CAHIERS FRANÇOIS VIETE Série I – N°11-12 2006 L’événement astronomique du siècle ? Histoire sociale des passages de Vénus, 1874-1882 DAVID AUBIN - L'événement astronomique du siècle ? Une histoire sociale des passages de Vénus, 1874-1882 JIMENA CANALES - Sensational differences: the case of the transit of Venus STÉPHANE LE GARS - Image et mesure : deux cultures aux origines de l'astrophysique française JESSICA RATCLIFF - Models, metaphors, and the transit of Venus at Victorian Greenwich RICHARD STALEY - Conspiracies of Proof and Diversity of Judgement in Astronomy and Physics: On Physicists' Attempts to Time Light's Wings and Solve Astronomy's Noblest Problem LAETITIA MAISON - L'expédition à Nouméa : l'occasion d'une réflexion sur l'astronomie française GUY BOISTEL - Des bras de Vénus aux fauteuils de l'Académie, ou comment le passage de Vénus permit à Ernest Mouchez de devenir le premier marin directeur de l'Observatoire de Paris MARTINA SCHIAVON - Astronomie de terrain entre Académie des sciences et Armée SIMON WERRETT - Transits and transitions: astronomy, topography, and politics in Russian expeditions to view the transit of Venus in 1874 DAVID AUBIN ET COLETTE LE LAY - Bibliographie générale Centre François Viète Épistémologie, histoire des sciences et des techniques Université de Nantes Achevé d'imprimer sur les presses de l'imprimerie centrale de l'université de Nantes, juillet 2017 Mise en ligne en juin 2018 sur www.cfv.univ-nantes.fr SOMMAIRE • DAVID AUBIN ......................................................................................................... 3 L'événement astronomique du siècle ? Une histoire sociale des passages de Vénus, 1874-1882 • JIMENA CANALES ................................................................................................. 15 Sensational differences: the case of the transit of Venus • STÉPHANE LE GARS ............................................................................................. 41 Image et mesure : deux cultures aux origines de l'astrophysique française • JESSICA RATCLIFF ................................................................................................ 63 Models, metaphors, and the transit of Venus at Victorian Greenwich • RICHARD STALEY ................................................................................................. 83 Conspiracies of Proof and Diversity of Judgement in Astronomy and Physics: On Physicists' Attempts to Time Light's Wings and Solve Astronomy's Noblest Problem • LAETITIA MAISON ................................................................................................ 99 L'expédition à Nouméa : l'occasion d'une réflexion sur l'astronomie française • GUY BOISTEL ......................................................................................................... 113 Des bras de Vénus aux fauteuils de l'Académie, ou comment le passage de Vénus permit à Ernest Mouchez de devenir le premier marin directeur de l'Observatoire de Paris • MARTINA SCHIAVON ........................................................................................... 129 Astronomie de terrain entre Académie des sciences et Armée • SIMON WERRETT .................................................................................................. 147 Transits and transitions: astronomy, topography, and politics in Russian expeditions to view the transit of Venus in 1874 • DAVID AUBIN ET COLETTE LE LAY ................................................................. 177 Bibliographie générale Cahiers François Viète, 11-12,2006,p.147-176. TRANSIT AND TRANSITION: ASTRONOMY, TOPOGRAPHY, AND POLITICS IN RUSSIAN EXPEDITIONS TO VIEW THE TRANSIT OF VENUS IN 1874 Simon WERRETT Résumé Les expéditions russes dépêchées pour l'observation du passage de Vénus en 1874 sont l'occasion d'explorer la nature de l'astronomie et de la société dans la Russie impériale tardive. Cet article met en lumière le personnel et les sites impliqués dans les missions russes et examine leur intégration dans les réseaux bourgeonnants du pouvoir impérial russe conçus afin de propager une gouvernance efficace au sein de l'empire dans le sillage de la débâcle de Crimée. Pour le grand-duc Constantin Nico• laïevitch, frère du tsar Alexandre Il, et son cercle de réformateurs, l'astronomie et la géographie prennent part à l'effort pour revigorer l'empire et l'autocratie sur la base d'une plus grande participation des sujets et pour démontrer la vitalité russe vis-à• vis de l'étranger. Au même moment, une autre vague d'expéditions sont organisées par les révolutionnaires populistes qui « vont vers le peuple » en répandant leur message révolutionnaire. Cet article se concentre sur les manières dont le passage de Vénus rencontre ces diverses interprétations du voyages impérial