Jeremiah Horrocks. Stained glass window depicting Jeremiah Horrocks (1619-1641) observing Venus transiting the Sun. Horrocks was born in Liverpool, England and studied at Cambridge University. In 1639 he became Curate of Hoole, in Lancashire. During this period, he used Kepler's Rudolphine tables to predict when Venus would pass in front of the Sun's face, and he observed this transit on 24th November 1639. He also observed several other astronomical phenomena including irregularities in the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, and a lunar occultation of the Pleiades. He also made a study of the variations of the tides before his untimely death.