Category Archives: Uncategorized

Sabbatical Journey: What Would You Do With A 10 Week Sabbath?

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

About a year ago I was getting ready to head for Tuscon, Arizona for the Vatican Observatory Foundation’s Faith and Astronomy Workshop. This bi-annual trip is always one that I look forward to so I can get away from the cold of Wisconsin and have a week of astronomy immersion. Last year, however, I was feeling a little different about the trip. I still looked forward to being a part of this wonderful event, but internally I was starting to feel and see the signs of burnout. Before I left, I had a conversation with our Vicar of Clergy (It’s the title given to the priest responsible for overseeing the well being of our Diocesan clergy). I was joking with him about a good friend of mine who was on sabbatical by saying, “Why is he on sabbatical, I should go on sabbatical!” What started as a playful poke at a good friend became a serious conversion. “James, if you … Continue reading →

Asperitatis daybreak

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 16 of 16 in the series Lunarcy

Here it is, irresistible when on the terminator, “the awfulest” crater on the moon as my mentor Jim Loudon (from Univ. of Mich.) used to call the 104km diameter crater, Theophilus seen here in all its magnificent glory just below center. Its spectacular central peaks and wonderful terraced western wall are displayed in morning sunlight with the crater still half filled with shadow. Just below is the older, more tortured crater Cyrillus (100km dia.) with its great rimae on the floor just beyond the shadow’s edge. West of Cyrillus (left) still deep in shadow is Ibn Rashd (34km) and a little further is similar sized Kant (32km) even deeper in shadow.Above these two craters forming a isosceles triangle is Mons Penck rising some 4km above the plain to its east. North of Theophilus is the plain Sinus Asperitatis splattered with the radial streaks of ejecta from the Theophilus impact, full of small (<5km) secondary craters. This is an enjoyable area … Continue reading →

Stupid Astronomer Tricks #2: The anti-terrorist

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 3 of 9 in the series Stupid astronomer

We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members – and as a part of it we’re including this blatant clickbait series… Besides, it’s a chance to tell some of the funny stories that come up during cloudy nights at the VATT! The old astronomer tells the tale… “It was after 9/11, about a year or two after, and we were meeting in Rome, Jesuits in science from all around Europe. France, Germany, Portugal were all represented; and of course Jesuits from Italy… not to mention us from the Vatican Observatory. After the meeting, like all good scientists, we gathered in a local bar to shoot the breeze. Of course, this being Italy, the bar was a coffee bar and we were downing espressos (at 10 pm? Hey, live dangerously!) and telling tall tales. English, of course, was the one language we all had in common. Out of nowhere one of the Italian scientists, a … Continue reading →

Goodnight to the Lake of Death

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 15 of 16 in the series Lunarcy

Often I show image covering from Aristoteles to Hercules in sunrise. But here I want to zoom in on a small area of that region this time at sunset. Just above center in this image is the crater Burg (41km dia.) in the center of the rough hexagon of Lacus Mortis (155km). The detail in the eastern wall of Burg is nicely displayed here along with several of the diverse rimae on the floor of this Lacus. Below Burg are two wonderful craters, the flat floored Mason (44km) on the right and Plana (46km) with the little central peak to the left. That central peak, with the 3km impact crater on the south side, is only the tip of what was once a much larger mountain but for the lava flooding of this crater that filled up the interior. The only feature on the floor of this crater seen here is a small (2.5km dia.) crater at the tip of … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: April 6, 1912 – Stanislas Meunier

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 28 of 29 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 April 6, 1912, when Stanislas Meunier made a visit. Next to his name, Stanislas-Étienne Meunier (1843-1925) wrote, “Muséum Paris.”  He was the chair of Geology at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) in Paris, France. In my field of meteoritics, his contributions are not insignificant. He compared the chemical compositions of meteorites with those elements identified in solar spectra. He recognized that (except for the most volatile elements) the elemental composition of meteorites closely matches that of the Sun. From this, he concluded that the overall composition of the solar system is effectively uniform. He also introduced experimental geology as a distinct field of science. He contributed much to our understanding of the geology of the Paris Basin.       … Continue reading →

From The Back Yard: Astronomical Retrospect Of 2019

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

This past year has been an important one for me in regard to astronomy and faith. Though I have dabbled with simple forms of astrophotography in the past, I decided to take the plunge and learn how to take high quality images of the night sky instead of just using online services to image the heavens. As is the case for many, I always felt intimidated when trying to do astrophotography. If you do a quick Google search on the subject, you will be introduced to many confusing articles and videos with equipment that can approach the price of a small car. Since my first attempts at astrophotography were in the film days, the expense combined with past failure seemed too risky. Then a friend of mine who lives in Arizona, Ken Walsh, introduced me to a “fund me” campaign for a “point and shoot” astronomy camera called the Nano 1. The promise of doing astrophotography in a point and … Continue reading →

