluding Svalbard and Jan Mayen ) with a polar climate. The town

272-536: A consequence, astronomers were unable to use his prediction to observe the event. The first recorded observation of a transit of Venus was made by the English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks from his home at Carr House in Much Hoole , near Preston , on 4 December 1639 (24 November O.S.). His friend William Crabtree observed the transit from nearby Broughton . Kepler had predicted transits in 1631 and 1761 and

340-408: A little less than the land area of Puerto Rico , 8,868 square kilometres (3,424 sq mi). Although the arithmetic density is the most common way of measuring population density, several other methods have been developed to provide alternative measures of population density over a specific area. Transit of Venus A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between

408-410: A near miss in 1639. Horrocks corrected Kepler's calculation for the orbit of Venus, realized that transits of Venus would occur in pairs 8 years apart, and so predicted the transit of 1639. Although he was uncertain of the exact time, he calculated that the transit was to begin at approximately 15:00. Horrocks focused the image of the Sun through a simple telescope and onto paper, where he could observe

476-577: A population of 400 to 500 people. By 1789, however, it had reduced to about 100. In the 17th century, Vardø was the center of a great number of witchcraft trials . More than 90 persons, Norwegian and Sami, were given death sentences. They are commemorated in the Steilneset Memorial . In 1769, the Hungarian astronomer Maximilian Hell and his assistant János Sajnovics , delegated by Christian VII of Denmark , traveled to Vardø to observe

544-446: A rash of miscarriages and cancer cases in a civilian district next to the fenced-in security zone. The town was selected as the millennium site for Finnmark county. All municipalities in Norway are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services , senior citizen services, welfare and other social services , zoning , economic development , and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality

612-581: A result he lost his wife and possessions. Upon his return he regained his seat in the French Academy and remarried. Under the influence of the Royal Society , the astronomer Ruđer Bošković travelled to Istanbul , but arrived after the transit had happened. In 1771, using the combined 1761 and 1769 transit data, the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande calculated the astronomical unit to have

680-526: A transit seems not to have been considered. The discovery of the planet’s atmosphere has long been attributed to the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov , after he observed the 1761 transit from the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg . The attribution to Lomonosov seems to have arisen from comments made in 1966 by the astronomy writer Willy Ley , who wrote that Lomonosov had inferred

748-428: A value of 153 ± 1 million kilometres (95.07 ± 0.62 million miles). The precision was less than had been hoped for because of the black drop effect . The value obtained was still an improvement on the calculations made by Horrocks. Hell published his results in 1770, which included a value for the astronomical unit of 151.7 million kilometres (94.3 million miles). Lalande challenged

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816-511: Is 53/km (140/sq mi). This includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica . However, if Antarctica is excluded, then population density rises to over 58 per square kilometre (150/sq mi). The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has developed a suite of (open and free) data and tools named the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) to improve the science for policy support to

884-454: Is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans , but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by total land area , sometimes including seas and oceans, as appropriate. Low densities may cause an extinction vortex and further reduce fertility. This is called the Allee effect after

952-435: Is a member of the 243-year cycle #1. The 1882 transit is a member of #2. The 2004 transit is a member of #3, and the 2012 transit is a member of #4. The 2117 transit is a member of #1, and so on. However, the ascending node (December transits) of the orbit of Venus moves backwards after each 243 years so the transit of 2854 is the last member of series #3 instead of series #1. The descending node (June transits) moves forwards, so

1020-499: Is a reflection of the fact that the orbital periods of Earth and Venus are close to 8:13 and 243:395 commensurabilities . The last pairs of transits occurred on 8 June 2004 and 5–6 June 2012 . The next pair of transits will occur on 10–11 December 2117 and 8 December 2125. Transits of Venus were in the past used to determine the size of the Solar System . The 2012 transit has provided research opportunities, particularly in

