The Day the World Discovered the Sun (40 page)

6
. Chappe,
Voyage to California
, 75, 80–81, 85.

7
.
The 1769 Transit of Venus
, ed. Doyce B. Nunis, trans. Maynard J. Geiger (Los Angeles: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, 1982), 101; Chappe,
Voyage to California
, 67.

8
. Chappe,
Voyage to California
, 68–69.

9
. Chappe,
Voyage to California
, 89. Translation by Mark Anderson.

10
. Ibid., 92.

11
. Ibid., 88.

12
. Nunis,
1769 Transit
, 93.

13
. Heysham,
Jail Fever
, 11–12.

14
. “Éloge de M. l'Abbé Chappe,” in
Histoire de L'Académie Royale des Sciences
(Paris: 1772), 171. Translation by Mark Anderson.

15
. Nunis,
1769 Transit
, 82.

16
. Ibid., 87.

17
. Chappe,
Voyage to California
, 150. Translation by Mark Anderson.

18
. Ibid., 151–156.

19
. Rumors still swirled around Hell's initial refusal to send the academy in Paris his Vardø transit data—and aroused anti-Jesuit tinged suspicions about the validity of Hell's findings.

20
. Chappe,
Voyage to California
, 168. Translation by Mark Anderson.

21
. The translation of parallax into physical distance from the sun also depends on an accurate value for the size of the earth, which was not precisely known in the eighteenth century. As a result, Hornsby's solar distance calculation loses a hair of precision—but still registers at an impressive 99.2 percent of the correct value.

E
PILOGUE

1
.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
, 61 (December 1771):574.

2
.
Phil. Trans. R.S
. 61 (December 1771): 578; Harry Woolf,
The Transits of Venus
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959), 190.

3
. W. Orchiston, “James Cook's 1769 transit of Venus expedition to Tahiti” in
Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004), 58–61.

4
. Woolf,
Transits of Venus
, 182–191.

5
. Ibid., 190–191.

6
. Per Pippin Aspaas, “Le Père Jésuite Maximilien Hell et ses relations avec Lalande,” in
Jerôme Lalande (1732–1807) Une trajectoire scientifique
(Rennes, France: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010).

7
.
Journal des Sçavans
, September 1770, 619–622, in Aspaas, “Le Père.”

8
. Because Hell was a Jesuit, and therefore already suspect in the eyes of some, Hell and Sajnovics's entire mission was cast into eclipse. Until the late nineteenth century, many even suspected Hell of fabricating his expedition's Venus transit data. It was only with a careful study of Hell's manuscript archives in 1890 (Simon Newcomb, “Discussion of Transits of Venus, 1761–1769,” in
Astronomical Papers Prepared for the Use of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac
[Washington, D.C.: Dept. of Navy, 1890], 301–305) that Hell was vindicated and the allegations against his mission proved definitively wrong.

9
. Hell,
Eph. Astr. anni 1773
(1772), in Aspaas, “Le Père.”

10
. Woolf,
Transits of Venus
, 192. As just one example, in 1779 A.I. Lexell used a solar parallax value of 8.63 arc seconds to calculate the mass ratio of the earth to the sun. C.A. Wilson, “Perturbations & Solar Tables,”
Archive for History of Exact Sciences
22 (1980) 195.

11
. John Lathorp, “Lectures on Natural Philosophy (Lecture X),”
Polyanthos
, n.s., June 1814, 133–134.

12
. Hamish Lindsay,
Tracking Apollo to the Moon
(London: Springer-Verlag, 2001), 316.

13
. Sharon Gaudin, “NASA's Apollo Technology Has Changed History: Apollo Lunar Program Made a Staggering Contribution to High Tech Development,”
Computerworld
, July 20, 2009.

14
. Thomas Arnold,
The American Practical Lunarian and Seaman's Guide
(Philadelphia: Robert Desilver, 1822), 4:437.

15
. Egon Kodicek and Frank Young, “Captain Cook and Scurvy,”
Notes and Records of the Royal Society
, June 1969, 43–63.

16
. “Reading this book greatly inspired him, and gave him a taste for the physical sciences. From this point on, all his studies, and even his pastimes, were focused on that subject.” Abraham Chappe, quoted in
Journal de Paris
, February 1, 1805, in Gerard Holzman and Björn Pehrson,
The Early History of Data Networks
(New York: Wiley-IEEE Computer Society, 1994), 50.

17
. Diana Hook and Jeremy Norman,
Origins of Cyberspace
(Norvato, CA:
HistoryofScience.com
, 2001), 179–180.

18
. Rita Griffin-Short, “The Ancient Mariner and the Transit of Venus,”
Endeavour
, December 2003, 175–179.

19
.
The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments
, ed. Adam Clarke (New York: Ezra Sargeant, 1811).

20
. Hervey Wilbur,
Elements of Astronomy, Descriptive and Physical
(New Haven, CT: Durrie & Peck, 1830), 83.

21
. P. Hedelt, et. al. “Venus transit 2004: Illustrating the capability of exoplanet transmission spectroscopy.”
Astronomy & Astrophysics
, vol. 533 (Sept. 2011) id. A136,
http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.3700
.

