serendipitous M/D mention

[Brian D. McCary]

Reading Dava Sobel's "Longetude", I ran across the following:

[interesting background on the relationship between the moons of 
Venus and the longetude problem]

..."The June 6, 1761, transit of Venus also paired (Charles) Mason
with (Jeremiah) Dixon on a successful observing run at the Cape of
Good Hope - several years before the two British astronomers drew
their famous boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The second transit, predicted for June 3, 1969, launched the first
voyage of Captain James Cook, who proposed to view the event from
Polynesia"  (page 115)

Interesting that this puts M&D in Southern Africa, a favorite TRP
local.  Plus, all that Zodiac stuff can get dragged back into
the story, what with the transit and the implications some people
are bound to load onto it.  

In passing, this is a great book: an easy read, a good deal of science,
collusion and plotting, some They stuff, and machinations resembling,
although not going to the extent of, the Fashoda incident.  Plus,
you can kill it in one afternoon.

Brian McCary