1088-455: Is around 8,000,000,000 and the Earth 's total area (including land and water) is 510,000,000 km (200,000,000 sq mi). Therefore, the worldwide human population density is approximately 8,000,000,000 ÷ 510,000,000 = 16/km (41/sq mi). However, if only the Earth's land area of 150,000,000 km (58,000,000 sq mi) is taken into account, then human population density

1156-531: Is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Indre og Østre Finnmark District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal . The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Vardø is made up of 19 representatives elected to four-year terms. The tables below show

1224-563: Is needed to power the American-funded GLOBUS space surveillance system, located about 40 miles from Russia's Kola Peninsula, a territory studded with high-security naval bases and restricted military zones. The secrecy surrounding the radar systems has spawned fears that officials are covering up health hazards and other possible dangers. The electromagnetic pulses the current radar system emits interfere with television and radio reception, and some residents have blamed them for

1292-605: Is on an unsheltered island in the Barents Sea and treeless. The " midnight sun " is above the horizon from 16 May to 29 July, and the period with continuous daylight lasts a bit longer, polar night from 24 November to 19 January. The average date for first overnight freeze (below 0 °C (32 °F)) in autumn is October 12. The weather station Vardø Radio (10 m) started recording in June 1829. The municipality of Vardø with its seabird colonies of Hornøya and Reinøya are among

1360-748: Is on the island of Vardøya , but the municipality includes significant area on the mainland of the Varanger Peninsula , including part of the Varangerhalvøya National Park in the southwest. The highest point in the municipality is the 492-metre (1,614 ft) tall mountain Grythaugen. The mountain Domen lies on the shore of the Varanger Peninsula. South of it lies the small Kibergsneset peninsula, where

1428-666: Is starting to become an important economic factor. Vardø's tourist attractions include the Vardøhus Festning , a fortress dating back to the 14th century (although the present structure dates from 1734); the witchcraft trials memorial; several sea bird colonies ; two museums: the Pomor Museum and the Partisan Museum ; and remnants of German fortifications from World War II . The Yukigassen competition in Vardø

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1496-460: Is unique in Norway. Vardøhus Festning is home to two rowan trees that are diligently nurtured and warmed in winter since they cannot normally survive in Vardø's climate, north of the Arctic tree line . Seven trees were planted in 1960; the one that survived managed to blossom twice, in 1974 and 1981. It finally succumbed to the cold in 2002, but two new saplings have been planted in its place. In

1564-654: The European Commission Directorate Generals and Services and as support to the United Nations system. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states , microstates and urban dependencies . In fact, 95% of the world's population is concentrated on just 10% of the world's land. These territories have a relatively small area and a high urbanization level, with an economically specialized city population drawing also on rural resources outside

1632-453: The Maya site at Mayapan may contain a pictorial representation of the 12th or 13th century transits. The Persian polymath Avicenna claimed to have observed Venus as a spot on the Sun. There was a transit on 24 May 1032, but Avicenna did not give the date of his observation, and modern scholars have questioned whether he could have observed the transit from his location; he may have mistaken

1700-658: The Russian Empire under the general coordination of Stepan Rumovsky . King George III of the United Kingdom had the King's Observatory built near his summer residence at Richmond Lodge , so that he and the Astronomer Royal , Stephen Demainbray , could observe the transit. Hell and his assistant János Sajnovics travelled to Vardø , Norway. Wales and Joseph Dymond went to Hudson Bay to observe

1768-669: The Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet ), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk . During a transit , Venus is visible as a small black circle moving across the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus reoccur periodically. A pair of transits takes place eight years apart in December ( Gregorian calendar ) followed by a gap of 121.5 years, before another pair occurs eight years apart in June, followed by another gap, of 105.5 years. The dates advance by about two days per 243-year cycle. The periodicity

1836-575: The Transit of Venus . After 1850, the town saw a marked expansion. The fisheries grew in importance, and so did the Pomor trade with Russia's White Sea region. In 1850 the population reached 400, and in 1910 it passed 3 000. During World War II, with Norway occupied by the German Wehrmacht , Vardø was heavily bombed by Allied, mostly Russian forces. Most of the town center was destroyed, and

