Read The Day the World Discovered the Sun Online
Authors: Mark Anderson
6
. Chappe,
Voyage to California
, 75, 80â81, 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
, 68â69.
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
, 11â12.
14
. “Ãloge 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., 151â156.
19
. Rumors still swirled around Hell's initial refusal to send the academy in Paris his Vardø transit dataâand 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 precisionâbut 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), 58â61.
4
. Woolf,
Transits of Venus
, 182â191.
5
. Ibid., 190â191.
6
. Per Pippin Aspaas, “Le Père Jésuite Maximilien Hell et ses relations avec Lalande,” in
Jerôme Lalande (1732â1807) Une trajectoire scientifique
(Rennes, France: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010).
7
.
Journal des Sçavans
, September 1770, 619â622, 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, 1761â1769,” in
Astronomical Papers Prepared for the Use of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac
[Washington, D.C.: Dept. of Navy, 1890], 301â305) 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, 133â134.
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, 43â63.
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), 179â180.
18
. Rita Griffin-Short, “The Ancient Mariner and the Transit of Venus,”
Endeavour
, December 2003, 175â179.
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), 154â155.
3
. William Sheehan and John Westfall,
The Transits of Venus
, (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2004), 125â138. Raymond Haynes,
Explorers of the Southern Sky A History of Australian Astronomy
(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 22â26.
4
. Rezso Nagy and Attila Jozsef Kiss, “Observation of the Venus Transit,” in
Jubilee Conference, 1879â2004
(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),
85â86
Alzate y RamÃrez, José Antonio de,
108â109
,
210
The American Practical Lunarian and Seaman's Guide
(Arnold),
222
Apollo program, NASA,
221
Arctic Venus transit observations
atmospheric density,
219
importance,
190â191
with longest transit times,
81
See also
Vardø, Norway, expedition
Astronomers Royal
Cassini de Thury (French),
211
Danish,
193
Halley,
80
Astronomical unit (AU),
118
Astronomy
exoplanet research,
225â226
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),
199â201
Banks, Joseph
embarks on Tahiti expedition (1769),
93â94
,
137
aquatic specimens collected in doldrums,
144
as expedition's naturalist,
139â140
,
147â148
on Madeira Island,
138
ornithological specimens collected,
164
in Tahiti,
169â172
Tahiti transit observed,
175
Tierra del Fuego experiences,
150â154
,
163
after-mission experiences,
196
,
198
,
201
Barbados longitude testing,
68â72
Batavia,
202â203
Bernstorff, Johan Hartvig Ernst von,
121â122
,
191
Berthoud, Ferdinand
introduced,
66
attempts to copy Harrison's chronometer,
67â68
chronometers tested,
73â74
,
102
Bible, literal truth of,
98â99
,
224
Black drop effect,
48
,
56
,
161â162
,
174
,
186
Borchgrevink, Jens Finne,
128â129
,
159â160
,
162
Boscovich, Roger Joseph,
82
Bougainville, Louis Antoine de,
200
Brahe, Tycho,
193
Brest, France, chronometer test,
73â74
Bridgetown, Barbados.
See
Barbados longitude testing
British Mariner's Guide . . . of . . . Longitude at Sea
(Maskelyne),
61â64
,
70
,
71
Bruce, James,
92
California/Baja peninsula expedition (1769).
See
San José del Cabo, Baja, expedition (1769)
Camus, Charles Ãtienne Louis,
66
,
67â68
Cape Town observations by Mason and Dixon (1761),
34â38
,
40
Carlos III, king of Spain,
101
Cassini, Jean Dominique de,
101
Cassini de Thury, César-François
analyzes, reports on, 1769 transit data,
212â214
publishes Chappe's papers,
211
Catherine the Great (Catherine II), empress of Russia,
53
,
121
Chappe, Claude,
223
Chappe d'Auteroche, Jean-Baptiste
eclipse observations,
45â46
,
205â208
Siberia expedition (1761),
5â24
Siberia transit observation (1761),
45â49
Siberia expedition lectures given to Russian scientists,
49â53
Siberia expedition memoirs,
97â99