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A “thrilling adventure story" (San Francisco Chronicle) that brings to life the astronomers who in the 1700s embarked upon a quest to calculate the size of the solar system, and paints a vivid portrait of the collaborations, rivalries, and volatile international politics that hindered them at every turn. • From the author of Magnificent Rebels and New York Times bestseller The Invention of Nature.
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 the remotest corners of the world, only to be thwarted by unpredictable weather and warring armies. Fortunately, transits of Venus occur in pairs; eight years later, they would have another opportunity to succeed. Thanks to these scientists, neither our conception of the universe nor the nature of scientific research would ever be the same.
A “thrilling adventure story" (San Francisco Chronicle) that brings to life the astronomers who in the 1700s embarked upon a quest to calculate the size of the solar system, and paints a vivid portrait of the collaborations, rivalries, and volatile international politics that hindered them at every turn. • From the author of Magnificent Rebels and New York Times bestseller The Invention of Nature.
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 the remotest corners of the world, only to be thwarted by unpredictable weather and warring armies. Fortunately, transits of Venus occur in pairs; eight years later, they would have another opportunity to succeed. Thanks to these scientists, neither our conception of the universe nor the nature of scientific research would ever be the same.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
From the book Prologue The Gauntlet
The Ancient Babylonians called her Ishtar, to the Greeks she was Aphrodite and to the Romans Venus – goddess of love, fertility, and beauty. She is the brightest star in the night sky and visible even on a clear day. Some saw her as the harbinger of morning and evening, of new seasons or portentous times. She reigns as the ‘Morning Star’ or the ‘Bringer of Light’ for 260 days, and then disappears to rise again as the ‘Evening Star’ and the ‘Bringer of Dawn’.
Venus has inspired people for centuries, but in the 1760s astronomers believed that the planet held the answer to one of the biggest questions in science – she was the key to understanding the size of the solar system.
In 1716 British astronomer Edmond Halley published a ten-page essay which called upon scientists to unite in a project spanning the entire globe – one that would change the world of science forever. On 6 June 1761, Halley predicted, Venus would traverse the face of the sun – for a few hours the bright star would appear as a perfectly black circle. He believed that measuring the exact time and duration of this rare celestial encounter would provide the data that astronomers needed in order to calculate the distance between the earth and the sun.
The only problem was that the so-called transit of Venus is one of the rarest predictable astronomical events. Transits always arrive in pairs – eight years apart – but with an interval of more than a century before they are then seen again. Only once before, Halley said, in 1639, had an astronomer called Jeremiah Horrocks observed the event. The next pair would occur in 1761 and 1769 – and then again in 1874 and 1882.
Halley was sixty years old when he wrote his essay and knew that he would not live to see the transit (unless he reached the age of 104), but he wanted to ensure that the next generation would be fully prepared. Writing in the journal of the Royal Society, the most important scientific institution in Britain, Halley explained exactly why the event was so important, what these ‘young Astronomers’ had to do, and where they should view it. By choosing to write in Latin, the international language of science, he hoped to increase the chances of astronomers from across Europe acting upon his idea. The more people he reached, the greater the chance of success. It was essential, Halley explained, that several people at different locations across the globe should measure the rare heavenly rendezvous at the same time. It was not enough to see Venus’s march from Europe alone; astronomers would have to travel to remote locations in both the northern and southern hemispheres to be as far apart as possible. And only if they combined these results – the northern viewings being the counterpart to the southern observations – could they achieve what had hitherto been almost unimaginable: a precise mathematical understanding of the dimensions of the solar system, the holy grail of astronomy.
Halley’s request would be answered when hundreds of astronomers joined in the transit project. They came together in the spirit of the Enlightenment. The race to observe and measure the transit of Venus was a pivotal moment in a new era – one in which man tried to understand nature through the application of reason.
This was a century in which science was worshipped, and myth at last conquered by rational thought. Man began to order the world according to these new principles. The...
About the Author-
ANDREA WULF was born in India and moved to Germany as a child. She lives in London, where she trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art. She is the author of The Brother Gardeners, long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2008 and winner of the American Horticultural Society 2010 Book Award, and of Founding Gardeners; she is also the coauthor (with Emma Gieben-Gamal) of This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History. She has written for The Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times, and she reviews for several newspapers, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Times Literary Supplement.