1904-499: The astronomical unit by means of triangulation . Aware of this, the English astronomer Edmond Halley made observations of such a transit on 28 October O.S. 1677 from the island of Saint Helena , but was disappointed to find that only Richard Towneley in the Lancashire town of Burnley, Lancashire had made another accurate observation of the event, whilst Gallet, at Avignon , had simply recorded that it had occurred. Halley

1972-546: The transit of 2004 . The participants' observations allowed a calculation of the astronomical unit (AU) of 149,608,708 ± 11,835 kilometres (92,962,541 ± 7,354 miles), which differed from the accepted value by 0.007%. During the 2004 transit, scientists attempted to measure the loss of light as Venus blocked out some of the Sun's light, in order to refine techniques for discovering extrasolar planets . The 2012 transit of Venus provided scientists with research opportunities as well, in particular in regard to

2040-486: The (false) presumption that each planet's size was proportional to its rank from the Sun, not on the parallax effect as used by the 1761 and 1769 and following experiments. In 1663, the Scottish mathematician James Gregory had suggested in his Optica Promota that observations of a transit of Mercury , at widely spaced points on the surface of the Earth, could be used to calculate the solar parallax , and hence

2108-493: The 11-year activity cycle of the Sun, and it gave astronomers an opportunity to practise picking up a planet's signal around a "spotty" variable star. Measurements made of the apparent diameter of a planet such as Venus during a transit allows scientists to estimate exoplanet sizes. Observation made of the atmosphere of Venus from Earth-based telescopes and the Venus Express gave scientists a better opportunity to understand

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2176-491: The 1874 observations. The American astronomer Simon Newcomb combined the data from the last four transits, and he arrived at a value of 149.59 ± 0.31 million kilometres (92.95 ± 0.19 million miles). Scientific organisations led by the European Southern Observatory organised a network of amateur astronomers and students to measure Earth's distance from the Sun during

2244-407: The 243-year cycle is relatively stable, but the number of transits and their timing within the cycle vary over time. Since the 243:395 Earth:Venus commensurability is only approximate, there are different sequences of transits occurring 243 years apart, each extending for several thousand years, which are eventually replaced by other sequences. For instance, there is a series which ended in 541 BC, and

2312-450: The 243-year cycle, because of the slight mismatch between the times when the Earth and Venus arrive at the point of conjunction. Prior to 1518, the pattern of transits was 8, 113.5, and 121.5 years, and the eight inter-transit gaps before the AD 546 transit were 121.5 years apart. The current pattern will continue until 2846, when it will be replaced by a pattern of 105.5, 129.5, and 8 years. Thus,

2380-434: The Earth a full transit can be seen while in other regions there is only a partial transit (no second or third contact ). The last transit of this type was on 6 December 1631, and the next such transit will occur on 13 December 2611. It is also possible that a transit of Venus can be seen in some parts of the world as a partial transit, while in others Venus misses the Sun. Such a transit last occurred on 19 November 541 BC, and

2448-522: The Sun without damaging his eyesight. After waiting for most of the day, he eventually saw the transit when clouds obscuring the Sun cleared at about 15:15, half an hour before sunset. His observations allowed him to make a well-informed guess for the diameter of Venus and an estimate of the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun (59.4 million mi (95.6 million km; 0.639 AU)). His observations were not published until 1661, well after Horrocks's death. Horrocks based his calculation on

2516-648: The accuracy and authenticity of observations obtained by the Hell expedition, but later wrote an article in Journal des sçavans (1778), in which he retracted his comments. Observations of the transits of 1874 and 1882 worked to refine the value obtained for the astronomical unit. Three expeditions—from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States—were sent to the Kerguelen Archipelago for

