Category Archives: Science

Lunar Eavesdropping: Two Men, a Radio, and Apollo 11 (re-run)

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In honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, I am today “re-running” this slightly edited combination of two posts that originally ran last summer. Today we celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.*  I wish those celebrations included more recognition of a unique accomplishment that is part of the Apollo 11 story but that is widely unknown: the work of Larry Baysinger—a man from my home town of Louisville, Kentucky—who independently detected signals from the Apollo 11 astronauts as they walked on the lunar surface.  Baysinger’s accomplishments were recorded and promptly published in the Louisville Courier-Journal, by another Louisvillian by the name of Glenn Rutherford, who later went on to be editor of the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Louisville, The Record. Rutherford was a 23-year-old reporter for the Courier-Journal, and his article about Baysinger was published under the headline “Lunar Eavesdropping:  Louisvillians hear moon walk talk on homemade equipment”.  Baysinger was a … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Three Lunatic Answers

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This entry is part 79 of 185 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in July 2009. We first ran it here in 2016. As everyone has been told, countless times this month, July 20 – the 21st, in Rome – marks the 50th anniversary of the landing of the Apollo 11 astronauts to the Moon. Here are a few lunar topics probably not covered by most folks remembering that event… I saw a photo of Pope Paul VI looking at the Apollo 11 Moon landing through a telescope. Why didn’t he watch it on TV like everyone else? For the Moon landings, world leaders were invited to address the astronauts on a world-wide television link-up, and the Pope read his greetings (in front of a TV) from the Vatican Observatory dome in Castel Gandolfo (in the gardens near the Pope’s summer palace). In fact, the system of geosynchronous satellites to send TV pictures live around the world was still pretty new; those of us of a certain age … Continue reading →

Kentucky Science Conversations – Teaching Our Faith (and Science)

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The Archdiocese of Louisville (Kentucky) has been talking science.  During the month of May, five articles on faith and science appeared in our diocesan newspaper, The Record.  They were part of the “Teaching Our Faith” series that the paper runs periodically.  I do not think such things are common in the pages of diocesan papers.  I do think more science in diocesan papers would be a great thing. The “Teaching Our Faith” articles were the idea of Louisville’s Archbishop, Joseph Kurtz.  Archbishop Kurtz contributed a guest post to The Catholic Astronomer (now Sacred Space Astronomy) last November.  At that time I told the story about how in September 2017, with astronomy “in the air” thanks to the August 2017 eclipse, Prof. Gerry Williger, an astronomer at the University of Louisville here in Kentucky, sent an invitation to Archbishop Kurtz to attend some of the talks that are part of the Public Astronomy Lecture Series hosted by UofL’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.  Archbishop … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: January 5, 1910 – Vincenzo Cerulli and Giorgio Abetti

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This entry is part 8 of 9 in the series Specola Guestbook

Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory.  A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. Today’s guestbook entry is from January 5, 1910, when Vincenzo Cerulli and Giorgio Abetti made a visit. Next to his name, Vincenzo Cerulli (1859-1927) wrote “di Collurania.” He was the founder and director of the Collurania-Teramo Observatory, located in Teramo, Italy.  With the 40-cm refractor installed there, he made observations of the planet Mars, and concluded that the “canali” were optical illusions.  He discovered the asteroid (704) Interamnia. The Martian crater Cerulli is named after him, as are the asteroids (366) Vincentia and (31028) Cerulli. Next to his name, Giorgio Abetti (1882-1982) wrote “Istituto di Fisica Terrestre della R. Università – Napoli” (Institute of Terrestrial Physics of the Royal University of Naples).  He made many later visits, most of which were signed with the affiliation Collegio Romano, … Continue reading →

The Far Sun – Far Beyond Comprehension

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Does it seem dim outside?  Well, it should—sort of.  Because it is dim outside—sort of. On this past Thursday, July 4, just before the end of the day as seen from London (at 11:10 pm British Standard Time), the Earth was at the aphelion point of its orbit—the point at which it is farthest from the sun.  At that time it was 94,513,221 miles from the sun.  By contrast, at its perihelion point (closest to the sun), on January 3, Earth was merely 91,403,554 miles from the sun. Earth is over 3,100,000 miles farther away from the sun now than it was in January.  Of course, that is only a 3.4% difference.  But if you observed the sun carefully, and measured its apparent diameter, you could see that difference.  The fact that the distance between the sun and the Earth changes has been known since antiquity. The sun is a remarkable object, really beyond our comprehension in many ways. First … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: Fr. Giuseppe Piazzi C.R. (1746-1826), Discoverer of the First Asteroid

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This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

Today, just under 800,000 asteroids and Trans Neptunian Objects are known and catalogued by the Minor Planet Center of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, with more being discovered every day.  However, before 1800 the existence of this entire class of objects was entirely unknown. The first asteroid, which today we know as (1) Ceres, was discovered by an astronomer who was also a priest: Fr. Giuseppe Piazzi C.R. Biographical Sketch Giuseppe Piazzi was born July 16, 1746 in Ponte in Valtellina, Italy.  He entered the Theatine order in 1765, and was ordained a priest in 1769.  While he taught philosophy, theology, and mathematics at various stages of his early life in the order, he also had an interest in astronomy. He came to Palermo in 1781 as a lecturer in mathematics at the Accademia dei Regi Studi. In 1787, he became professor of astronomy. King Ferdinand of Sicily named him to be the first director of the Palermo Astronomical Observatory. He obtained … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: October 11, 1909 – Eduard Study

