From stargazers to eclipse chasers, history is filled with people who have travelled around the world to witness rare celestial events.<\/p>\n
As Niagara prepares for an influx of visitors hoping to witness the total solar eclipse<\/a> on Monday, April 8, the Brock University Library has prepared a collection of Cosmic Reads<\/a> books and videos, including highlighted works on eclipses, that can be accessed from home or campus.<\/p>\n A curated print display of cosmic books featuring content from space holes to space travel and religion to research can also be found next to the Ask Us desk in the Library Learning Commons during the month of April.<\/p>\n The University is offering a free Eclipse on the Escarpment community event on Monday, April 8. For more information or to learn how to view the solar eclipse safely, visit, Brock\u2019s eclipse event website<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe act of travelling to witness and celebrate a rare celestial or natural spectacle is nothing new,\u201d says Head of Archives and Special Collections David Sharron. \u201cA recently acquired document found in the J.A. L\u00e9on Bassot fonds<\/a> provides a perfect example of this.\u201d<\/p>\n J.A. L\u00e9on Bassot was a French geodesist and astronomer who joined the 1882 Academy of Science expedition to St. Augustine, Fla., to observe the Transit of Venus, a journey that took him through New York, Niagara Falls and Montreal.<\/p>\n In a letter to his wife Madame Henriette Bassot on Oct. 11, 1882, Bassot shared his experiences of observing Niagara Falls. Written on Clifton House stationary, the letter shares news of his journey and describes the Falls as being \u201cgrandiose and terrible, 50 metres in height, with beautiful rainbows.”<\/p>\n The fonds is also comprised of several letters describing the transit of Venus and correspondence covering Bassot\u2019s geodesic activities in Paris and Nice in 1881 and 1882.<\/p>\n \u201cThis mostly in French collection was acquired for the Niagara content,\u201d says Sharron. \u201cThe rest, particularly the Transit of Venus, is bonus content.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information about Brock University\u2019s Archives and Special Collections<\/a> visit the website or to access to the physical collections, please email archives@brocku.ca<\/a> to schedule an appointment before visiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From stargazers to eclipse chasers, history is filled with people who have travelled around the world to witness rare celestial events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":91932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,1],"tags":[5682,2701,13282,12582,12583],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91926"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91933,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91926\/revisions\/91933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}