Book Review: Transits of Venus: Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens

Abstract

TRANSITS OF VENUS Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens. Andrea Wulf (William Heinemann, London, 2012), Pp. xxvi + 304. £17. ISBN 978-0-434022-108-6.Readers of this journal will naturally appreciate the timing of this account of the attempts to observe and measure the two eighteenth-century transits of Venus, astronomical events that were the focus of international cooperation and competition. Unlike some of her cast of characters, Andrea Wulf fortunately ensured that everything was ready in good time for the 2012 transit.Wulfs account is a bold attempt to weave together the various stories of the expeditions sent across the globe to observe the transits of 1761 and 1769. Their aim was to provide an improved figure for the size of the solar system from the comparison of observations in different locations. This was a project Edmond Halley had encouraged future astronomers to undertake, knowing in 17 16 that he would not live to the 1760s. With the baton taken up by Joseph-Nicholas Delisle, Nevil Maskelyne and others, Halley's successors attempted to do him proud in their efforts half-a-century later.Telling the story of both transits allows Wulf to make some interesting contrasts. With the 176 1 transit taking place during the Seven Years War - 'the first global war' , we are told (p. 4) - she is able to make much of the difficulties faced by observers such as Le Gentil, Pingre and Mason and Dixon, who all found themselves caught up in the conflict and had to alter their plans accordingly. For other observers, climate was the main challenge. Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche, for example, endured sub-zero temperatures as he raced to his intended observing station in Siberia. By 1769, however, Europe was more or less at peace and patronage was easier to secure. Monarchs including George UJ in Britain, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Christian IV of Denmark saw transit expeditions as vehicles for national pride and supported them accordingly. These later expeditions were much better provisioned, therefore, and greatly benefitted from lessons learned in 1761, although they remained subject to the vagaries of the weather (as UK observers experienced only too clearly in 20 1 2).This is a popular history, albeit one that has been fully researched and well referenced. As such, the book follows some of the genre's trends, notably in its attempts to evoke atmosphere and character and to inject drama into the narrative. …