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Tag Archives: history of astronomy

ⓜ Neptune’s First Birthday

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on October 8, 2020 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoOctober 1, 2020
This entry is part 11 of 61 in the series And Then I Wrote

And then I wrote… in 2011, the planet Neptune had completed one full orbit around the Sun from the time when it was first discovered, and a small magazine called Argentus, edited by a friend of mine, Steve Silver, invited a number of astronomers to submit articles in its honor. You can see the resulting special issue here, on line. My contribution was to conduct an interview with Dr. Heidi Hammel, who is one of the world’s leading experts on the outer planets… and someone I have known since we were at MIT together, a… few… years ago. Here’s the interview: Planet Neptune was discovered on September 23, 1846, by the Berlin Observatory astronomers Johann Galle and Heinrich D’Arrest. They had famously been informed by the French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier that calculations of the perturbations in the orbit of Uranus suggested a planet could be found in a particular spot of the sky; when Galle and D’Arrest pointed their … Continue reading →

Posted in And Then I Wrote, History | Tagged history of astronomy, Ice Giants, Neptune | Leave a reply

ⓜ Other Worlds, Other Civilizations?

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on April 30, 2020 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoApril 30, 2020
This entry is part 34 of 61 in the series And Then I Wrote

And then I wrote… Finishing up my string of articles for the International Year of Astronomy, this paper was one that I never got to give. I was supposed to fly from London to Italy for a conference on the celebration of Galileo’s telescope, to be held in his old home town of Padua, but the day my flight was scheduled to leave Gatwick the airport was shut down due to snow! The amount of snow would have been nothing in Chicago, but for London it constituted a major blizzard… It was finally published in the proceedings conference proceedings, Galileo’s Medicean Moons: their impact on 400 years of discovery As so many of the presentations at this conference have confirmed, Galileo’s discoveries with the telescope, epitomized by his discovery of satellites orbiting Jupiter, revolutionized astronomy. They also revolutionized our view of the universe, what has been come to be called our scientific “cosmology.” And in the process, they gave a new … Continue reading →

Posted in And Then I Wrote, History | Tagged Europa, Galileo, history of astronomy, Science fiction | 2 Replies

Specola Guestbook: May 18, 1910 – Oskar Backlund

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on September 15, 2019 by Robert MackeSeptember 11, 2019
This entry is part 15 of 84 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 18, 1910, when Oskar Backlund made a visit. Next to his name, Johan Oskar Backlund FRS (1846-1918) — known in Russia as Oskar Andreevich Backlund — wrote simply, “Pulkova.” Originally Swedish, Backlund moved to Russia in 1876. He worked at the Polkovo Observatory, becoming its director in 1895. His primary astronomical work was developing a very precise orbit for the comet Encke, including the effect of perturbations from planets and other significant objects. From this, he also attempted to estimate the masses of those objects; particularly Mercury. Other work included geodetic measurements of Spitzbergen at the end of the 19th century. The asteroid 856 Backlunda, the lunar crater Backlund, and the terrestrial mountain Backlundtoppen (near Spitzbergen) all are named for him. … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, History | Tagged Backlund, Comet Encke, history of astronomy, Polkovo Observatory, Specola Guestbook, Vatican Observatory | Leave a reply

Specola Guestbook: September 7, 1967 – Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on August 11, 2019 by Robert MackeAugust 10, 2019
This entry is part 11 of 84 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. For today’s guestbook entry, we jump out of sequence once again to September 7, 1967, when Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge made a visit. They came with their daughter Sarah. Next to their names is written, “La Jolla, California.” Later, they signed the guestbook again in 1970 during a meeting on galactic nuclei at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. There is a timely reason to highlight these guests of the Specola this week. On Monday, August 12, 2019, Margaret Burbidge celebrates her 100th birthday. Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, along with collaborators William Fowler and Fred Hoyle, are most known for developing the theory of the nucleosynthetic origin of elements in stars. This ground-breaking theory was published in a 100-page journal article in 1957. This paper is referred to … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, History, Science, Uncategorized | Tagged B2FH, Geoffrey Burbidge, history of astronomy, Margaret Burbidge, Specola Guestbook, Vatican Observatory | Leave a reply

