Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.71 (745 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B007Z95S06 |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 232 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-02-09 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Chasing Venus brings to life the personalities of the 18th 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. 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. The author of the highly acclaimed Founding Gardeners now gives us an enlightening chronicle of the first truly international scientific endeavor - the 18th century quest to observe the transit of Venus and measure the solar system. 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 year
W.Z. Wendrich said Interesting and entertaining. I purchased this book after reading Andrea Wulf's biography of Alexander von Humboldt on which she did a wonderful job. This is obviously an earlier work, where she is still looking for her own style and write with her later confidence. The information is all there and the stories surrounding the various observers are interesting, so I also read this book from cover to cover. After I finish. The second best Venus transit book Janlabe This meticulously researched and well structured book focuses on the human element of the 18th century Venus transit expeditions. It reads like a novel and you are left with a sense of wonder that people could actually go to such extremes for a scientific objective. I rated it the second best transit book after Sheehan and Westfall, "The Transits of Venus", because Sheehan and Westfall have. Ronald H. Clark said The Initiation of Cooperative Scientific Investigation. In her previous books, "The Brother Gardeners" and "Founding Gardeners," Andrea Wulf demonstrated her unique ability to convert topics I was not particularly interested in into fascinating studies. In this volume, about the Transit of Venus scientific expeditions in 1761 and 1769, she has accomplished this once again.These multi-national efforts to study and measure the passage of Venus acr