2584-998: The area, illustrating the difference between high population density and overpopulation . Deserts have very limited potential for growing crops as there is not enough rain to support them. Thus, their population density is generally low. However, some cities in the Middle East, such as Dubai , have been increasing in population and infrastructure growth at a fast pace. Cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Very densely populated cities are mostly in Asia (particularly Southeast Asia ); Africa's Lagos , Kinshasa , and Cairo ; South America's Bogotá , Lima , and São Paulo ; and Mexico City and Saint Petersburg also fall into this category. City population and especially area are, however, heavily dependent on

2652-467: The current and historical composition of the council by political party . The mayors ( Norwegian : ordfører ) of Vardø: Vardø is the easternmost town in Norway and the Nordic countries , located at 31°E, which is east of Saint Petersburg , Kyiv and Istanbul . The eastern part of Finnmark is in the same time zone as the rest of the country, despite daylight shifted by more than an hour. The town

2720-547: The definition of "urban area" used: densities are almost invariably higher for the center only than when suburban settlements and intervening rural areas are included, as in the agglomeration or metropolitan area (the latter sometimes including neighboring cities). In comparison, based on a world population of 8 billion, the world's inhabitants, if conceptualized as a loose crowd occupying just under 1 m (10 sq ft) per person (cf. Jacobs Method ), would occupy an area of 8,000 square kilometres (3,100 sq mi)

2788-611: The event. In Philadelphia , the American Philosophical Society erected three temporary observatories and appointed a committee led by David Rittenhouse . Observations were made by a group led by Dr. Benjamin West in Providence, Rhode Island , Observations were also made from Tahiti by James Cook and Charles Green at a location still known as Point Venus . D'Auteroche went to San José del Cabo in what

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2856-637: The existence of an atmosphere from his observation of a luminous arc. The attribution has since then been questioned. For the 1769 transit, scientists travelled to places all over the world. The Czech astronomer Christian Mayer was invited by the Russian empress Catherine the Great to observe the transit in Saint Petersburg with Anders Johan Lexell , while other members of the Russian Academy of Sciences went to eight other locations in

2924-494: The intermediate level of Venus's atmosphere than was possible from either viewpoint alone, and provided new information about the climate of the planet. Spectrographic data of the atmosphere of Venus can be compared to studies of the atmospheres of exoplanets. The Hubble Space Telescope used the Moon as a mirror to study light from the atmosphere of Venus, and so determine its composition. Transits usually occur in pairs, because

2992-405: The length of eight Earth years is almost the same as 13 years on Venus. This approximate conjunction is not precise enough to produce a triplet, as Venus arrives 22 hours earlier each time. The last transit not to be part of a pair was in 1396 (the planet passed slightly above the disc of the Sun in 1388); the next one will be in 3089. After 243 years the transits of Venus return. The 1874 transit

3060-407: The most interesting on this part of the coast. There is a small breeding population of Brunnich's guillemot as well as larger numbers of razorbill and common guillemot . The climate is too cold in summer and too windy in winter for trees, but a few planted trees exist in wind-sheltered locations, generally rowans . The island is connected to the mainland via the undersea Vardø Tunnel which

3128-458: The name was spelled Vardöe . The coat of arms dates to 1898. Its borders are drawn using the national colours : red, white, and blue. The border frames the shield, and the centre field shows a complex scene incorporating a sunrise with rays, two fishing boats with crews, the sea with waves, and a large cod . In the chief is the year of the town's foundation, 1789, together with the words "Vardöensis Insignia Urbis" , meaning "the seal of

3196-425: The next transit of this type will occur on 14 December 2854. These effects are due to parallax , since the size of the Earth affords different points of view with slightly different lines of sight to Venus and the Sun. It can be demonstrated by closing an eye and holding a finger in front of a smaller more distant object; when the viewer opens the other eye and closes the first, the finger will no longer be in front of

