Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

Dixon were chosen for this mission (a.).
But the enthusiastic zeal of the English was not restricted to
these three expeditions only, however well equipped and sumptuous
they were. More places in northern America were chosen; places
where, although the egress of Venus from the Sun’s disc would
not be visible, it would at least be possible to discern the moments
of total ingress with all possible accuracy. Among these was a site
in Cambridge, New England, where the Professor of Mathematics,
famous Mister Winthrop was to be stationed. Furthermore, Norristown
in the County of Philadelphia in the Pennsylvanian Province
was occupied by the famous men Mister Smith, Mister Lukens and
Mister Rittenhouse. And the place Lewes Town at the Cape of Hinlopen
1 received the famous observers Mister Biddle and another
Mister Bayl[e]y. Finally, the site of Philadelphia was occupied by the
famous Misters Erwing and Prior (b.). Even to the shores of India an
astronomer of England was ordered to sail, to make observations
limited to the egress of Venus from the disc of the Sun. Taking into
account the large number and the geographical distribution of these
sites of observation, it is easy to see that if the luck of a clear sky
had been bestowed upon all the observers mentioned, the exact
quantity of the parallax of the Sun would have been possible to define
through observations made by Englishmen alone. The outcome
proved otherwise, however. It turned out that, notwithstanding all
the wise and careful planning of kings, princes
(a.) This expedition of Englishmen to [the County of] Finnmark by
the North Pole was made in the month of April 1769, the year of the observation
itself, at a time when I, along with my companion Father Sajnovics,
had been staying at the island in Finnmark by the name Vardøhus, ever
since the 11 th of October 1768. The two observers mentioned stationed
themselves more 40 German miles apart from each other. The highly famous
Bayly observed from a mountain above the port of Kjelvik, just below
the North Cape, at a Pole height of 71º.00’.47” and a longitude 1 hour 34
minutes 50 seconds East of the Parisian meridian. The famous Dixon, for
his part, observed from a mountain by the port of Hammerfest, at a latitude
of 70º.38’.22”, and a meridian 1 h 35 m 39 s East of Paris. 2 Each of the
two sites were deprived of their goal of observing the transit of Venus because
of clouds.
(b.) The observations from all these stations have been treated in
my Viennese Ephemerides for the year 1773.
1. Now known as City of Lewes, near the Cape of Henlopen.
2. The site of Bayly was at or near the present site of Honningsvåg airport,
whereas Dixon observed from Rypeklubben just south of Hammerfest.
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