Page - 181 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

181The North Beckons an unexploited resource in its captains of the navy, since a rudimentary knowl- edge at least of practical astronomy was required in order to navigate on the open sea. Furthermore, the 1761 transit took place in the midst of a joint Swedish–Danish project of geodesy, by which various surveyors were measur- ing the still undetermined border between Norway and Sweden/Finland.28 To refer to the Swedish counterpart again, there an amateur of astronomy and veteran of the boundary surveying, Anders Hellant (1717–89) in Torneå (now Haparanda, Tornio), was not only invited to participate but was even spon- sored by the Royal Academy to do so.29 Other participants on the Swedish side included various captains of ships, teachers at academies and colleges, and at least one instrument-maker, as well as other civil servants and officials with a general interest in science.30 By contrast, nothing comparable took place in Denmark or Norway, where no one took responsibility for planning, coordinat- ing, or publishing such observations. Instead, non-professional astronomers were left to act on their own initiative, and the few who seem to have done so have not left a significant mark either.31 Richardson and Clark, 1768); A Copper Plate and Discourse of the Transit of Venus, on the 3d of June 1769: Most Humbly Inscribed to His Royal Highness George Prince of Wales (n.p.: n.p., 1769). In 1769, Hell allowed natural historian Borchgrevink to use one of his three tele- scopes to observe the transit, although the latter had no previous experience in astrono- my (see Aspaas, “Maximilianus Hell,” 300–1). Another natural historian and pupil of Lin- naeus, Daniel Solander (1733–82), was also observing the transit alongside Captain Cook and astronomer Green on Tahiti, presumably without having any previous experience in astronomy either. 28 A border treaty was signed between the two countries in 1751. In an additional document (kodicill), it was agreed that the border measurements that had started during the 1740s were to continue for seven more years. In fact, the measurements were not finished until 1767. See, e.g., Erik Tobé, Anders Hellant: En krönika om sjuttonhundratalets märkligaste Tornedaling, Tornedalica 49 ([Luleå]: Tornedalica, 1991) 59–61; Sven Widmalm, Mellan kartan och verkligheten: Geodesi och kartläggning, 1695–1860 (Uppsala: Institutionen för idé- och lärdomshistoria, 1990). 29 Osmo Pekonen, “The Amateur Astronomer Anders Hellant and the Plight of His Observa- tions of the Transits of Venus in Tornio, 1761 and 1769,” in Sterken and Aspaas, Meeting Venus, 49–57. 30 Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, “Observationer På Planeten Veneris gång genom Solens Discus, d. 6 Junii 1761,” kvah 23 (April–June 1761): 143–66; Anders Hellant, “Venus i Solen, Ob- serverad i Torne Den 6 Junii 1761,” kvah 23 (July–September 1761): 180–84; cf. Oseen, Johan Carl Wilcke, 152, 362. For an analysis of the “research politics” involved, see Sven Wid- malm, “Science in Transit: Enlightenment Research Policy and Astronomy in Sweden,” in Sterken and Aspaas, Meeting Venus, 21–32. 31 See Aspaas, “Maximilianus Hell,” 246–47. Also, Per Pippin Aspaas, “Denmark–Norway 1761–1769: Two Missed Opportunities?,” and Christiaan Sterken and Per Pippin Aspaas, “A Synoptic Overview of Selected Key People and Key Places Involved in Historical Transits of Venus,” in Sterken and Aspaas, Meeting Venus, 39–48, 3–18.