A note on the date of Easter

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on April 2, 2018 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoApril 2, 2018
This entry is part 28 of 64 in the series Diary

Horst Rademacher,  a seismologist at U C Berkeley, wrote to friends of mine there last weekend, asking about the date of Easter: May I bother you with a question, which is probably trivial for astronomers like you to answer. However neither Peggy nor I could find an answer anywhere. Here is the question: Tomorrow (Apr 1) is Easter. According to the classic definition Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. That makes sense, because today is full moon, which is the first full moon after the beginning of spring. And tomorrow is Sunday, hence Easter. However, today’s full moon occurred at 5:37 am PDT. Let’s assume, the full moon would have occurred at 5:37 pm PDT. Applying the definition above from a purely California perspective, tomorrow would still be Easter. However, if we were in the Netherlands, in Germany or in the Vatican for that matter, this assumed full moon would … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture, Religion, Science | Tagged Calendar, Easter, history of astronomy | Leave a reply

Guest posting: David Levy’s Skyward, December 2017

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on December 10, 2017 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoDecember 10, 2017
This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Guest Column

Our friend David Levy was the guest speaker at the annual Vatican Observatory Foundation annual public astronomy seminar, held last October in Ann Arbor. He writes a monthly astronomy column, Skyward, and has graciously given us permission to run it here as well. Here’s his December column: Last month I visited the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to give a lecture. The experience was fun and intellectually enlighting. Just before the lecture I had a good chat with University President Dr. Jem Spectar during which he mentioned the name of Zechario Sitchin, a philosopher who has made some curious predictions relating to astronomy. I decided that Sitchin was worth following up, not because he predicted that some unknown planet might come barging in on Earth someday, but because he was a student of some ancient Mesopotamian astronomy. Mesopotamia was a large area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, now a part of Iran. Their astronomy dates back some three … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Popular Culture | Tagged history of astronomy, Levy, Nibiru | Leave a reply

Across the Universe: A Thousand Stars are Born

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on May 4, 2017 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoMay 30, 2018
This entry is part 123 of 191 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in May 2013 Cygnus OB2 is an association of perhaps a thousand young, massive stars, some of them a hundred times more massive than the Sun and a million times brighter, immersed in a much larger molecular cloud known as Cygnus X. Because it is so close to us (“only” 4700 light years away) we can study Cygnus OB2 in detail, comparing model predictions about the formation of such massive stars with actual observations. These studies might help us understand how such stars are born not only in our galaxy but also in more distant galaxies. But that mass of data can overwhelm our understanding. It’s impossible for any one astronomer to keep track of all the latest developments. And so in May, 2013, we held a workshop at the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo where two dozen scientists could compare notes about this star formation region. “This is a meeting of the blind … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, History | Tagged history of astronomy, Stars, stellar populations | Leave a reply
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Recent Posts

Specola Guestbook | December 26, 1934: Giuseppe Bugatto

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on March 7, 2021 by Robert MackeFebruary 1, 2021
This entry is part 84 of 84 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 December 26, 1934, when Giuseppe Bugatto made a visit. Next to his … Continue reading…

Posted in History | Tagged Bugatto, L'Osservatore Romano, Specola Guestbook, Vatican Observatory | Leave a reply

Misinformative Books from Surprising Places

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on March 6, 2021 by Christopher M. GraneyFebruary 22, 2021

Misinformation.  It is a big topic these days, and a big problem.  And when the topic is astronomy and the Copernican Revolution, misinformation abounds, even in the relatively durable, more controlled medium of books.  “Caveat lector!” applies to this topic—“Let the reader beware!” Two recently-published books are especially disappointing in … Continue reading…

Posted in Astronomy, History | 3 Replies

Solar Sketching in h-alpha – Prominences dancing on the limb

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on March 5, 2021 by Deirdre KelleghanMarch 5, 2021

                                Astronomical Sketching Astronomical sketching is not just about drawing pictures. It is about learning. This kind of sketching is about observing the subject very closely at the far end of your telescope. Sketching at … Continue reading…

Posted in Astronomy, Education | Tagged animation, Filaments, gifs, h-alpha, Movement, Proms, PST, Solar Sketching | Leave a reply

