Feedback - The Catholic Astronomer

REPLIES and e-mails and funds for astronomical research

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Christopher M. GraneyJune 14, 2017

You are sending me e-mail. Well, maybe not you personally, but y’all (as we say in Kentucky) who read The Catholic Astronomer are sending me e-mail. These e-mails consist largely of questions and responses to my various blog posts. I probably should have realized back when I started writing for The Catholic Astronomer that I would have to eventually limit my blog-related e-mail. “Eventually” has arrived. I like the e-mails, but answering them is becoming a bit of a time sink. Fortunately, The Catholic Astronomer has a system for answering reader questions and acknowledging reader responses: the LEAVE A REPLY option on every post. Leave your REPLY. Ask your question in it. We will try to answer. Indeed, the Boss of this operation, Br. Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory, has asked us bloggers to make a point of answering replies if we can. It is true that to REPLY you have to be logged in with the blog. … Continue reading →

Five Reasons Why Clickbait Works

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoDecember 27, 2016

This entry is part of 36 in the series Diary

There’s two opposing theories about posting stuff in the week between Christmas and New Years. On the one hand, everyone’s off having a good time and not paying attention to the internet. On the other hand, nobody else is posting anything so you have a better chance than usual of actually being noticed by the folks who do. It’s been a while since I have posted a diary on The Catholic Astronomer about this blog itself, so I am taking these off-days to do so. Since the self-referential title promised five points (I just made up the number five now, I have no idea how many points I’ll have) let me start numbering them. Even though we don’t charge you for reading it, this web site is not free. I pay (a pittance, admittedly) to our bloggers, and that money has to come from someplace. In addition we pay a standing fee to Cyrcle Systems for regular maintenance, etc. Some months … Continue reading →

Fan Mail Poetry

Posted on July 23, 2015 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoJuly 23, 2015

This entry is part 3 of 36 in the series Diary

I get fan mail now and then; but this one included a poem, which I thought I would share, just for the fun of it! Dr. Will Buckingham is a reader in Writing and Creativity at De Montfort University, in Leicester, England, adjacent to the River Soar. He’s the author of a number of books, both academic and fiction, including children’s books. He included this note: “I was rummaging through some old boxes prior to moving house, and I stumbled across a bunch of notebooks from something like ten years back. Leafing through, I found a short poem that I’d written having seen you talk at the science museum in Birmingham. A few days after the talk, if I remember rightly, I was teaching a writing class, and I was encouraging my students to write sonnets, so I weighed in and produced the attached poem. The title is ‘The Pope’s Astronomer’’. I’m more of a fiction/philosophy writer than a poet, but it … Continue reading →

Questions from our readers…

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoMarch 18, 2015

An email from a blog reader, who writes: “I have just read Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial and have a couple of questions. By the way, I am a practicing Catholic but with education only in medical science, and none in philosophy. Theology I have tried to study on my own. “The first question is regarding your brief references to transubstantiation. I think I understand what you mean by saying the old physics and metaphysics is not a wrong explanation, just no explanation at all. My question is whether or not you believe that transubstantiation should be referred to only in theological terms? Or whether there is a modern science explanation of its meaning, and if so, what it would be. “The second question refers to what I’ve read in another book, this time by a modern philosopher (Edward Feser). He speaks of hylomorphism, involving four irreducible causal components of material substances, and then about the ‘rational soul’ being the … Continue reading →

