1·Halley realised that Mercury was so far away that its parallax angle would be very difficult to determine.
哈雷意识到水星离地球如此之远，以至于很难确定它的视差角。
2·In November 1677, Halley observed a transit of the innermost planet, Mercury, from the desolate island of St Helena in the South Pacific.
1677年11月，哈雷在南太平洋荒凉的圣赫勒拿岛上观测到了水星（最靠近太阳的行星）的凌日现象。
3·As Venus was closer to the Earth, its parallax angle would be larger, and Halley worked out that by using Venus it would be possible to measure the Suns distance to 1 part in 500.
由于金星离地球更近，所以它的视差角会更大。哈雷计算出，利用金星可以测量出太阳与地球之间的距离，误差为五百分之一。
4·Inspired by Halley's suggestion of a way to pin down the scale of the Solar System, teams of British and French astronomers set out on expeditions to places as diverse as India and Siberia.
受哈雷提出的确定太阳系大小的方法启发，英国和法国天文学家团队开始在印度和西伯利亚等地考察。
5·They found deuterium at higher levels than it's found in Earth water —but at levels similar to the comets Hale-Bopp, Hyakutake and Halley.
他们发现，同地球上的水相比，氘的含量更高——但同海尔·波普彗星、哈库塔克彗星和哈雷上的水有着相似的平。