The Transits of Venus

By William Sheehan and John Westfall

Sheehan and Westfall paint a picture of the history of this rare phenomenon through this year's transit as well as that of June 5-6, 2012. They interweave a discussion of its scientific significance with the stories of the people who went to great lengths to be a part of its legacy, such as Jeremiah Horrocks, the first known viewer of the transit, who began his observations a whole day early in case of inaccurate calculations; Captain James Cook, who sailed halfway around the world just to take a viewing party to an advantageous point on the globe, keeping his crew healthy on the long voyage by tricking them into eating sauerkraut; and Jean Chappe d'Auteroche, who paid the ultimate price to see Venus's tiny silhouette. A background in the history of astronomy is also provided, from the experiments of the ancients through the Copernican revolution to using radar to determine astronomical distances.