Richard Saam February 17, 2019 at 3:38 pm on Navigating the Fourth Day of Creation by means of Jupiter’s MoonsChristopher, It is interesting to note the coordinate change between Tycho Brahe Observatory (Ven) 55.9082° N, 12.6956° E and Paris, France 48.8566° N, 2.3522° E Therefore the longitude change is 12.6956° - 2.3522° = 10.3434° Given that 15° (360°/24) of longitude is 1 hour then Tycho Brahe Observatory and Paris,...
Bill Mullin February 14, 2019 at 7:28 am on Fond Memories of the Vatican ObservatoryBeautiful tribute.
Jeff Renner February 13, 2019 at 10:58 pm on Global Vs. Local Perspective. The Difficulties In Helping People Understand Climate Change.The examples offered are very helpful. The power of story and metaphor also can be useful. Three I've used (as a meteorologist called to talk about climate change)...include 'hey, it's dark at night, how can I be sure the sun will return?'...or 'I still have checks in my checkbook, how...
Richard Saam February 12, 2019 at 11:47 am on ⓜ Diary for February 11, 2019Br Guy, Ultima Thule will surely be addressed 15-16 Feb. Alan Stern addresses the latest in arXiv:1901.02578 [pdf] astro-ph.EP Overview of initial results from the reconnaissance flyby of a Kuiper Belt planetesimal: 2014 MU69. The 15.9 hour rotation is most interesting having the characteristic of the quantum mechanical rigid rotor...
Fr. James Kurzynski February 12, 2019 at 3:30 am on Global Vs. Local Perspective. The Difficulties In Helping People Understand Climate Change.That is a brilliant insight! And in language that can resonate with many I know in Wisconsin! I'll have to put this into a future presentation. Thank you!
Richard Saam February 11, 2019 at 7:54 pm on Global Vs. Local Perspective. The Difficulties In Helping People Understand Climate Change.The Wisconsin extreme colds do not negate climate change. Think of our atmosphere as a heat engine analogous to a car engine. The difference between a hot(say burning gasoline) and cold(the radiator cooler) drive a car. The greater the hot-cold difference, the more available energy to do work(go 100 mph...
Fr. James Kurzynski February 11, 2019 at 4:23 pm on Global Vs. Local Perspective. The Difficulties In Helping People Understand Climate Change.Steve. I love your example! I'll have to see if I can incorporate this into a presentation sometime in the future! Keep the ideas coming!
Steven Lanoux February 11, 2019 at 3:17 pm on Global Vs. Local Perspective. The Difficulties In Helping People Understand Climate Change.Father, the same thing happens to us in the Rio Grande Valley, so don't disparage your folks in Wisconsin. The data does not lie; people do (aka, "The Administration"). Deniers cannot change the facts. Species of animals and plants that were only rarely seen north of Central Mexico are now...
Br. Guy Consolmagno February 11, 2019 at 10:14 am on Across the Universe: Stories of the BeltI know I was taken out to see Sputnik but to be honest the first satellite I actually remember was Echo I, in 1960, which was much brighter! (For those of you too young to remember... Echo was a giant inflated ball of aluminum foil that was designed to passively...
Bob Prokop February 7, 2019 at 9:43 am on Across the Universe: Stories of the BeltHah! It seems that you and I are almost the same age. I was also just 5 years old when Explorer 1 went into orbit. In fact, it is the very first "news" memory I have. (I have no memory of Sputnik 1.) I can still recall the headline and...
Fr. James Kurzynski February 5, 2019 at 11:56 am on Lost in Cyberspace! Or at Least on the Arizona 101 Loop.Thanks Jeff! It was a joy to get to know all of you. I LOVE the quote, "People will not conserve what they do not love..." I'll need to steal that for a future post!
Jeff Renner February 5, 2019 at 11:07 am on Lost in Cyberspace! Or at Least on the Arizona 101 Loop.Father James; My thanks for all you did to make FAW 2019 so memorable; certainly the very special Mass you celebrated under the night sky in the Arizona desert, but also the gentle and insightful perspectives you provided. A question-if my memory serves me correct, you had mentioned something about...
Fr. James Kurzynski February 4, 2019 at 1:59 pm on It’s Ultimately About Relationship – A Brief Reflection On FAW2019Thanks Chris! And thank you for a wonderful presentations at FAW2019! From my ministerial work, what I hear in your students is what I call the "myth of certitude." The student who is trying to affirm God doesn't exist is trying to find the skeleton key they presume science possesses...
Fernando Comeron February 2, 2019 at 4:57 am on Fond Memories of the Vatican ObservatoryChris, another nice article of yours. To reinforce your impression in its last sentence, I remember a conversation at VOSS'90 with Bob Garrison (1936-2017) in which he also talked about himself as a quaker. You can read more about Bob, his passion for his work and his outstanding personality at...
Christopher M. Graney January 30, 2019 at 1:30 pm on It’s Ultimately About Relationship – A Brief Reflection On FAW2019>We discussed how the strongest bridge between faith and science >is not a series of apologetic arguments, but people who are >searching for truth and meaning. In that exploration, we can >either strive for a relationship of honesty, transparency, and >charity or continue the unfortunate culture of distrust that has...
Bob Trembley January 21, 2019 at 4:59 am on ⓜ This week at the Specola, 20 Jan 2019Awwww, Br. Guy! People were asking... a lot... where you found me? =Gulp!= I suppose it depends on the inflection of the asker: "Where did you find HIM?" -vs- "Where did you FIND him?" I got SO many nice comments from attendees of the FAW, it's seriously going to give...
Jim Cook January 12, 2019 at 8:32 pm on ⓜ This week at the Specola (ⓜ = members only!)" Over the next couple of months we'll try out various kinds of content, to see which ones are most popular with our members." I have an idea -- let alumni of the Faith and Astronomy Workshops submit posts. Obviously, there would have to be some guidelines, but it would...
Bob Trembley January 11, 2019 at 2:13 am on China Lands Probe on Moon’s Far SideThanks! :)
Br. Guy Consolmagno January 8, 2019 at 2:08 am on Across the Universe: Looking overheadClaudio Costa replied to one of your updates: From Claudio Costa: "Hi Guy, thanks for putting my picture of Orion and the Pleiades above the Schmidt dome into your last post on The Catholic Astronomer. It would have been worth to mention, in my opinion, that the picture was taken...
Bob Prokop January 6, 2019 at 11:28 am on Across the Universe: Looking overheadAmongst the first things I see when looking at the stars is perspective. At the atomic level, the universe is a endless swarm of particles madly dashing about, with atoms joining up into molecules which interact with still others - colliding, combining, and disintegrating. At the human level, we're surrounded...

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REPLIES and e-mails and funds for astronomical research

Five Reasons Why Clickbait Works

Fan Mail Poetry

Questions from our readers…