Finding the Unexpected

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on March 4, 2021 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoMarch 4, 2021
This entry is part 61 of 61 in the series And Then I Wrote

And then I wrote… in 2014, the magazine US Catholic solicited a couple of articles about science fiction from me. One of them ran in 2014 under the title “Get Lost In Space” and the other they included only on their web site. I reprint both of them here… along … Continue reading…

Posted in And Then I Wrote, Popular Culture | Tagged Science fiction | Leave a reply

From the V.O. Faith and Science Pages: The Road of Science and the Ways to God

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on March 3, 2021 by Faith and ScienceJanuary 29, 2021

Today’s featured entry from the Vatican Observatory Faith and Science pages: “The Road of Science and the Ways to God” (click here for it) A book by Stanley L. Jaki: “Originally presented as the Gifford Lectures for 1975 and 1976 at the University of Edinburgh, this challenging work illuminates the … Continue reading…

Posted in From the V.O. Faith and Science Pages | Leave a reply

In the Sky this Week – March 2, 2021

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on March 2, 2021 by Bob TrembleyMarch 2, 2021
This entry is part 185 of 185 in the series In the Sky This Week

This week, the Moon appears in the predawn sky, Mars is in a close conjunction with the Pleiades star cluster, and the planets Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn appear low above the horizon before dawn; Mercury and Jupiter appear in a very close conjunction – less than 1 degree apart, as they swap positions over the course of several days.

Continue reading...
Posted in Astronomy, Outreach | Tagged Conjunction, Eagle Nebula, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Moon, Pleiades, Saturn, Sun, The Pillars of Creation | Leave a reply
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Recent Comments

