REVIEW: "A fast-paced narrative that has you on the edge of your seat"

Presidential historian Anthony Bergen gives The Day the World Discovered the Sun two thumbs up. From his review:

The Day the World Discovered the Sun follows French astronomer Jean-Baptiste Chappe d’Auteroche, whose 1761 observations from Siberia didn’t provide the answers he hoped for, and his Spanish partners as they crossed the Atlantic, made an overland journey across Mexico and built their makeshift observatory at San José del Cabo in present-day Baja California.  In the Arctic, Denmark’s teenage King Christian VII invited the expedition of two Hungarian priests, Maximilian Hell and Joannes Sajnovics, who brave harrowing mountain roads, frigid Arctic waters, and the bitter cold and endless nights of a Nordic winter to observe the transit from the northern Norwegian village of Vardø.  The English expedition is led by a soon-to-be-famous Captain James Cook and while they’re heading to the much more welcoming climate of Tahiti, the voyage through the South Atlantic and around Cape Horn is no less dangerous then the expeditions of Chappe and Father Hell.

All three expeditions are compelling, with riveting accounts of the voyages to the far-flung points of observation, and a fast-paced narrative that has you on the edge of your seat, rooting for each of the teams of astronomers to be able to have the opportunity to actually see the transit of Venus on June 3, 1769 without the threat of clouds, broken equipment, dangerous weather, angry natives, or debilitating illness.  Anderson weaves the three stories together seamlessly and The Day the World Discovered the Sun is a book about scientific advancement and adventure that is somehow able to avoid being bogged down with the complexities of science.  For those, like me, who are casual fans of astronomy, Anderson helpfully includes a technical appendix in the back of the back which further explains the calculations these astronomers and explorers needed to use.

Mark Anderson’s extensive research (and his master’s degree is astrophysics) is enhanced by the storytelling ability of a Shakespearean scholar (which he is).  The Day the World Discovered the Sun is a captivating collection of stories about a rare phenomenon that also happens to be a valuable scientific opportunity — not just back in 1769 when the observations of the transit of Venus from around the world helped measure the dimensions of our solar system, but also today, as we prepare for the June 5, 2012 Venus transit.