3264-553: The object. The simultaneous occurrence of transits of Mercury and Venus does occur, but extremely infrequently. Such an event last occurred on 22 September 373,173 BC and will next occur on 26 July 69,163 , and again on 29 March 224,504. The simultaneous occurrence of a solar eclipse and a transit of Venus is currently possible, but very rare. The next solar eclipse occurring during a transit of Venus will be on 5 April 15,232. The Canadian rock band Three Days Grace titled their fourth studio album _Transit of Venus_ and announced

3332-458: The old Finnmark county. On 1 January 2024, the Troms og Finnmark county was divided and the municipality once again became part of Finnmark county. The Old Norse form of the name was Vargøy . The first element is vargr which means " wolf " and the last element is øy which means " island ". The first element was later replaced (around 1500) with varða which means " cairn ". Historically,

3400-486: The population was evacuated. After the war, the city center was completely reconstructed, but older, traditional houses survived in the periphery, such as in the old town in Østervågen. As of 2017, the fishing industry had collapsed. From 1995 to 2017, the population shrank by 50 percent to 2,100 people. In May 2017 work to lay a new electric cable from the Norwegian mainland to the island began. The additional electricity

3468-498: The refinement of techniques to be used in the search for exoplanets . The orbit of Venus has an inclination of 3.39° relative to that of the Earth, and so passes under (or over) the Sun when viewed from the Earth. A transit occurs when Venus reaches conjunction with the Sun whilst also passing through the Earth's orbital plane , and passes directly across the face of the Sun. Sequences of transits usually repeat every 243 years, after which Venus and Earth have returned to nearly

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3536-419: The rural district around it was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The law required that all towns be separated from their rural districts, but because of a low population and very few voters, this was impossible to carry out for Vardø in 1838. (This also happened to the nearby towns of Hammerfest and Vadsø .) The rural district of Vardø ( Vardø landdistrikt , which

3604-522: The same point in their respective orbits. During the Earth's 243 sidereal orbital periods , which total 88,757.3 days, Venus completes 395 sidereal orbital periods of 224.701 days each, which is equal to 88,756.9 Earth days. This period of time corresponds to 152 synodic periods of Venus. A pair of transits takes place eight years apart in December, followed by a gap of 121.5 years, before another pair occurs eight years apart in June, followed by another gap, of 105.5 years. Other patterns are possible within

3672-443: The scientist who identified it. Examples of the causes of reduced fertility in low population densities are: Population density is the number of people per unit of area, usually transcribed as "per square kilometer" or square mile, and which may include or exclude, for example, areas of water or glaciers. Commonly this is calculated for a county , city , country , another territory or the entire world . The world's population

3740-433: The series which includes 2117 only started in AD 1631. Ancient Indian , Greek , Egyptian , Babylonian , and Chinese observers knew of Venus and recorded the planet's motions. Pythagoras is credited with realizing that the so-called morning and evening stars were really both the planet Venus. There is no evidence that any of these cultures observed planetary transits. It has been proposed that frescoes found at

3808-748: The site's proximity to Russia and an alleged connection between the GLOBUS system and US anti-missile systems, the site has been the basis for heated controversy in diplomatic and intelligence circles. In March 2017 and again in February 2018 Russia executed mock air strikes aimed at Vardø, presumably because of the radar site. Both times military aircraft took off from the Kola Peninsula in attack formations, but stopped short of Norwegian airspace. Population density Population density (in agriculture : standing stock or plant density )

3876-483: The southeastern part of the town, Østervågen, document continuous habitation in this area reaching back at least some 800 years. Even if the presence of the fortress and king's bailiff gave Vardø a certain degree of permanence and stability not experienced by other fishing communities in Finnmark, the town's size and importance waxed and waned with the changing fortunes of the fisheries. In the mid-16th century Vardø had

3944-482: The study of exoplanets . The event additionally was the first of its kind to be documented from space, photographed aboard the International Space Station by NASA astronaut Don Pettit . The measurement of the dips in a star's brightness during a transit is one observation that can help astronomers find exoplanets. Unlike the 2004 Venus transit, the 2012 transit occurred during an active phase of