  • Christopher M. Graney March 6, 2021 at 3:42 pm on Misinformative Books from Surprising PlacesThanks, Joel. And Ed, what is the source that said Galileo confirmed Copernicus? Can you give a link?
  • Joel Hopko March 6, 2021 at 11:54 am on Misinformative Books from Surprising PlacesProfessor Graney -- Ironic but perhaps understandable that the painstaking technical work of centuries should be reduced to a melodramatic contest of intrenched religious bigots bent on obscuring the truth versus "enlightened" clear seeing individuals heroically battling the establishment. After all, melodrama consistent outsells even the best technical literature. Still...
  • Ed Yepez March 6, 2021 at 7:45 am on Misinformative Books from Surprising PlacesA quick "google" come up with Galileo confirming Copernicus. If I understand correctly, they made observations that ageeed with heliocentrism, but "Confirmation" came later (Newton?)
  • Fr. James Kurzynski March 2, 2021 at 8:20 pm on Georges Lemaitre – Father of the “Big Bang”You're very welcome Fr. Madley! Thank you!
  • Fr. Jeffrey Madley March 2, 2021 at 11:57 am on Georges Lemaitre – Father of the “Big Bang”Excellent article about Msgr. Lemaitre, Fr. Jim. Nice to know people in the Church have contributed to science.
  • Fr. Bruce Wilkinson February 23, 2021 at 4:05 pm on In the Sky This Week – February 23, 2021I completely agree with you that putting cameras on EVERY space mission - without question and without fail. The ability to see the accomplishments of the various robotic missions have inspired future generations to want to become part of the space exploration crowd
  • Ed Yepez February 20, 2021 at 7:51 am on The Sun Rules!Excellent! Thank you very much for presenting this in such an understandable form. Also let me appreciate the math.(a lot of which I had forgotten) With Kepler, how you can make the correct observations, yet still come to an erroneous conclusion? But the observations remain correct, even useful for further...
  • Bob Trembley February 19, 2021 at 5:16 am on In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021I joined a NASA Night Sky Network Zoom Watch Party - it was pretty cool! When I joined, an engineer was talking about his work on the helicopter - those wings are HUGE! I watched the the landing with my in-laws; it was cool to see the same image up...
  • Richard Hill February 19, 2021 at 12:54 am on Skyward by David Levy: February 2021Very nice meteor photo! Reminds me of one Geminid I saw as I was walking to night lunch on Kitt Peak. It passed right through Orion. Burned a memory in my brain.
  • Benjamin Goodison February 18, 2021 at 5:26 pm on In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021... and three days later, Perseverance finally touched down successfully and is snapping its first images!I'm sure there were more than a few spontaneous prayers in the NASA control room in those last few minutes... there certainly were at my end :) Really looking forward to the wealth of new...
  • Bob Trembley February 16, 2021 at 8:31 am on In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021Oh my goodness! Thank you SO MUCH for the kind replies!
  • Joseph O'Donnell February 16, 2021 at 8:00 am on In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021Thank you for this. Always so helpful and enlightening.
  • Stan Sienkiewicz February 16, 2021 at 7:47 am on In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021Bob, another great post. Wonderful way to start the day. Thanks for putting in the time to create these posts. Educational, beautiful, and awe inspiring. I really appreciate seeing these each week. Thank you, Stan
  • Fr. James Kurzynski February 12, 2021 at 10:40 pm on Space Exploration As An Act Of Interfaith Dialogue.Thanks Joel! I greatly appreciate your insight and encouragement!
  • Fr. James Kurzynski February 10, 2021 at 10:46 am on Polar Vortex, Snowy Owls, Puffins, and Answering the Question: Fr. James, If Global Warming Is Real, Why Am I So Cold?Thanks for you response! My apologies if it came across that Wisconsin was the southernmost Snowy Owls travel. That was not my intent. In my prep, I saw articles of sightings as south as Texas. The point being that some birds go south, others don't, and its a bit of...
  • Jim Cook February 10, 2021 at 8:05 am on Polar Vortex, Snowy Owls, Puffins, and Answering the Question: Fr. James, If Global Warming Is Real, Why Am I So Cold?Wisconsin is actually NOT very far south to find Snowy Owls in winter, as you can see from its eBird range map: https://ebird.org/science/status-and-trends/snoowl1/range-map I've subscribed to eBird's Snowy Owl reports list for almost 10 years now and while some years have seen more reports of sightings than others, they typically...
  • Fr. Timothy Sauppé February 8, 2021 at 8:38 am on A telescope made by an Angel…Br. Guy: This would make a great beginning to your opening address to the Solar Eclipse Retreat in 2024 for Bishops/Priests. I am going to save this. Fr. Timothy Sauppé
  • Richard Saam February 7, 2021 at 10:20 am on JWST update – Hexagons in SpaceI want to make an additional point on hexagons: In the realm of crystallography as described in solid state physics, there is an equivalence between real(energy) and reciprocal(momentum) hexagonal space. This was mathematically presented in Charles Kittel's (recently deceased) text "Introduction to Solid State Physics". And then something to ponder:...
  • Joel Hopko February 1, 2021 at 11:23 am on Space Exploration As An Act Of Interfaith Dialogue.Fr. Kurzynski -- I too was very moved by the Emirates and the other national efforts (Japanese, Indian etc.) Like you I found in them an expression of the human spirit and even the religious wellsprings that can inspire us toward a shared destiny beyond our fear and confusion. Thanks...
  • Richard Saam February 1, 2021 at 10:33 am on JWST update – Hexagons in SpaceAdding to Fernando's comments 'hexagons are pretty much everywhere in the universe': It can be argued that universal space time can be expressed as oscillating virtual hexagonal (~50 cm, ~8 hr) lattice units conforming to the conservation of energy and momentum and the universe vacuum energy density. There is some...

Top Posts

  • Misinformative Books from Surprising Places
    Misinformative Books from Surprising Places
  • Looking for Wormwood
    Looking for Wormwood
  • Biblical Signs in the Sky? September 23, 2017
    Biblical Signs in the Sky? September 23, 2017
  • Specola Guestbook | December 26, 1934: Giuseppe Bugatto
    Specola Guestbook | December 26, 1934: Giuseppe Bugatto
  • Finding the Unexpected
    Finding the Unexpected
  • Solar Sketching in h-alpha - Prominences dancing on the limb
    Solar Sketching in h-alpha - Prominences dancing on the limb
  • Hunting for Saffordites East of Mt. Graham and the Vatican Telescope. pt. 2
    Hunting for Saffordites East of Mt. Graham and the Vatican Telescope. pt. 2
  • In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021
    In the Sky This Week – February 16, 2021
  • A Serious Sirius Business
    A Serious Sirius Business
  • In the Sky This Week – September 22, 2020
    In the Sky This Week – September 22, 2020

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