Transit Observations as Means to Re-establish the Reputation of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Gudrun Bucher

This paper explores how Catherine II used the worldwide attention given to observations of the transit of Venus to bring back the Russian Academy of Sciences into international recognition. Starting from the planned observations of the transit of Venus at various locations of the Russian Empire, the expeditions became more complex because naturalists were added to the astronomical expeditions. As the naturalists got separate instructions, their expeditions became more and more independent of the astronomers and eventually became known as the famous Academic Expeditions with a tremendous output of publications. This was the second huge effort made by Russia during the eighteenth century to explore scientifically remote parts of its empire.

As far as individual Venus transit expeditions are concerned, this paper focuses on those that visited places in the southern parts of the Ural Mountains and the northern shores of the Caspian Sea.

Manuscript: jad19_1c.pdf