Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York, USA; Toronto, Canada
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780307700179
Description: Publisher's Description...

The author of the highly acclaimed Founding Gardeners now gives us an enlightening chronicle of the first truly international scientific endeavor—the eighteenth-century quest to observe the transit of Venus and measure the solar system.

   On June 6, 1761, the world paused to observe a momentous occasion: the first transit of Venus between the earth and the sun in more than a century. Through that observation, astronomers could calculate the size of the solar system—but only if they could compile data from many different points of the globe, all recorded during the short period of the transit. Overcoming incredible odds and political strife, astronomers from Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Sweden, and the American colonies set up observatories in remote corners of the world, only to have their efforts thwarted by unpredictable weather and warring armies. Fortunately, transits of Venus occur in pairs: eight years later, the scientists would have another opportunity to succeed.

   Chasing Venus brings to life the personalities of the eighteenth-century astronomers who embarked upon this complex and essential scientific venture, painting a vivid portrait of the collaborations, the rivalries, and the volatile international politics that hindered them at every turn. In the end, what they accomplished would change our conception of the universe and would forever alter the nature of scientific research.
Table of contents: label: Author's Note
pagenum: xv; label: Dramatis Personae
pagenum: xvii; label: Prologue
title: The Gauntlet
pagenum: xix; label: Part I
title: The Transit 1761; label: 1
title: Call to Action
pagenum: 3; label: 2
title: The French Are First
pagenum: 19; label: 3
title: Britain Enters the Race
pagenum: 31; label: 4
title: To Siberia
pagenum: 42; label: 5
title: Getting Ready for Venus
pagenum: 52; label: 6
title: Day of Transit, 6 June 1761
pagenum: 68; label: 7
title: How Far to the Sun?
pagenum: 87; label: Part II
title: Transit 1769; label: 8
title: A Second Chance
pagenum: 101; label: 9
title: Russia Enters the Race
pagenum: 111; label: 10
title: The Most Daring Voyage of All
pagenum: 122; label: 11
title: Scandinavia or Land of the Midnight Sun
pagenum: 133; label: 12
title: The North Americans Continent
pagenum: 141; label: 13
title: Racing to the Four Corners of the Globe
pagenum: 155; label: 14
title: Day of Transit, 3 June 1769
pagenum: 175; label: 15
title: After the Transit
pagenum: 189; label: Epilogue
title: A New Dawn
pagenum: 200; label: List of Observers 1761
pagenum: 207; label: List of Observers 1769
pagenum: 212; label: Selected Bibliography
pagenum: 217; label: Suggested Further Reading
pagenum: 237; label: Picture Credits
pagenum: 239; label: Acknowledgements
pagenum: 247; label: Notes
pagenum: 251; label: Index
pagenum: 295