Die Vermessung des Himmels : vom grössten Wissenschaftsabenteuer des 18. Jahrhunderts / Andrea Wulf ; aus dem Englischen übertragen von Hainer Kober.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: German Original language: English Publisher: München : Penguin Verlag, 2017Description: 412 pages : illustrations ; 19 cmContent type:
  • still image
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9783328102281
  • 3328102280
Uniform titles:
  • Chasing Venus. German
Subject(s): Summary: On June 6, 1761, the world paused to observe a momentous occasion: the first transit of Venus between the Earth and the Sun in more than a century. Through that observation, astronomers could calculate the size of the solar system--but only if they could compile data from many different points of the globe, all recorded during the short period of the transit. Overcoming incredible odds and political strife, astronomers from Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Sweden, and the American colonies set up observatories in the remotest corners of the world, only to be thwarted by unpredictable weather and warring armies. Fortunately, transits of Venus occur in pairs; eight years later, they would have another opportunity to succeed. Thanks to these scientists, neither our conception of the universe nor the nature of scientific research would ever be the same.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Books Jost Bürgi Library Reading Room QB205.A2 W85 2017 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 31560000078333

Translation of: Chasing Venus : the race to measure the heavens.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 373-391) and index.

On June 6, 1761, the world paused to observe a momentous occasion: the first transit of Venus between the Earth and the Sun in more than a century. Through that observation, astronomers could calculate the size of the solar system--but only if they could compile data from many different points of the globe, all recorded during the short period of the transit. Overcoming incredible odds and political strife, astronomers from Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Sweden, and the American colonies set up observatories in the remotest corners of the world, only to be thwarted by unpredictable weather and warring armies. Fortunately, transits of Venus occur in pairs; eight years later, they would have another opportunity to succeed. Thanks to these scientists, neither our conception of the universe nor the nature of scientific research would ever be the same.

In German, translated from the English.

31560000078333 23220

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