Guillaume le Gentil, and when your goals just don’t work out…

This week is the height of the Geminid meteor shower, which is one of the highlights of the night sky this month, the other being the appearance of the Christmas Star for the first time in 800 years. Sadly, I’m striking out with the Geminids myself because it’s raining this week. And this reminds me of a book I read several years ago about the 18th century quest to track the Venus Transit.

Every 240 years or so, Venus transits the sun, which means that it will cross over between the earth and the sun. And this event happens in a pair 8 years apart.

Back in the 18th century, taking measurements of the transit was a massive goal of both the Royal Society in England, and the French scientists. Because of earlier work by Copernicus and Galileo and the other early astronomers, they knew the Transit was coming, and had time to plan for it. The various groups sent out teams of scientists and astronomers around the world to take measurements from various vantage points, which, when combined together, would help to measure the exact size of the earth, among other fun tidbits.

They spent years figuring out the best locations for weather, where to get the best measurements, and so on. Interestingly, it was one of these transit voyages that led to the discovery of Australia, because James Cook was the captain of one of the ships headed to the south Pacific. But the story of a French scientist is the most captivating for me. It’s a tragic tale of one man’s obsession to see the transit, and his horrible luck.

Guillaume Le Gentil was commissioned by the French Academe to observe the 1761 transit of Venus. After three months at sea, Le Gentil arrived at the French colony of Mauritius and arranged for another voyage to Pondicherry, where he found that the Indian territory was caught up in the Seven Years War between England and France, and he was unable to land, despite having papers granting him safe passage. The transit occurred while he was on a ship, which meant that he was unable to take the precise measurements he needed, and that opportunity was lost.

But he didn’t give up! He knew that in another eight years he’d have another opportunity, and so he stayed in Mauritius planning his next opportunity, spending the time mapping the east coast of Madagascar.

Things went according to plan in 1769. The war was over. He had letters of support from the governor and the French Academe, and he went off to Manilla to watch the transit. The voyage was three months, and when he arrived he was accused by the Spanish governor of being a spy. He left Manilla to go back to Pondicherry to watch the transit from his original planned location in 1761. The weather was looking good, and it was all clear on the night before. And then, hours before the transit, the weather changed and there were clouds, and Le Gentil missed his final opportunity to view the transit.

Which really makes my goals, and the areas where I’m struggling look rather pale in comparison. I mean, I didn’t spend 11 years and my entire fortune sailing around the world, being accused of being a spy, and other various things, just to have my dream destroyed by weather.

Oh, and when he returned to France (after catching dysentery, and then a year sailing on a ship that seemed to have the same sort of luck that he had with the transit – though maybe he just brought bad luck with him?) he discovered that he had been declared legally dead, his wife had remarried, he lost his place in the Royal Academy of Science, and his relatives had “enthusiastically plundered his estate.” None of the letters he had sent during the 11 years had reached their intended recipients, so no one knew what he had been up to all that time.

He had to go to court to get his own property back, and to get a space in the Royal Academy again. Eventually he remarried, and lived two decades more, during which time he was celebrated for his discoveries and explorations. So, it wasn’t all bad.

So in the spirit of Guillaume Le Gentil, I will go out tonight and try to see some meteors through the sky, channeling his dedication and stubborn commitment to his task.