A tale of two telescopes: North Queensland and the 1882 transit of Venus

The 1882 transit of Venus offered the final opportunity for astronomers to use these rare events to pin down the distance from the Earth to the Sun. A British party based itself in southern Queensland, but total cloud cover prevented any observations being made on the critical day. In this paper we trace the preparations of the British party, and then show how they laid the foundations for the development of astronomy in Queensland by selling their two 6-in Cooke refractors before returning to Britain. Both instruments were purchased by a Townsville amateur astronomer, Edwin Norris, and although he installed one in an observatory, he made little use of it. However, he subsequently sold the other telescope to J. Ewen Davidson of Mackay, who also erected an observatory for it. Davidson then used his instrument for cometary astronomy, in the process discovering two new comets, one of which now bears his name. Unfortunately, recent attempts to track down the present whereabouts of the two telescopes have failed.