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This entry is part 7 of 9 in the series Specola Guestbook

Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory.  A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. Today’s guestbook entry is from October 11, 1909, when Eduard Study made a visit. Next to his name, Christian Hugo Eduard Study (1862-1930) wrote “Bonn a. Rh. Argelanderstr. 126” (Bonn am Rhein, Argelanderstraße 126).  He signed the guestbook again on April 10 of the following year. Eduard Study was a mathematician who made significant contributions in the field.  At the time of his visit, he was a professor of mathematics at the University of Bonn. His contributions include the associative algebra of dual quaternions, kinematics, hypercomplex numbers, and, pertaining to quantum chemistry, a theory governing the coupling of angular momenta (that also applied to electron spin couplings). At least two mathematical concepts bear his name: Study quaternions (aka semiquaternions) and the Fubini-Study metric.   … Continue reading →

Inspiring a New Generation of Scientists and Space Explorers

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I was at STARBASE One at Selfridge Air National Guard Base on June 11 & 12, 2019 as part of their Summer Academy – I taught the students how to fly rockets in Kerbal Space Program. I created several different rockets for them to launch: a small and large sounding rocket, and a crewed sub-orbital and orbital vessel; I related the sub-orbital and orbital flights to those of Alan Shepard and John Glenn. Their first rocket was aimed down at the launchpad, so they got to see something explode! For some reason, the students seem to get a kick out of this… but it does show that rockets in KSP can crash. When the students launched sounding rockets, I mentioned the Keweenaw Rocket Range; Michigan launched its first sounding rocket into space on Jan. 29, 1971! My wife and I visited the launchpad in 2016. When I showed the students how orbits are raised, a common comment was “that’s weird!” Yup! Orbital mechanics sure … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: June 5, 1909 – George Ellery Hale

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This entry is part 6 of 9 in the series Specola Guestbook

Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory.  A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. Today’s guestbook entry is from June 5, 1909, when George E. Hale made a visit. Next to his name, George Ellery Hale (1868-1938) wrote “Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory, California.” The year prior to his visit, he used the Zeeman effect–(see the previous post on H. A. Lorentz)–to discover magnetic fields in sunspots. He also found that, between sunspot cycles, the magnetic polarity of fields through sunspots in northern vs southern hemisphere switches orientation – what is today known as Hale’s Law (or the Hale-Nicholson Law). In 1913, Hale advised Albert Einstein of the possibility of observing the effects of general relativity on starlight passing near the Sun, which he suggested might be possible during a total solar eclipse.  This led to the eclipse observing expeditions of Arthur … Continue reading →

Enrico Fermi, the Farmer, and the Sky

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Look to the top of your screen.  There it says Vatican Observatory—The Catholic Astronomer—Sacred Space Astronomy.  You are looking at one pretty cool science site.  But there is a sister site here, too: Vatican Observatory—Faith and Science.  I edit that site, meaning I get to do cool stuff like read interesting books for the purpose of finding good content for the site, and I have to do tedious stuff like periodically plow through all 500 entries in the site, looking for errors and broken links. Recently that plowing brought me to, and refreshed my memory of, a really great Vatican Observatory—Faith and Science (VOF&S) entry, on Enrico Fermi (1901-1954).  Fermi was one of the 20th century’s great physicists.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1938.  His contributions to science are too numerous to list here, and the VOF&S entry is not about those contributions; it is about his recollection of the thoughts of an Italian farmer regarding the night sky … Continue reading →

What Do the Summer Sky, a Japanese Festival, and a Chinese Lunar Mission Have in Common?

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You can add to this list festivals in China and Korea! Some of this Blog is taken from an activity that Nancy and I developed many years ago for our teacher professional development workshop, Project ARTIST (Astronomy-Related Teacher In-Service Training), that Nancy mentioned in her last Blog, “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” The activity is called Magpies and the Milky Way. The following information about the Tanabata Festival comes from a Japanese travel guide. Tanabata, also known as the “star festival,” takes place on the 7th day of the 7th month of the year, when, according to a Chinese legend, the two stars Altair and Vega, which are usually[sic] separated from each other by the Milky Way, are able to meet…. One popular Tanabata custom is to write one’s wishes on a piece of paper and hang that piece of paper on a specially erected bamboo tree, in the hope that the wishes come true. Colorful Tanabata festivals are … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: January 15, 1909 – Herbert H. Turner

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This entry is part 5 of 9 in the series Specola Guestbook

Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory.  A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. Today’s guestbook entry is from January 15, 1909, when Herbert H. Turner made a visit. Next to his name, Herbert Hall Turner F.R.S. (1861-1930) wrote “University Observatory, Oxford.” H. H. Turner visited the Vatican Observatory more than once. He also signed our book on May 12, 1910 and during the first IAU General Assembly on May 9, 1922. Director of the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford University, he was an astronomer and a seismologist. In seismology, he discovered deep-focus earthquakes (more than 300 km deep), which occur in subduction zones. In astronomy, he coined the word “parsec.” (A parsec is a unit of distance for a star subtending 1 arcsecond of parallax shift due to 1AU of motion from the observer, or 3.26 light-years.  The term became the … Continue reading →