et de la gouver• nance « scientifique » en Russie. Abstract Russian expeditions to observe the transit of Venus in 1874 provide an opportunity to explore the nature of astronomy and society in late Imperial Russia. This paper brings to light the personnel and places involved in Russian missions and examines their integration within the burgeoning networks of Russian imperial power de• signed to bring efficient governance to the Empire in the wake of the disastrous Crimean War. For the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, brother of Tsar Alexan• der II, and his reform-minded circle, astronomy and geography were part of an ef• fort to reinvigorate empire and autocracy on more participatory models and demon• strate the vitality of Russia to foreign audiences. At the same time, another flurry of expeditions was taking place, as populist revolutionaries began "going to the peo• ple" to spread messages of disruption and revolution. How the transit passed across these differing interpretations of the right forms of imperial travel and "scientific" governance in Russia form the focus of the paper. 148 SIMON WERRETT l. Introduction In late 1874, an American expedition led by Asaph Hall travelled to the Russian outpost of Vladivostok to view the transit of Venus. Although this expedition has been recounted by several historians, those made by Russians have been largely overlooked.1 This is surprising, since Russia organized more transit expeditions than anybody else that year, including the Americans, British, and French. This paper examines the Russian expe• ditions as a typical instance of astronomical activity in nineteenth-century Russia and assesses their importance among the 1874 transit observations. Recently, historians have drawn attention to the "cultural history" of as• tronomy, which seeks to identify astronomy's status as a form of socioprac• tical culture, and as an activity operating in conjunction with other cultures, like that of the military-governmental sphere. The case of Russia's transit expeditions explored here supports arguments that astronomy constitutes, and is itself constituted, within a complex economy of interactions between these different spheres of social and technical practice. 2 The Russian transit expeditions will be addressed from two perspec• tives. First an examination of the background, preparations, and activities of the various transit expeditions sent out by Russia in 1874 will be located within larger projects of the Russian autocratic government and attempts to expand and consolidate the Russian empire. Relations between the as- 1 On the Americans in Vladivostok, see Steven J. Dick (2002) Sky and Ocean Joined: The U. S. Naval Observatory 1830-2000 (New York: Cambridge Univer• sity Press), p. 238-263; and Steven J. Dick, Wayne Orchiston, and Tom Love (1998) "Simon Newcomb, William Harkness, and the Nineteenth-Century Transit of Venus Expeditions", Journal for the History ofA stronomy 29, p. 232-33. 2 The project of cultural history of astronomy is set out in the introduction to David Aubin, Charlotte Bigg, and Otto Sibum, eds. (forthcoming) The Heavens on Earth: Observatory Techniques in the Nineteenth Century (Durham: Duke Univ. Press). See also David Aubin (2003) "Orchestrating Observatory, Laboratory, and Field: Jules Janssen, the Spectroscope, and Travel", Nuncius, 17, p. 143-162; David Aubin (2003) "The Fading Star of the Paris Observatory in the Nineteenth Century: Astronomers' Urban Culture of Circulation and Observation", Osiris, 18, p. 79-100; Charlotte Bigg (2000) "Photography and the labor history of astron• omy: the Carte du Ciel", in Acta Historia Astronomiae, 9, p. 90-106; Theresa Levitt (2003) "Biot's Paper and Arago's Plates: Photographic Practice and the Transparency of Representation", Isis, 94, p. 456-476; Jimena Canales (2002) "Photogenic Venus: The 'Cinematographic Tum' and Its Alternatives in Late Nineteenth-Century Science", Isis, 93, p. 585-613. TRANSIT AND TRANSITION ... 149 tronomers of Russia's central observatory at Pulkovo and the autocracy were close, and organization of the expeditions reflected Russia's continu• ing absolutism, with royal patronage playing a key role in mobilizing as• tronomers. The transit expeditions were also bound up with Russia's mili• tary and naval operations in new territories recently acquired for the em• pire. Transit expertise emerged out of intensive military activity in Central Asia and the Far East, compelled by Russia's ongoing imperial feuds with Britain. Transit expeditions led to the accumulation of topographical, hy• drographical, and geographical information, ultimately as important a leg• acy of the expeditions as the observations of Venus. This fitted Pulkovo and the government's ideas about astronomy