Lyrics:

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the relationship between astronomy
and the British Empire. The 18th century explorer and astronomer
James Cook wrote: 'Ambition leads me not only farther than any other
man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go'.
Cook's ambition took him to the far reaches of the Pacific and led to
astronomical observations which measured the distance of Venus to the
Sun with unprecedented accuracy. Cook's ambition was not just personal
and astronomical. It represented the colonial ambition of the British
Empire which was linked inextricably with science and trade. The
discoveries about the Transit of Venus, made on Cook's voyage to Tahiti,
marked the beginning of a period of expansion by the British which relied
on maritime navigation based on astronomical knowledge. With Simon
Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University
of Cambridge; Kristen Lippincott, former Director of the Royal
Observatory, Greenwich; Allan Chapman, Historian of Science at the
History Faculty at Oxford University.