Page - 273 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

273Observing Venus and Debating the Parallax was raised as well. Guests were allowed into the chambers of the observa- tory, and Venus in the Sun shown to them. But for no more than five min- utes was she visible, until the Sun again was covered in black clouds, and no position of Venus—how incredible! but nonetheless true!—could be recorded over the course of six hours. We were all anxious to observe the egress, but no one hoped for this because of black clouds that were glued to the sky, so to speak, in that region where [the planet] was supposed to leave the Sun. Around three o’clock in the morning, a strong wind from the southeast began, and the cloud that covered the Sun was driven away from its position. Thus, the interior and exterior contacts of Venus were well recorded. Again the merchant fired his gun, this time three times six. A great sense of satisfaction spread among all the inhabitants of Vardø. We burst into a Te Deum laudamus with the sincerest of sentiments, and allowed ourselves some rest in the meantime; there was neither time nor the mood to think of the barometer or the magnetic needle. [June] 4, Sunday, the 3rd after Pentecost. After Mass for the Holy Trinity, the corresponding altitudes were re- corded in the clearest of skies, with some wind from the north. During these operations, at 10:09 [a.m.] according to the Copenhagen clock, the eclipse of the Sun was noted to begin. Honorable Father Hell observed this moment; and I too observed the end. Then the meridian was record- ed, and after lunch the corresponding altitudes of the Sun. As I take down the last of these altitudes, suddenly the entire sky is completely filled by the thickest of fog, falling down to the ground like dew or drizzle, cover- ing everything in a darkness that is likely to last for a very long time. How bad if it had been like this yesterday!48 As is regularly the case with Sajnovics’s diary, his account makes no attempt to give the details of the observations themselves. Thus, neither the moments of contact of Venus with the limb of the Sun, nor the moments of beginning and end of the eclipse, are stated with anything near the degree of exactitude re- quired. Among the surviving manuscripts, these details can only be found in Hell’s astronomical notebook. This crucial set of data was, however, apparently never shared with anyone until the formal report was presented to the Royal Society of Copenhagen. As Hell wrote to one of his Jesuit brethren, on April 6, 1769 (before the obser- vation of the transit, and concerning the linguistic and ethnographic aspects of the expedition—but establishing a general principle), they were going to 48 Sajnovics’s diary, entry on June 3, 1769 (wus).