this page honors Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)
In Chapter 23 in Book V of Revolutions, Copernicus provided a description of an observation that he made of Venus. This occurred "at 1 hour after sunset [equal to] the start of the 8th hour after noon on 12 March 1529 A. D. I saw Venus beginning to be occulted by the [Earth's] moon's dark side midway between both horns. This occultation lasted until the end of that hour or a little longer, when the planet was observed emerging westward on the [moon's] other side in the middle of the curvature between the horns."
"Therefore, at or about the middle of this hour, clearly there was a central conjunction of the moon and Venus, a spectacle which I witnessed at Frombork [in Prussia]. Venus was still increasing its evening elongation, and had not yet reached the tangent to its orbit."
Based on his own observations along with those of ancient astronomers, Copernicus concluded, in Chapter 25, that "Venus is linked with the earth's motion …."