Category Archives: Diary

Diary of the Specola: Astronomy under lock-down, Part 2

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This entry is part 53 of 53 in the series Diary

Since my last posting about what we’re up to, several other members of the Vatican Observatory have chimed in with their short reports on what they’ve been up to in this time of pandemic… In the spring semester, Fr. Paul Mueller SJ normally teaches a philosophy of science course at the Pontifical Gregorian University; his offering this year is “Philosophical Questions in Biology”. And of course now he has shifted to on-line teaching,  Meanwhile, as the superior of the community and vice-director of the Observatory, he has charge of the day to day running of the operation in Castel Gandolfo. He writes, “I’ve been working day-to-day with the Observatory’s lay staff members to determine whether they will come to work and what they can be doing, within the limits we must observe. All of us Jesuits have had extra time for reading and prayer. And last evening we had a cookout!” Fr. Gabriele Gionti SJ is also in Castel Gandolfo. … Continue reading →

Diary of the Specola: Astronomy under lock-down

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This entry is part 52 of 53 in the series Diary

Half of the astronomers from the Vatican Observatory work out of Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and the other half in Tucson. Italy has been under a strict lock-down for several weeks, while the University of Arizona is also closed and members of staff are strongly urged to stay home. In particular, all the telescopes at the Mount Graham International Observatory, including the Vatican’s Advanced Technology Telescope (the VATT), have been shut down in order to allow the day staff to stay down the mountain, closer to home and family (and, should it be necessary, medical care.) But our “commute” in Castel Gandolfo is just walking downstairs from the community living quarters to the Specola offices. And our home in Tucson is well served by the internet. (In fact, my own office as president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation is just a room in our house here in Tucson.) Still, I was curious to find out what people have been up to. … Continue reading →

Facing the next apocalypse: Diary of March 7, 2020

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Let’s see… how many ways will the world end, this week? We’ve got the Corvid-19 virus; it has killed too many people already, scared a lot more, and disrupted everybody’s life right now, whether they are scared or just being reasonably cautious. (Thanks to that virus, we have had to postpone our biennial Vatican Observatory Summer School for a year, to 2021, simply because arranging for international travel for students from around the world to a country, Italy, that has been one of the first hit has become awkward, to say the least.) I am planning to travel later this month; I hope it will still be possible. We’ve got politics as worse than usual in many countries of the world; the only thing that unites us all, it seems, is horror at those other leaders who disagree with me. We’ve got conflict within the Church, the folks supporting our work, with all sorts of nasty innuendos passed back and … Continue reading →

Reflections on the passing of Fr. George Coyne

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This entry is part 51 of 53 in the series Diary

I am back now from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY, where the funeral of Fr. George Coyne was held on Monday. First, I thought I would share here a couple of items that showed the respect Fr. Coyne had both in the world at large and at Le Moyne College. To begin, here’s a copy of the obituary as run in the Sunday New York Times on February 16: While I was at Le Moyne, I was given a tour of the science building and found that George was mentioned both on their “wall of Jesuit sciences” and on a large poster in a passageway between buildings on campus: Finally, two more items I want to publish here are a cleaned-up version of the comments that I was invited to give at the funeral, and the remarks that the president of Le Moyne, Dr. Linda LeMura Reflections on the life of a Jesuit Astronomer, Br Guy Consolmagno, Vatican Observatory … Continue reading →

After the drive: Diary of 3 February, 2020

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This entry is part 49 of 53 in the series Diary

As our constant readers may be aware, we ran a subscription drive over the last two weeks of January; our goal was to get 150 new readers and as many new subscribers as possible. So how did we do? At the end of December, the last diary here, we had 9477 on the roll call and 141 paid subscribers. As of today, February 3, it is now 9637 on the roll call and 161 paid subscribers! You will note that this is exactly 150 new people on the roll call. Pretty good, huh? Well, OK, I’m cheating. I was really hoping to double our paid subscribers, to go from 140 to about 300. Of course, I knew that was totally unrealistic. But still, 161 is pretty darn good, and I am delighted with every subscriber we get. Let’s remember why we do this. The point of Sacred Space Astronomy is to spread the good word of astronomy, and remind people … Continue reading →

ⓜ Dracula, Green Slime, and Christmas… Diary of 23 December, 2019

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This entry is part 48 of 53 in the series Diary

I went to Bucharest in November to celebrate Christmas (you read that right), and in December received an unwelcome answer to a Christmas wish. Be careful what you wish for! But first…our stats this month: Last month we had 145 paid subscribers; this month it is only 141. (Annual subscriptions run out, credit cards expire… but still, we’re going backwards. This Is Not Good.) Our total roll call of those who get notified of new postings is 9477, about 100 more than last month.  You know, if we had five times as many subscribers, then this site alone would be able to cover the annual costs of the Foundation. (Hint, hint.) Please, tell more people about our site; and if you can, please subscribe at a rate of $10 a month (about the cost of a burger and fries) or $100 per year. Or even consider signing up a friend or two, as a Christmas gift! Meanwhile, read on to find … Continue reading →

