The Transit of Venus (Life Sucks Edition)

Today is a transit of Venus. Venus's transits across the sun occur in pairs eight years apart. The last one was in 2004 and there will not be another one until 2117. They played an important role in helping astronomers to figure out the size of the solar system. In his book, Coming of Age in the Milky Way (you really should read it if you haven't), Timothy Ferris recounts the trials early astronomers went through in order to push the boundaries of knowledge. My favorite story is as follows:

Guillaume le Gentil...sailed from France on March 26, 1760, planning to observe the transit [of Venus] the following year from the east coast of India. Monsoons blew his ship off course, and transit day found him becalmed in the middle of the Indian Ocean, unable to make any useful observations. Determined to redeem the expedition by observing the second transit, Le Gentil booked passage to India, built an observatory atop an obsolete powder magazine in Pondicherry, and waited. The sky remained marvelously clear throughout May, only to cloud over on June 4, the morning of the transit, then clear again as soon as the transit was over. ...

Worse lay ahead. Stricken with dysentery, Le Gentil remained in India for another nine months, bedridden. He then booked passage home aboard a Spanish warship that was demasted in a hurricane off the Cape of Good Hope and blown off course north of the Azores before finally limping into port at Cadiz. Le Gentil crossed the Pyrenees and at last set foot on French soil, after eleven years, six months, and thirteen days of absence. Upon his return to Paris he learned that he had been declared dead, his estate looted, and its remains divided up among his heirs and creditors.

That story makes me laugh every time I read it.

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