Wulf, Andrea (Author)
Alfred A. Knopf
Physical Details: xxvi + 304 pp.; ill.; maps; index
Language: English
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 the transit could be viewed at the same time from many locations. 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 were given a second chance to get it right. Chasing Venus brings to life this extraordinary endeavor: the personalities of eighteenth-century astronomy, the collaborations, discoveries, personal rivalries, volatile international politics, and the race to be first to measure the distances between the planets.
...MoreReview Gingerich, Owen (2012) Review of "Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens". Nature (p. 305).
Review Dunn, Richard (2013) Review of "Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens". Journal for the History of Astronomy (pp. 114-115).
Similar Citations
Article
Stavinschi, M.;
(2012)
Romanian Astronomy and the 1874 Transit of Venus
(/isis/citation/CBB001221498/)
Article
Shiltsev, Vladimir;
(2014)
The 1761 Discovery of Venus' Atmosphere: Lomonosov and Others
(/isis/citation/CBB001214538/)
Article
Vitor Bonifácio;
Isabel Malaquias;
(2018)
Transits of Venus and other astronomical observations made by João de Loureiro (1717-1791) in Cochinchina
(/isis/citation/CBB164635750/)
Book
Kurtz, D. W.;
(2005)
Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy
(/isis/citation/CBB000771529/)
Article
Pasachoff, J. M.;
Sheehan, W.;
(2012)
Lomonosov, the Discovery of Venus's Atmosphere, and the Eighteenth-Century Transits of Venus
(/isis/citation/CBB001221497/)
Article
Kapoor, R. C.;
(2013)
Indian Astronomy and the Transits of Venus. 1: The Early Observations
(/isis/citation/CBB001214524/)
Book
Anderson, Mark;
(2012)
The Day the World Discovered the Sun: An Extraordinary Story of Scientific Adventure and the Race to Track the Transit of Venus
(/isis/citation/CBB001251252/)
Article
Tobin, William;
(2013)
Transits of Venus and Mercury as Muses
(/isis/citation/CBB001214521/)
Book
Maor, Eli;
(2004)
Venus in Transit
(/isis/citation/CBB000772756/)
Article
William M. Barton;
(2022)
The Poetry of Jeremiah Horrocks’s Venus in sole visa (1662): Astronomy, Authority, and the ‘New Science’
(/isis/citation/CBB506910086/)
Article
Schaefer, Bradley E.;
(2001)
The Transit of Venus and the Notorious Black Drop Effect
(/isis/citation/CBB000102746/)
Article
Sheehan, William;
Misch, Anthony;
(2004)
Ménage à Trois: David Peck Todd, Mabel Loomis Todd, Austin Dickinson, and the 1882 Transit of Venus
(/isis/citation/CBB000470383/)
Article
Griffin-Short, Rita;
(2003)
The Ancient Mariner and the Transit of Venus
(/isis/citation/CBB000610216/)
Article
Dieter B. Herrmann;
(2011)
Haben die australischen Aboriginals vor rund 3000 Jahren einen Venusdurchgang beobachtet?Haben die australischen Aboriginals vor rund 3000 Jahren einen Venusdurchgang beobachtet?Did the Australian aboriginals observe a Venus transit 3000 years ago?
(/isis/citation/CBB052085446/)
Book
Campbell, Hamish;
Hall, Richard;
Adds, Peter;
Steel, Duncan;
Salmond, Anne;
Callaghan, Paul;
(2007)
The Transit of Venus: How a Rare Astronomical Alignment Changed the World
(/isis/citation/CBB000951772/)
Article
Rieznik, Marina;
(2010)
El Bureau des Longitudes y la fundación del Observatorio de La Plata en la Argentina (1882--1890)
(/isis/citation/CBB001420468/)
Article
Christiaan Sterken;
(2018)
Hilmar W. Duerbeck: Leaves of Memory
(/isis/citation/CBB715634243/)
Book
William Sheehan;
John Westfall;
(2014)
Celestial Shadows: Eclipses, Transits, and Occultations
(/isis/citation/CBB308692967/)
Book
Maor, Eli;
(2000)
June 8, 2004: Venus in Transit
(/isis/citation/CBB000110245/)
Book
Chauvin, Michael;
(2004)
Hōkūloa: The British 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Hawai'i
(/isis/citation/CBB000501463/)
Be the first to comment!