Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

As far as Father Hell’s observations of both last contacts [of Venus with the
limb of the Sun] are concerned, I do not know what to say. He may perhaps
have tried to fabricate them according to the Petropolitan observations. In that
case, he was hardly that lucky, for our observations are surely not the most
accurate that exist.
This comment was made in a private letter and would no doubt have caused a strong reaction
if it had reached Father Hell. It is intriguing to note, however, that Lexell was convinced that
the Jesuit in Vardø had made up his observations; there could be no other cause for the late
publication than that he needed time to manipulate his data sets.
A man in whom Planman and Lexell both confided, Pehr Wargentin in Stockholm, evidently
felt responsibility for the situation. Accordingly, he asked the amateur astronomer Hellant in
Torneå (now Haparanda, Tornio) to check whether the weather conditions in Vardø really had
been as favourable as Hell claimed. When Hellant visited a market in Utsjok on the borders
between the Danish-Norwegian and Swedish(-Finnish) realms, a representative of the local
population of Vardø confirmed that the weather had been beautiful (“smukt”). This testimony
appears to have convinced Wargentin, at least. 103
The leading university of the German-speaking world during the Enlightenment, the Georgia
Augusta in Göttingen, had been the workplace of Tobias Mayer, who passed away in 1762.
His successor, Abraham Gotthelf Kästner (1719-1800), may not have been an astronomer of
Mayer’s eminence, but as a book reviewer, he was something of a hack. Notably, Kästner
published numerous reviews in the German equivalent to the Journal des Sçavans, the
Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen. Like its French predecessor, reviews in the
Anzeigen were as a rule published anonymously. However, in the copy that has been scanned
and made accessible on the internet by the Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum, the identity of
the reviewers are usually noted in the margin. So also in the issue for 7 April 1770, where we
find a review of Hell’s Vardø report with the handwritten note “Kästner”. 104 Presuming that
the person who entered these notes was well informed, the review may be read as evidence for
Kästner’s first reaction to the printed report.
103 Cf. Tobé 1991, pp. 147-149.
104 Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen unter der Aufsicht der Königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften
42. Stück. Den 7. April 1770., pp. 353-356, here p. 353.
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