Meta - Sacred Space Astronomy

ⓜ Diary of April 2, 2019

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoApril 1, 2019

This entry is part 39 of 40 in the series Diary

I really wanted to post more often here, but life got in the way… Some Stats: Here’s our latest monthly summary of statistics. As of this writing we have 8,405 people signed up to get notifications of these posts either via Twitter, Facebook, or directly asking for email updates here. As of a bit later in the month, last month, we had 8,336. And back then we had 120 paying members; we’ve added two more, and it nows stands at 122. Thanks, and welcome! If we could double the size of the readership, would we double the number of supporters? It’s probably not that simple… but it would certainly help. And what’s new: My travels first brought me to Rome for a month, where I immediately got on a train to a little village of Sarno, in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius, where I got an award and gave a talk supporting the Specola’s work in Faith and Science. I … Continue reading →

ⓜ Diary for February 11, 2019

Posted on February 11, 2019 by Br. Guy ConsolmagnoFebruary 11, 2019

This entry is part 36 of 40 in the series Diary

(ⓜ = members only!) This week… a trip to Boston, with my immediate schedule, and a sneak peek of a coming big deal, for members only… I am on the train from Boston to Philadelphia as I write this. On Monday afternoon I am speaking at Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall, University of Pennsylvania (free admission but register online), then Tuesday I head back to Boston for talks at Harvard on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday finds me at the great Boston science fiction convention, Boskone: My Schedule for Boskone 56: My Favorite World 15 Feb 2019, Friday 18:00 – 18:50, Burroughs (Westin) What fictional (or nonfictional) world would you most like to visit? Or inhabit? What makes it particularly attractive to you? Our panelists join in a lively, fun discussion of what it takes to become a preferred planet — and whether or not we need an escape plan to get back. Why do/don’t all our choices measure up? … Continue reading →

Christopher M. Graney April 24, 2019 at 9:28 am on Welcome to Sacred Space Astronomy!In fact, it's even more of a pun than the original, in my opinion.
Christopher M. Graney April 24, 2019 at 9:28 am on Welcome to Sacred Space Astronomy!Yes, isn't it, though? Br. Guy just cannot stop himself. :)
Joseph Listerman April 22, 2019 at 7:05 am on Welcome to Sacred Space Astronomy!The important part being, the title is still a pun.
Fernando Comeron April 17, 2019 at 9:03 am on In the Sky This Week – April 16, 2019If you look carefully at the LASCO C2 movie in the Sun section, you can see that a small comet in a Sun-grazing orbit appears from the bottom left corner on April 14 between 14:00 and 17:00 approximately, and then disintegrates before reaching the Sun. Such events are seen fairly...
Bob Prokop April 17, 2019 at 8:44 am on Skyward: April 2019Umm... typo. That should have read, "that we handed back and forth."
Bob Prokop April 17, 2019 at 8:42 am on Skyward: April 2019Why are so few young people getting interested in astronomy nowadays? I can answer that question in 2 words: Light Pollution. It's hard to spark an interest in the stars when you can't see them. I grew up in the 1950s and 60s, and can remember lying out with my...
Fernando Comeron April 10, 2019 at 6:57 pm on Black Hole Imaged with Coordinated Telescope ObservationsBob, it is worth mentioning here that there is a connection between this achievement, which is a truly global endeavor in which European institutions and facilities also have played a leading role, and the Vatican Observatory. The Chairperson of the EHT Science Council is German astronomer Heino Falcke, who was...
Christopher M. Graney April 6, 2019 at 12:11 pm on Adventures in EPO – Tucson Festival of BooksWhat a cool post! This looks like it was a great event and a lot of fun.
Bob Prokop April 5, 2019 at 11:55 am on And On The Seventh Day: Astronomy and Sabbath Rest.I've removed the "presumably".
Fr. James Kurzynski April 5, 2019 at 10:49 am on And On The Seventh Day: Astronomy and Sabbath Rest.Thanks Bob! And, yes, I did take the picture!
Bob Prokop April 3, 2019 at 5:57 pm on And On The Seventh Day: Astronomy and Sabbath Rest.Fr. Kurzynski, I've linked to this posting on my own blog, The Observer's Chair, and added a few reflections of my own on the subject. You can find it here: https://theobserverschair.blogspot.com/
Fr. James Kurzynski March 25, 2019 at 2:39 pm on What Does It Mean To Create?I know the feeling Bob! Thanks for your feedback!
Bob Prokop March 25, 2019 at 11:09 am on What Does It Mean To Create?I took up watercolor painting about a year ago, and do feel that sense of joy when what I manage to put to paper matches what I actually wanted to go there (a feeling experienced not often enough, by the way). But what brings me to (yeah, I'll call it...
Robert Macke March 25, 2019 at 9:59 am on Religious Scientists: Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J. (1818-1878), Pioneer of AstrophysicsAlas, the Pontifical Navy is no more. It was a feature of the old Papal States, before Italian unification. Today the Vatican is entirely land-locked. The last vessel of the Pontifical Navy (which was, in fact, the Immacolata Concezione) was sold ca. 1877 or 78.
Richard Saam March 25, 2019 at 7:55 am on Religious Scientists: Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J. (1818-1878), Pioneer of AstrophysicsThe Stanford Environmental Engineering Curriculum introduced me to the Secchi disc 45 years ago. I had the opportunity to write a paper on its visual water depth variation as a function of the sun's height in the sky. No one mentioned Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J. as the inventor. I should...
Joseph Listerman March 19, 2019 at 11:46 am on In the Sky This Week – March 19, 2019Just watched NASA's #Moon2Mars Update. Excited that America and Americans seem to be more interested in space and space exploration than they've been in a long time.
Steven Lanoux March 12, 2019 at 1:30 pm on Religious Scientists – An IntroductionAs Assistant Director of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, I had the pleasure of mentoring my counterpart at McDonald Observatory. In comparing notes, we estimated that regardless of whether we had our heads underwater or in the clouds, we "knew" about 10% of the total body of knowledge....
Bob Prokop March 9, 2019 at 6:31 am on Ladyzhenskaya’s IconThe Orthodox faith was never far from the hearts of the Russian people, despite decades of Communist propaganda and very real persecution. I first realized this way back in 1982, watching the funeral of Leonid Brezhnev on television. As they lowered his coffin into a grave next to the Kremlin...
Br. Guy Consolmagno March 8, 2019 at 9:31 am on In the Sky This Week – March 5, 2019Great observing trick, nudging the telescope by accident! I have to confess that even though Turn Left at Orion talks about the Rosette as doable in a small telescope, the only time I saw it in my C-90 (three-inch) was from a dark site in Australia, using a nebula filter....
Bob Prokop March 5, 2019 at 2:22 pm on In the Sky This Week – March 5, 2019The Rosette Nebula had long been my "White Whale" amongst observing targets. I can't count the times I had centered my field of view on NGC 2244 (the open cluster at the center of the Rosette) and saw not the faintest hint of the nebula. But one night, I accidentally...

Sacred Space Astronomy

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ⓜ Diary of April 2, 2019

ⓜ Diary for February 11, 2019

In the Sky This Week – April 23, 2019

Welcome to Sacred Space Astronomy!

Growing Suspect of Religion, not Science

Drawing Active Region 2738

Across the Universe: The Exploding Centaur

Skyward: April 2019