What happens at a Vatican Observatory Summer School?

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It’s back to school time in the northern hemisphere, and at the Vatican Observatory we’re both celebrating our summer schools past and letting the world know about our Summer School, Future! First, some information about the upcoming summer school. It’s called the VOSS (for Vatican Observatory Summer School.) It runs for four weeks. It is open to students from around the world who are in the last years of their undergraduate or opening years of graduate studies in astronomy or astrophysics; it is held at our headquarters in Castel Gandolfo; it features a world class teaching staff (more about them, below); and it’s free. (If you can afford it, we ask you to pay some part of the cost of travel and housing; if you can’t, we cover it.) There are two restrictions on who gets to attend. First, we only want students who intend to continue in a career in astronomy. This is not for anyone who already has … Continue reading →

Peeking in a keyhole.

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This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Lunarcy

About the same time you see Kepler and Gassendi on the terminator you will find this keyhole shaped crater in the south. Hainzel (70km dia.) is the southern lobe of this figure-8 shaped feature that consists of 3 craters. The northern beautifully terraced lobe is Hainzel A and in the shadow side (east) of Hainzel itself is Hainzel C who’s west wall can be seen on the floor of Hainzel. This is a very identifiable feature making it a landmark for exploring this region. To the right of Hainzel is a small crater Epimenides (27km). South of this crater is a similar sized crater, Epimenides B (26km) with a curious bulge on it’s floor. North of these is a small mare, Lacus Timoris that winds its way east from Hainzel. Note the nice rima that proceeds north from Hainzel A into Palus Epidemiarum near the crater Capuanus (61km) at the top of the image. You can see one of its … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Relics of Space

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This entry is part of 186 in the series Across the Universe

This column from The Tablet first ran there in September 2018… I have altered it slightly to bring it up to date. The famous American cynic H. L. Mencken once asserted that every question had an answer that was “neat, plausible, and wrong.” Science is no different. Our meteorite collections have reddish “ordinary” meteorites and black “carbonaceous” ones; meanwhile, in space we see some asteroids with reddish surfaces, while others are pitch black. The connection between the meteorites and the asteroids is thus neat and plausible. But is it right? The holy grail in asteroids is finding the ones with water and carbon. If we are going to be a space-faring species, we’ll need those chemicals to feed us and power our spacecraft. The cost to bring them up to space with us from Earth makes these materials far more valuable than platinum or gold.  We know that some carbonaceous meteorites have carbon and water; and they are distinctively black. … Continue reading →

Skyward by David Levy: September 2019

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This entry is part 18 of 18 in the series Skyward by David Levy

The AAR lives on! About a year ago in this column I wrote about the final Adirondack Astronomy Retreat (AAR) that Wendee and I held in the Adirondack Mountains near Lewis, New York. We had a special program with lectures, a banquet featuring, among other VIPs, my brother Gerry and his partner Duane, and President John Ettling of SUNY Plattsburgh. We even presented to Dr. Ettling the first Starlight Night Prize to celebrate the University’s commitment to keep this wonderful place as dark as possible. We concluded the week by burying a time capsule. Much as we tried, the enthusiasm for the event was too strong just to end it. Now, under the direction of Patrice Scattolin from Montreal and his family, AAR is continuing. With his high intelligence and brilliant sense of humor, Patrice ran the event with an efficiency and alacrity rarely seen. Laurie Williams, with the assistance of daughters Clara and Sophie and son Marc, kept the … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – September 3, 2019

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This entry is part 112 of 113 in the series In the Sky This Week

The school year is starting back up, and my wife and I will again be running an after-school astronomy and space science club: the Endeavour Space Academy. This year, I’m going to concentrate on different bodies in the solar system, and the science of how astronomy is done. Students will also be required to log some observing sessions. During the first few minutes, I take the students through my latest “In the Sky” post for current events, and what to look for in the sky. Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon grace the southern sky all week, making this a great time to do early evening sidewalk astronomy! Before sunrise the constellation Orion can be seen in the southeastern sky. Ursa Major appears in the north-northwestern sky at 10:00 PM this week M 20 – The Trifid Nebula “Messier 20 (M20), also known as the Trifid Nebula, is a famous star-forming region located in the constellation Sagittarius. The nebula’s designation in the … Continue reading →

Own your own space-time continuum!

