Transits are very rare because they require the alignment of the orbits of the earth and Venus which depends on the angle and position and so only occur twice every century or so. There was one scheduled for 1761 and so it was decided that to try and measure the distance of the Sun from the Earth as many measurements as possible should be made. This involved the participation of over 100 astronomers from different locations from all over the world. Guillaume Le Gentil was assigned India and so made his way to the French colony Pondicherry but travel was not so easy in those days. Boats were the best mode of transport and war had broken out between France and Britain. There were many pitfalls along the way and by the time Guillaume was to reach the Island the British had taken over and so he was forced to take measurements from the ship which meant a severe loss of accuracy as well as an inability to have an accurate measurement of location.
So after going to all that effort he decided to wait out 8 years until the next transit in 1769. The days leading up to the transit were beautiful clear skies but on the day... Well... It was cloudy, he saw nothing and was driven to the brink of insanity. To make matters worse his journey back took 3 years due to storms and illness.He was away for 11 years but during this time he was declared legally dead, his relatives spent his money, his wife remarried and lost his seat at the academy. Fortunately the King intervened and everything was restored to him and he remarried apparently very happily but I worry that this is a sugar coated happy ending.... So yeah I feel very lucky to be able to watch it in the comfort of my own home on demand.
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