22
.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html

23
. David Ehrenreich et. al., “Transmission spectrum of Venus as a transiting exoplanet,”
Astronomy & Astrophysics
, vol. 537 (Dec. 2011) id. L2,
http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.0572
.

T
ECHNICAL
A
PPENDIX

1
. Technically, planetary orbits describe an ellipse, a geometric figure that may be described nontechnically as a “squished circle.” The distance
a
represents the so-called semi-major axis of the ellipse. However, for present purposes, the orbits of both earth and Venus are close to circular, so
a
closely approximates the average distance between planet and sun.

2
. Albert van Helden,
Measuring the Universe: Cosmic Dimensions from Aristarchus to Halley
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 154–155.

3
. William Sheehan and John Westfall,
The Transits of Venus
, (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2004), 125–138. Raymond Haynes,
Explorers of the Southern Sky A History of Australian Astronomy
(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 22–26.

4
. Rezso Nagy and Attila Jozsef Kiss, “Observation of the Venus Transit,” in
Jubilee Conference, 1879–2004
(Budapest: Budapest Tech Polytechnical Institution, 2004).

5
. What follows is an adaptation of F. Mignard, “The Solar Parallax with the Transit of Venus,”
Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
, 2004.

6
. “Right ascension” is an astronomical coordinate that represents the projection of terrestrial longitude on the sky.

7
. “Declination” is the similar projection of terrestrial latitude on the sky. Ninety degrees declination is the north celestial pole, close to the location in the sky of Polaris, the North Star.

8
. Ibid.

9
. Thomas Hornsby, “The Quantity of the Sun's Parallax,”
Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc
., December 1771, 575.

10
. The calculation requires that the parallax be measured in radians, not arc seconds. An extra factor of 206,265 arc seconds/radian was also applied to equation 13.

An Account of the Discoveries Made in the South Pacifick
(Dalrymple),
85–86

Alzate y Ramírez, José Antonio de,
108–109
,
210

The American Practical Lunarian and Seaman's Guide
(Arnold),
222

Apollo program, NASA,
221

Arctic Venus transit observations

atmospheric density,
219

by Horrebow,
188
,
193

importance,
190–191

with longest transit times,
81

See also
Vardø, Norway, expedition

Astronomers Royal

Bradley,
28
,
32
,
68

Cassini de Thury (French),
211

Danish,
193

Halley,
80

Maskelyne,
77
,
83–84
,
89

Astronomical unit (AU),
118

Astronomy

exoplanet research,
225–226

and navigation/longitude puzzle,
3
,
41
,
84
,
118

Venus transits impact,
6
,
51
,
80
,
225

See also under specific astronomical subjects

Astronomy & Astrophyisics
journal,
227

Australia (New Holland),
199–201

Banks, Joseph

embarks on Tahiti expedition (1769),
93–94
,
137

aquatic specimens collected in doldrums,
144

as expedition's naturalist,
139–140
,
147–148

on Madeira Island,
138

ornithological specimens collected,
164

in Tahiti,
169–172

Tahiti transit observed,
175

Tierra del Fuego experiences,
150–154
,
163

after-mission experiences,
196
,
198
,
201

Barbados longitude testing,
68–72

Batavia,
202–203

Bernstorff, Johan Hartvig Ernst von,
121–122
,
191

Berthoud, Ferdinand

introduced,
66

attempts to copy Harrison's chronometer,
67–68

chronometers tested,
73–74
,
102

Bevis, John,
81
,
83–84

Bible, literal truth of,
98–99
,
224

Black drop effect,
48
,
56
,
161–162
,
174
,
186

Borchgrevink, Jens Finne,
128–129
,
159–160
,
162

Boscovich, Roger Joseph,
82

Bougainville, Louis Antoine de,
200

Bradley, James,
27
,
28
,
68

Brahe, Tycho,
193

Brest, France, chronometer test,
73–74

Bridgetown, Barbados.
See
Barbados longitude testing

British Mariner's Guide . . . of . . . Longitude at Sea
(Maskelyne),
61–64
,
70
,
71

Bruce, James,
92

Buchan, Alexander,
153
,
170

Cadiz, Spain,
101–103
,
211

California/Baja peninsula expedition (1769).
See
San José del Cabo, Baja, expedition (1769)

Camus, Charles Étienne Louis,
66
,
67–68

Cape Town observations by Mason and Dixon (1761),
34–38
,
40

Carlos III, king of Spain,
101

Cassini, Jean Dominique de,
101

Cassini de Thury, César-François

analyzes, reports on, 1769 transit data,
212–214

publishes Chappe's papers,
211

Catherine the Great (Catherine II), empress of Russia,
53
,
121

Cavendish, Henry,
84
,
141

Chappe, Claude,
223

Chappe d'Auteroche, Jean-Baptiste

eclipse observations,
45–46
,
205–208

Siberia expedition (1761),
5–24

Siberia transit observation (1761),
45–49

Siberia expedition lectures given to Russian scientists,
49–53

Siberia expedition memoirs,
97–99