Model to illustrate the Transit of Venus, made for the Science Museum to celebrate the transit of 8 June 2004

A Transit of Venus, where the planet Venus passes between the sun and the earth, happens very rarely and that of 2004 was the first for over one hundred years. A small exhibition was mounted at the time in the Science Museum’s ‘Antenna’ area and this recently-made model was purchased as its centrepiece. As part of the permanent collection it now complements the existing holding of transit-related objects, which date mainly from the eighteenth century.