A memorial to Jeremiah Horrocks born in Toxteth, Liverpool in 1619.
Jeremiah Horrocks attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he became familiar with the works of Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe in the subject of astronomy.
He also studied Venus and was convinced that tables of data describing its orbit were inaccurate. He predicted that it would pass in front of the Sun in 1639. He was the first person to accurately calculate the transit of Venus, using a telescope he projected an image of the Sun onto a card, and was able to see an image of the planet passing in front of the Sun.
A monument to Horrocks by Andy Plant was installed in 2011 at the Pier Head. The base is inscribed with the words:
Thy return posterity shall witness, years must roll away, but then at length the splendid sight again shall greet our distant children’s eyes
It is in the form of a telescope pointing to the Sun and Venus.
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Horrocks died suddenly at the young age of 22 and it is believed he would have been able to contribute greatly to the field of astronomy if he hadn’t died so young.
Horrocks Avenue is named after him and there is a plaque dedicated to his memory, which hangs on the chapel wall in the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth, each of its four corners decorated with a five pointed star. St Michaels In The Hamlet also features a memorial to Jeremiah Horrocks and at Westminster Abbey, London. there is a memorial tablet to Horrocks, (erected c.1874 after a petition by the Royal Astronomical Society.
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