A quiz question · hard
What did the astronomer Le Gentil find on returning to Paris in 1771 after eleven years chasing the transits of Venus?
War had spoiled the 1761 transit and a single cloud the 1769 one. It took royal intervention to restore his affairs; he remarried and lived contentedly for 21 more years.
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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.
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