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首页> 外文期刊>American Scientist >Transits, Travels and Tribulations, Ⅲ
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Transits, Travels and Tribulations, Ⅲ

机译：过境，旅行和琐事，Ⅲ

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Regular readers will recall that we are in the midst of a series of columns on the 18th-century transits of Venus. A transit of Venus is the occasion of that planet coming directly between the earth and the sun, so that we see it as a black blob moving slowly across the face of the sun. As explained in part Ⅰ, the timing of this event leads eventually to a knowledge of the scale of the solar system, a quantity essential to astronomy but poorly known in the mid-18th century. It was also the case that although there would be transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769, there would be none thereafter for more than 100 years, so it was important to make the most of the opportunity. Thus strenuous efforts were planned by the major scientific bodies of that era to make the necessary observations. The difficulty, though, was twofold. First, adequate precision required that observers doing the timing be as widespread across the earth as possible, even though exploration of distant lands was still decidedly limited. Second, the major powers, particularly the two strongest naval powers, Britain and France, were at war with one another in 1761, making sea travel extremely hazardous.
机译：普通读者会回想起，我们正处于有关18世纪金星过境的一系列专栏中。金星的穿越是行星直接进入地球和太阳之间的机会，因此我们将其视为一个黑色斑点，缓慢地在太阳表面移动。如第一部分所述，这一事件的时机最终导致人们了解了太阳系的规模，这是天文学必不可少的，但在18世纪中叶却鲜为人知。还有一种情况是，尽管在1761年和1769年将有金星过境，但此后的100多年中将没有金星过境，因此，充分利用这一机会很重要。因此，那个时代的主要科学机构计划做出艰苦的努力，以做出必要的观察。但是，困难是双重的。首先，尽管仍然绝对地限制了对遥远土地的探索，但足够的精度要求观察者在整个地球上尽可能地进行计时。其次，主要大国，特别是两个最强大的海军大国，英国和法国，在1761年相互交战，使海上旅行极为危险。

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