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This entry is part 45 of 45 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 →

Astronomical Wonder: Ink and Images from my (Post) Vacation Journal (Part Two)

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To follow up on last week’s post, a big part of my vacation was to explore the capabilities of a new camera. Looking back, I can’t remember how I stumbled upon the TinyMOS Kickstarter for the Nano1. I wasn’t a frequent flyer on “fund-me” pages and really had no interest in donating toward new technological gadgets. Nevertheless, when I saw the advertisement for an astronomy camera for the beginner, I felt a tug. Ever since my youth, I wanted to do serious astrophotography, but after a few failed attempts in the film era and limited funds, I figured it was a lost cause. The promise of a user friendly camera to enter into astrophotography was quite alluring. After receiving the camera, I was impressed with how easy it was to use (after finding the power button of course). Now, truth be told, I don’t know if I would call it a completely “point and shoot” astronomy camera. In order to … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: May 4, 1910 – van de Sande Bakhuyzen

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This entry is part 13 of 15 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 May 4, 1910, when H. G. van de Sande Bakhuyzen made a visit. Next to his name, Hendricus Gerardus van de Sande Bakhuyzen (1838-1923) wrote simply, “Leiden.” He was the director of the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands from 1872-1923. Most of his research dealt with asteroid observations. He also made the connection between the comet 3D/Biela and a meteor shower. There is a crater on Mars named Bakhuysen in his honor, due to his publication of drawings of Mars made by Johann Schroter.   … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Clouds from Both Sides

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This entry is part 84 of 186 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 →

North of Aristarchus

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This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Lunarcy

In the wide channel between Oceanus Procellarum and Mare Imbrium, from Aristarchus to Mairan, are scattered some interesting features worthy of scrutiny. Here you can see Aristarchus (41km diameter) in the lower left corner and Mairan (also 41km) at the upper edge. The diameter is where the similarities between these two ends. Aristarchus the highest albedo of any crater on the visible disk of the Moon. It has been the site of many reports of transient events ever since the time of William Herschel who believe this to be an active volcano, now known to not be true. It is also very young at 175 million years old. Above Aristarchus is a arc open towards the bright crater. This partially flooded crater is Prinz with the Montes Harbinger sparkling in the early morning light farther on. The crater Kreiger (22km) is filled with shadow to the left or west of these mountains. To the east are two more craters in … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – August 27, 2019

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This entry is part 111 of 113 in the series In the Sky This Week

After my presentation at the Warren Public Library last week, a young woman asked if I was scheduled to speak there again. I told her I hadn’t spoken with the library about presenting again, but I do have a ton I could present. She said “I’m going to suggest to them that they get you back – you’re really good!” AwwwWWwwww! How nice! 🙂 I showed several different space software apps, and gave a virtual “Tour of the Stellar Neighborhood” using SpaceEngine; I took the audience over the rings of Saturn, flew like a drone over the surface of the Moon, orbited the Ring Nebula, flew through a gobular cluster, showed the two stars of Polaris orbiting each other in accelerated time, and more! I LOVE giving this presentation; I’m scheduled to give this talk to a bunch of astronomers at the meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society on Sept. 19th! In the continuing saga of “selling my home” – … Continue reading →

Astronomical Impressionism: Images And Ink From My Vacation Journal (Part 1)

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What are the most challenging questions to answer? From my experience as a science loving priest, I would have to say the easy questions pose the greatest difficulty. When someone asks me, “Father, why did you become a priest?” I often struggle to find an answer that gives the full breadth of meaning the question demands. To simply reduce my answer to feelings from childhood, affirmation from family and friends, or the life experiences that affirmed this feeling, though helpful, doesn’t provide the full spectrum of what I seek to communicate. Put another way, how does one take a 45 year journey and condense it to a 150 character tweet! I experience a similar struggle when someone asks, “Father, why do you love astronomy?” I could talk about my love of the night skies over the family farm, how my college astronomy studies grabbed me, and my first glimpse of Jupiter’s Moons through a telescope. Each answer, however, never leaves … Continue reading →