Transit of Venus (not by Anais Nin)

Wondering what all the fuss is about? Here’s an excellent version of the story of James Cook’s voyage to observe the transit of Venus, by which Edmund Halley had determined one could derive the distance from the Earth to the Sun. This was so important that several nations sent out crews all over the world to try to measure the 1761 transit, but none of them produced any good measurements. (My suggestion would have involved a very long folding rule, which is why I wouldn’t have fared well in the Enlightenment.) We’re getting up early tomorrow! (Gotta get working on a pinhole viewer.)

This comes right on the heels of our visit to the replica of Columbus’s Niña down in Hudson yesterday. It’s like living inside The History Channel. But with fewer Nazis . . . .