Book Review: The Transits of Venus Down The Centuries

Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - 14:40 in Paleontology & Archaeology

Modern science moves so fast that it's easy to reflect on the changes of the past week, let alone the past decade or century. But astronomy is one notable exception to this rule. Arguably no other scientific endeavor is so full of history. For this reason, astronomical events like the transit of Venus present a rare chance to compare what we can see today with what our forebears saw hundreds of years ago, both literally and in their world views. This is something you can't really do with genetics, for instance. On the occasion of this last transit, several authors have undertaken the retelling of the previous Venus transits, heralded in their day as a means to determine our place in the solar system and the rest of the cosmos. The 18th and 19th century transits of Venus are also surprisingly rich tales of swashbuckling explorers, politics, bitter competition and...

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