4012-415: The summer of 2012, Vardø hosted the urban art event Komafest , where 12 international artists painted tens of the town's abandoned houses in a three-week period. Fishing permits (for salmon fishing) are sold for use on specific rivers, including Komag-elva. Since 1998, the town has housed radar installations called GLOBUS I, II and III. Its official purpose is the tracking of space junk , but due to

4080-524: The town of Vardø". In the lower part of the arms is the town motto: "Cedant Tenebræ Soli" , meaning "Darkness shall give way to the sun." This is a high resolution version of the coat of arms. The Church of Norway has one parish ( sokn ) within the municipality of Vardø. It is part of the Varanger prosti ( deanery ) in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland . Vardø has a long settlement history before it

4148-424: The transit of 3705 is the last member of #2. Over longer periods of time, new series of transits will start and old series will end. Unlike the saros series for lunar eclipses, it is possible for a transit series to restart after a hiatus. The transit series also vary much more in length than the saros series. Sometimes Venus only grazes the Sun during a transit. In this case it is possible that in some areas of

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4216-495: The transit. Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason succeeded in observing the transit at the Cape of Good Hope , but Nevil Maskelyne and Robert Waddington were less successful on Saint Helena, although they put their voyage to good use by trialling the lunar-distance method of finding longitude. Venus was generally thought to possess an atmosphere prior to the transit of 1761, but the possibility that it could be detected during

4284-546: The village of Kiberg is. The town lies on the island of Vardøya , which is surrounded by a few smaller islands. Hornøya is one of them. It is northeast of Vardøya and is the site of Vardø Lighthouse . The mouth of the Varangerfjorden lies along the municipality's eastern coast. The port of Vardø, on the Barents Sea , remains ice-free all year round thanks to the warm North Atlantic drift . Vardø earlier had

4352-509: Was Norway's first such structure. Vardø Airport and the settlement of Svartnes are on the mainland opposite the tunnel entrance. Vardø is a port of call on Norway's Hurtigruten ferry service. The town is the northern termination of European route E75 , which starts in Sitia , Crete . The newspaper Østhavet has been published in Vardø since 1997. Fishing and seafood processing remain Vardø's major sources of income, although tourism

4420-521: Was granted status as a town in 1789. Several stone-age sites as well as sites dating from the Sami Iron Age are known on the island. In the Medieval period, Vardø's importance grew as a result of it being the easternmost stronghold of the then-expanding Norwegian royal power. A church was built in Vardø in 1307, and the first fortress was established at about the same time. Thick cultural layers in

4488-762: Was not satisfied that the resulting calculation of the solar parallax of 45" was accurate. In a paper published in 1691, and a more refined one in 1716, Halley proposed that more accurate calculations could be made using measurements of a transit of Venus, although the next such event was not due until 1761 (6 June N.S. , 26 May O.S.). In an attempt to observe the first transit of the pair, astronomers from Britain ( William Wales and Captain James Cook ), Austria ( Maximilian Hell ), and France ( Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche and Guillaume Le Gentil ) took part in expeditions to places that included Siberia , Newfoundland , and Madagascar. Most of them observed at least part of

4556-513: Was renamed Båtsfjord Municipality in 1957) was officially separated from the town of Vardø in 1868. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee . On 1 January 1964, the eastern part of Båtsfjord merged with the town of Vardø to create Vardø Municipality. On 1 January 2020, the municipality became part of the newly formed Troms og Finnmark county. Previously, it had been part of

4624-412: Was then New Spain to observe the transit with two Spanish astronomers (Vicente de Doz and Salvador de Medina). For his trouble he died in an epidemic of yellow fever there shortly after completing his observations. Only 9 of 28 in the entire party returned home alive. Le Gentil spent over eight years travelling in an attempt to observe either of the transits. Whilst abroad he was declared dead, and as

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