Reviews-
Starred review from April 1, 2012 In the late 18th century, European astronomers scurried about the globe measuring the transit of Venus, hoping, at last, to learn the size of our universe. Until this busy narrative, Wulf had turned her eyes more earthward with three previous outings about gardens (The Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation, 2011, etc.). Here she glides easily into the heavens, where she clearly explains how Venus' transit across the sun, which occurs every 105 years (and each time does so twice, at eight-year intervals--one will occur in June 2012), gave Enlightenment astronomers a chance to figure out such things as the distance between the earth and the sun. Their 1769 calculation--transit-derived--was quite close. The author follows the two international attempts, in 1761 and 1769, to accomplish the measurements from various global viewing points, describing in grim detail the vast difficulties of travel and communication, the geopolitical complications (wars didn't help) and the various personalities of potentates and scientists that characterized the endeavor. The 1761 transit occurred before everyone were sufficiently ready, and the measurements were disappointing; 1769 was better--though poor Guillaume Le Gentil of France, who'd spent nine years devoted to the projects, saw only clouds at his observatory in Pondicherry, India. Worse, Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche died of typhus only days after his successful recordings. The author notes the imprecision of the instruments, the difficulties of determining precisely when the dark spot of Venus began and ended its journey across the sun's yellow wafer and the arduous treks Enlightenment men (yes, all men) undertook to Lapland, Tahiti, Hudson Bay and Baja. More than 100 pages of back matter reveal the sturdy research undergirding the lively narrative. Like a nonfiction National Treasure with myriads of Nicholas Cages darting around--in a good way. Enlightening Enlightenment fare.
COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
June 1, 2012
During Venus's transit, observers can see the planet as a small black dot against the face of the sun. The transit is a rare event: while the last one occurred in June 2004 and the next will occur in June of this year, Venus will not appear again between Earth and the Sun until December 2117. Like Mark Anderson's The Day the World Discovered the Sun (reviewed above), Wulf's (Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation) book is concerned with Venus's 1761 and 1769 transits, when the international science community dispatched a remarkable set of expeditions to remote parts of the world to observe and measure the planet's passages across the sun. Their primary objective was to use newly acquired observational data to improve knowledge of the distance between Earth and the Sun and the solar system's dimensions. Many of the traveling scientists underwent great travails, and several died. VERDICT Wulf well describes the scientific problems and physical trials these astronomers had to solve and endure. Recommended for all readers interested in the history of science.--Jack W. Weigel, Ann Arbor, MI
Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 1, 2012 A rare, once-in-a-lifetime celestial event, a transit of Venus across the solar disk enables astronomers to measure the distance between the earth and the sun. The trigonometry of the measurement, however, requires observers to be separated by thousands of miles, which in 1761 and 1769, when transits were predicted by Edmund Halley, necessitated months and years of arduous travel to get into position. The voyages and their inevitable misadventures inspire Wulf's enthusiastic account, which opens with the international ringmaster for 1761, French astronomer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle. His pleas successfully instigated several expeditions that faced, in addition to the hazards of the sea and atrocious roads, those of the Seven Years' War. Whether enemy warships or clouds, mishaps so interfered with seeing Venus that 1761 was a dud. Motivated not to squander 1769, scientists again spread across the globe. Wulf details their finances, instruments, journeys (which cost several astronomers their lives), and the observations that triumphantly revealed the true dimensions of the solar system. With the next transit predicted for June 6, 2012, Wulf's well-handled history arrives in a timely manner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)
Owen Gingerich, Nature
"Excellent. . . . Chasing Venus is beautifully paced, alternating between expeditions, with lush descriptions of the often arduous journeys involved."
Ian Welland, Astronomy Now
"Outstanding. . . . It's the book of the year so far--do not miss it!"
Alexandra Witze, Dallas Morning News
"Andrea Wulf has now chronicled the 18th-century transit expeditions in a narrative light on astronomical detail but rich in personalities and adventures. The race was the 1760s version of reality TV -- a cross between Amazing Race and Survivor. People waited to see which astronomers would make it and which wouldn't, and to learn whether all the time and money was worth it. Wulf doesn't entirely resolve that question, but she does wonderfully sketch the race for scientific, and patriotic, glory."
Iain Finlayson, The Times (London)
"Another fine example of such scientific storytelling. . . . Narrated with elegant expertise."
Matthew Price, The Boston Globe
"The 18th century stargazers whom Andrea Wulf describes . . . would put Indiana Jones to shame. . . . Here is a book both astrophysicists and poets can enjoy."
Ann Levin, The Denver Post
"Chasing Venus is [a] thrilling adventure story. . . . Wulf's marvelous eye for detail and talent for simplifying complex science make the book, timed for release a month before the last transit of this century, well worth reading before June."
Booklist
"[An] enthusiastic account. . . . With the next transit predicted for June 6, 2012, Wulf's well-handled history arrives in a timely manner."
Kirkus, starred review
"[Wulf] clearly explains how Venus' transit across the sun, which occurs every 105 years (and each time does so twice, at eight-year intervals--one will occur in June 2012), gave Enlightenment astronomers a chance to figure out such things as the distance between the earth and the sun. . . . Enlightening Enlightenment fare."
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