ⓜ Free Man in Paris… Diary of 12 November, 2019

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This entry is part 47 of 53 in the series Diary

I love Paris in November. It’s cool and uncrowded, and it feels like a real city not just a tourist site. I traveled there last week, via sleeper train with a private cabin: the introvert’s delight!   Our stats this month: As of today, we have 145 paid subscribers (two new subscribers since last month — thanks and welcome!) and 9347 people (about a 150 new ones!) who get notified of new postings. We continue to grow, but not nearly fast enough to keep us in business. (Our goal is to have a thousand paid subscribers… at this rate we’ll hit that goal around the year 2045; that at least will still be before my 100th birthday.) Please, tell more people about our site; and if you can, please subscribe at a rate of $10 a month (about the cost of a burger and fries) or $100 per year. So, while in Paris I ran into three famous authors, a … Continue reading →

ⓜ The day I almost met Buzz… Diary of 11 October, 2019

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This entry is part 46 of 53 in the series Diary

So, this week I was supposed to meet Buzz Aldrin. It didn’t happen, but how it almost happened is a story. And it reminds me of all the other famous (and almost famous) that I met (or almost met)… But first, our stats: As of today, we have 143 paid subscribers, an increase of 4 since last month. Every one of you is most welcome, and every one of you helps the cause! What’s more, there are (as of this writing) 9203 people who get notified of new postings, a jump of about 150 compared to last month. We continue to grow… still,  not nearly fast enough to keep us in business. We pay our writers (a pittance, but still it’s something) and the web site and its support does not come for free. Please tell more people about our site. And if you can, please subscribe at a rate of $10 a month (that’s about two visits to Dunkin Donuts … Continue reading →

ⓜ Million Miles Away… Diary of 8 September, 2019

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The Irish blues singer Rory Gallagher… the last Star Wars movie… the discovery of pulsars… the Dean of York Cathedral… and Pope Francis. That pretty much summarizes my diary for August. Oh, you want to hear more, you say? But first, our stats: As of today, we have 139 paid subscribers… that’s only one more than last month. On the other hand, there are 9051 people who get notified of new postings, a jump of nearly 200 compared to last month. We continue to grow, but not nearly fast enough to keep us in business. We pay our writers (a pittance, but still it’s something) and the web site and its support does not come for free. Please tell more people about our site. And if you can, please subscribe at a rate of $10 a month (that’s two visits to Subway for me) or $100 per year. And tell your friends about the site. If we could double the size … Continue reading →

Own your own space-time continuum!

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This entry is part 45 of 53 in the series Diary

So, last week Pope Francis met in a private audience with the sixteen members of the Vatican Observatory. We presented the Pope with the published proceedings of a recent workshop we’d held on Gravitation and Black Holes — how we understand the fabric of space and time warped together in the deepest regions of space. That meeting had included Nobel Prize winners and other notables from the field; the Pope had met them, too. But another gift that we gave the Pope tells a deeper story. We also offered him a copy of our 2020 astronomical calendar. Every year, the Vatican Observatory Foundation publishes a calendar full of glorious astronomical images and marking significant dates in the history of our science. It’s a way of raising money to help support our telescope and our outreach efforts. But hundreds of these calendars are also given away, for free, to inmates in San Quentin and other prisons. All the prisoners have to do … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Clouds from Both Sides

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This entry is part 87 of 190 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in August 2010; we first ran it here in 2016. Saturday, seventeen hours from California, my friend Dan and I land in Australia. We’re looking forward to a week of observing southern stars, researching our latest book, a guide for amateur astronomers. Brother Ian meets us at the airport and leads us to the Jesuit winery and retreat house at Sevenhill, two hours north of Adelaide. Even jet-lag and a partly cloudy sky can’t stop us from pulling out our telescopes that night and peeking at Rigel Kentaurus, our Sun’s nearest neighbor, and Acrux, the brightest star of the Southern Cross. Both are double stars, first split by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century.  After half an hour, the sky clouds over completely. But not to worry, we have the whole week before us. (A heat wave across North America threatens the lives of the poor and elderly.) Sunday, Ian shows us around the vineyards and … Continue reading →

ⓜ The man who saw the origins of atheism: Diary of 2 August, 2019

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This entry is part 44 of 53 in the series Diary

It’s only been three weeks since our last roll call of subscribers, and since then we’ve added one and lost one; sadly, the one that is lost was an Andromeda subscriber, whom we will miss. We are still at 138 total. On the other hand, the number of folks who have signed up to be notified of new postings has jumped from 8776 to 8870, so that’s a healthy gain. I hope some of you will be inspired to support our work by subscribing, be it at the Pleiades, Hercules, or Andromeda levels! In July I had a couple of fun trips, first to Minneapolis for the Convergence science fiction convention (where I was a guest of honor) and then to the SciFoo techie “camp” hosted by Google, Nature, and O’Reilly the tech publishers. Old friends, new friends, fun talks, good food! Now I am back in Rome, and next Monday I’ll be off to Ireland, first for a vacation … Continue reading →