Seite - 272 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 6272 others were supposed to send the data they collected to the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris, where the French astronomers led by Lalande were to synthesize the results. Let us first see what Sajnovics and Hell reveal on the observation of the tran- sit prior to the publication of February 1770. Sajnovics’s travel diary (which was in any case not a public document) gives an idea of the suspense felt when the important day arrived: June 3, Saturday. This day was the cause and origin of our expedition. Although the sky had been totally overcast yesterday evening, around three o’clock the clouds spread sufficiently to make the Sun distinctly vis- ible, before the sky again was covered by clouds. Around four o’clock, af- ter the Mass, these clouds disappeared and the clearest of skies appeared, allowing the altitudes [of the Sun] to be recorded. Bands of clouds, purely white and very similar to northern lights, were drifting in various direc- tions, by a gentle breeze arriving from the north at first, then from the west and south, until it around eleven o’clock [a.m.] turned to the east before returning to the south soon after, only to arrive from the west at one o’clock [p.m.]. The culmination of the Sun in the meridian line was recorded, and after lunch corresponding heights were observed. Around three o’clock, as these operations came to a close, the sky was totally cov- ered by small, white clouds, which were not connected with each other. The horizon in the north and south, however, was still rather clear. A gentle breeze blew from the southwest. Shortly afterward, there arrived such a multitude of clouds from the southwest that the student Borch- grevink could not be set to work to observe the Sun until six o’clock, when the Sun again broke through the clouds from time to time and he received his instructions for observing. The same clouds continued until eight o’clock. After nine o’clock [p.m.], we directed the three telescopes to the Sun, which broke through the clouds every now and then. And finally, when the Sun stayed in such a place, the exterior and interior contacts [of ingress] were observed, thanks to the singular grace of God. The mer- chant exploded his gun nine times, and raised the flag as a sign of joy. The commander followed his example, and made sure the flag at the fortress genevois dans la Russie de Catherine ii: Journaux de voyage en Laponie russe […] pour ob- server le passage de Vénus devant le disque solaire 1768–1769, ed. Jean-Daniel Candaux et al. (Ferney-Voltaire: Centre international d’étude du xviiie siècle, 2005); Nils Voje Johansen, “The Expeditions of William Bayly and Jeremiah Dixon to Honningsvåg and Hammerfest, 1769,” in Sterken and Aspaas, Meeting Venus, 59–69.