In 1847 Christian Ludwig Gerling, Marburg (Germany), suggested the solar
parallax to be determined by measuring the position of Venus close to its
inferior conjunction, especially at the stationary points, from observatories
on nearly the same meridian but widely differing in latitude. James M.
Gilliss,astronomer at the newly founded U.S. Naval Observatory,
enthusiastically adopted this idea and procured a grant for the young
astronomical community of the United States for an expedition to Chile. There
they were to observe several conjunctions of Venus and oppositions of Mars,
while the accompanying measurements were to be taken at the US Naval
Observatory in Washington D.C. and the Harvard College Observatory at
Cambridge, USA. This expedition was supported by A. v. Humboldt, C.F. Gau{\ss},
J.F. Encke, S.C. Walker, A.D. Bache, B. Peirce and others. From 1849 to 1852
not only were astronomical, but also meteorological and magnetic observations
and measurements recorded, mainly in Santa Lucia close to Santiago, Chile. By
comparing these measurements with those taken simultaneously at other
observatories around the world the solar parallax could be calculated, although
incomplete data from the corresponding northern observatories threatened the
project's success. In retrospect this expedition can be recognized as the
foundation of the Chilean astronomy. The first director of the new National
Astronomical Observatory of Chile was Dr. C.W. Moesta, a Hessian student of
Christian Ludwig Gerling's. The exchange of data between German, American and
other astronomers during this expedition was well mediated by J.G. Fl\"ugel,
consul of the United States of America and representative of the Smithsonian
Institution in Europe, who altogether played a major role in nurturing the
relationship between the growing scientific community in the U.S. and the well
established one in Europe at that time.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure
