Guillaume Le Gentil, the Astronomer Who Chased Two Transits of Venus for Eleven Years and Saw Neither
The French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil left home in 1760 to observe the transit of Venus from India. War kept him at sea for the 1761 transit; he waited eight more years for the 1769 one — which a single cloud obscured. He returned after eleven and a half years to find himself declared dead, his wife remarried, and his estate divided.
Read the story →