Chasing Venus; The Race to Measure the Heavens

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. First American Edition [stated], presumed First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Saskia Manners (Author photograph). xxvi, 304, [4] pages. Author's Note. Dramatis Personae. Footnotes. Illustrations. Maps. List of Observers 1761. List of Observers 1769. Selected Bibliography, Sources, and Abbreviations. Notes. Index. DJ has some wear, soiling, and a scuff. Andrea Wulf (born 1972) is a German-British historian and writer who has written books, newspaper articles and book reviews. Her book The Brother Gardeners received a CBHL Annual Literature Award in 2010. In 2016, she won the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize and the Royal Geographical Society's Ness Award for her book The Invention of Nature. Chasing Venus: the Race to Measure the Heavens is a non-fiction book about expeditions of scientists who set off around the world in 1761 and 1769 to collect data relating to the transit of Venus and thereby to measure and understand better the universe. The narrative provides glimpses into the personalities of those involved, their aims and obsessions, their failures and discoveries, and provides the context of the period in the 18th century when modern-day scientifically accurate mapping and international scientific collaboration began. Dramatis personae include Joseph Banks, Catherine the Great, James Cook, Jeremiah Dixon, Benjamin Franklin, Edmond Halley, Maximilian Hell, Mikhail Lomonosov, Nevil Maskelyne, Charles Mason, Alexandre-Gui Pingré, David Rittenhouse, James Short, Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, John Winthrop, and members of the American Philosophical Society, French Academy of Sciences, Royal Society, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Russian Academy of Sciences. 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.