On June 8, 2004, I observed the transit of Venus from a small village outside of Munich, Germany. On June 5, 2012, I again watched Venus cross the face of the sun, this time from the back deck of my Colorado home. I made both of my transit observations in casual comfort: cold drinks nearby, music playing on my iPod, and binoculars, telescopes, and protective eyewear at the ready. It was observational luxury. But after finishing Andrea Wulf's Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens, just one thought occurred to me as I compared my twenty-first century transit of Venus observations with those of the eighteenth century: man, we have it easy.
In the months prior to the 2004 and 2012 transits, I had not crossed a searing desert or arctic waste, I was not shot at by enemy cannon while at sea, and I did not have to...
