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acraig5075's review against another edition
4.0
I've long thought that the history of transits of Venus would make for a good book, and here it is! The transits are frequently mentioned in historical books related to surveying, navigation, mapping, etc. Wulf's Chasing Venus is wonderfully readable. I was disappointed that it only covered the 1761 and 1769 transits and none of the subsequent three prior to publication date, notwithstanding these were the seminal ones. It must be said that of the 304 pages, close to 100 of them belong to the bibliography and chapter notes.
ananeary's review against another edition
5.0
It was really interesting- I loved that the ending wasn't tidy- like all science, it continues forever.
alundeberg's review against another edition
4.0
If you're looking for a book about the actual science of how to measure the heavens, this isn't it. Wulf does a great a job of giving the reader just enough math to have the process make sense, but this narrative is about the coming together of scientists in the 18th century amid warring nations to gain knowledge of the universe and science. She tracks the various scientists and their often long, precarious routes to track Venus's trajectory across the sun. They faced great hardships in the name of science for very uncertain reward. Ultimately, this is a well-written adventure tale of those often unknown men who risked all to calculate the measurement of the universe.
shakespeareandspice's review against another edition
5.0
I might be being slightly more generous at the moment but I don’t care. It was so good.
librariabillie's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
4.5
kathleenitpdx's review against another edition
4.0
This is a very interesting book about the 18th century expeditions to measure the transit of Venus in order to determine the distance of the Sun from Earth. The transits happened in 1761 and 1769. Astronomers traveled throughout the world to time the transits and determine the latitude of their locations so the distance to the sun could be calculated. Wulf does an excellent job of picking interesting stories and details of various expeditions and avoids what could have been a very dry and confusing book. She tells the stories of how the various scientific societies organized their observers and obtained funding; and how the determination to include other scientists and other kinds of observations were made. I did not know that Cook's voyage that "discovered" Australia was initially organized to make observations of the transit, which they did quite successfully from Tahiti.
Overall Wulf emphasizes the coordination and cooperation among scientists from many countries (some at war with each other) to accomplish the first global scientific project.
Overall Wulf emphasizes the coordination and cooperation among scientists from many countries (some at war with each other) to accomplish the first global scientific project.
cspiwak's review against another edition
3.0
wish they had half stars. I enjoyed this a lot, surprisingly so, since I only have a mild interest in astronomy. It has some tales of adventure- though if you are only going to read one book about a scientific expedition in the 1700's going awry- I reccomend The Mapmaker's Wife.
saras's review against another edition
3.0
There were a LOT of characters to try to keep track of, and in retrospect only a few of strands of the tale were really gripping. This was an important moment in the history of science, and I'm not sorry I read it (listened to the audiobook), but I wouldn't really recommend it either.