Liverpool Pier Head ~ Part of a sculpture combining a telescope and an orrery (mechanical representation of planetary motion) commemorating Jeremiah Horrocks, a local 17th century astronomer. Horrocks (1618 – 1641) was born in Toxteth, Liverpool who studied astronomy and mathematics at Cambridge University and after leaving, continued his astronomical studies, especially Kepler’s then new ideas about elliptical planetary orbits. In 1639 he was a curate at Much Hoole near Preston. He realised that a transit of Venus would be visible in November that year, and was able to observe it, measuring the diameter of Venus and estimating the Earth’s distance from the Sun. Horrocks died in 1641, aged only 22.

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