The Brightest Sun and the Darkest Morning of the Year

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

Tomorrow (January 5) is Perihelion Day!  The Earth journeys around the sun in an orbit that is ever-so-slightly elliptical (the elliptical nature of the orbit is so mild that the orbit basically looks like a circle that is slightly off-center from the sun).  This means that the distance between the sun and the Earth varies over the course of a year.  Today is the day on which that distance is a minimum, and the technical term for the point of minimum distance between the Earth and sun is “perihelion.” Today is also the day of the brightest sun of the year.  Since the distance to the sun is a minimum then the apparent size of the sun in the sky is a maximum (of course, as with the much-ballyhooed “Super Moons” that we hear about all the time, this effect is not very great). A thing I like to point out about perihelion is that it is a true Global … Continue reading →

J. Herschel sunrise

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 14 of 16 in the series Lunarcy

A wonderful sunrise scene starting with the beautiful terraced walls of Philolas (73km dia.) in the upper right corner, a Copernican Period crater (recent) formed within the last billion years. Notice how it appears this craters sits inside an older, larger crater. To the left you can see the top sunlit edge of the wall of shadow filled Anaximenes (82km) traced out by sunlight just catching the mountain tops. Below that, also on the terminator, are the ramparts of the crater Carpenter (61km) just coming into the light. The star of this show, the crater J. Herschel (160km) is the huge ring visible in the lower left quadrant of this image. It is an ancient crater of Pre-Nectarian age, possibly as old as 4.5 billion years! Note the rough floor, normally smooth with higher sun but now showing the slightest irregularity and smallest pit. The shadows are a delight as well with the gap in the upper right letting light … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller B.V.M. (1913-1985) – Computer Science

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 11 of 11 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

When I was little, my dad bought an Apple II+ computer.  Every Christmas, my uncle would send us a pack of computer games on 5.25-inch floppy disks. We spent countless hours playing those games on its primitive green pixelated screen.  It was fun to play games made by somebody else, but even better was when I learned to make the computer do what I wanted it to do, with a little programming.  I learned a very simple computer language called Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, or BASIC.  With it, I made my own games, limited only by my imagination and skill.  For the freedom that programming in BASIC gave me, I have to thank a nun: Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller. Biographical Sketch: She was born Evelyn Marie Keller on Dec 17, 1913 (different sources disagree on this date) in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1932, she joined the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where she took the name Mary … Continue reading →

The Headless Angels and the Four Science Concepts

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

Introduction While visiting York Minster in July, the docent leading our small group pointed out a configuration of angels above the entrance, six to the left of the door and six to the right. The angels were holding two round objects each, with their arms in different configurations. I whispered to Larry that it looked like they were doing semaphore. When our docent asked if any of us had any idea what the angels depicted, I gave him the same answer, semaphore. His jaw dropped and he asked if I could read semaphore. I could not, but as a long-time solver of cryptograms, it took just a moment or two to identify the five repeating symbols among the 12 angels. I would like to think that, given 10 minutes, a pencil, and some paper, I could have deciphered their message. Relating the Angels to Basic Science Concepts Since the National Science Education Standards were published back in the mid-1990s, we … Continue reading →

From The Backyard: A New Twist On Old Themes

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

This week, I offer you a new form of contribution to Sacred Space Astronomy. I have decided as part of my “From The Backyard” series to put together some YouTube videos that summarize some of the main themes that I have focused on in my writing. In that spirit, here is my first video on the connection between Advent and Astronomy. It isn’t the best of videos (a little dark and the sound needs a little work), but, in time, it will improve and be a nice addition to our blog. Enjoy! … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: Dec 1, 1911 – Charles G. Abbot

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 25 of 29 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 the first of December, 1911, when Charles G. Abbot made a visit. Next to his name, Charles Greeley Abbot (1872-1973) wrote, “Director Astrophysical Observatory, Washington D.C.” At the time of his visit, he was director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). He was the observatory’s second director, succeeding its founder Samuel Pierpont Langley in 1907. In 1928 he would become the fifth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, but also remained director of the SAO until his retirement in 1944. While director of the SAO, Abbot oversaw the construction of an observatory facility atop Mount Whitney, in California.  His research focused mostly on the Sun and solar radiation.  He participated in several eclipse expeditions.  He carefully measured the quantity and character of solar … Continue reading →