Tag Archives: Specola Guestbook

Specola Guestbook: April 8, 1910 – Three Scots

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This entry is part 12 of 12 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 8, 1910, when three notable Dunediners–George Chrystal, P. Hume Brown, and John Sutherland Black–made a visit. Next to his name, George Chrystal FRSE, FRS (1851-1911) wrote “Prof. Math. Univ. Edinb.” (Professor of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh). He was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society. His work on seiches (standing waves in ponds and other enclosed bodies of water) earned him a posthumous Gold Medal from the Royal Society of London. He was a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh as well as the Royal Society of London. He is also known for having written several books on algebra. Next to his name, Peter Hume Brown FBA (1849-1918) wrote “Historiographer-Royal, Edinburgh.” He published a definitive three-volume history of … Continue reading →

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

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This entry is part 11 of 12 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 →

Specola Guestbook: April 1, 1910 – Henry Drinker

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This entry is part 10 of 12 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 1, 1910 (no foolin!), when Henry Drinker made a visit. Next to his name, Henry Sturgis Drinker (1850-1937) wrote “President of Lehigh University, South Bethlehem Pa.” Drinker was an engineer and a lawyer. He got a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Lehigh University in 1871. As an engineer, he is most noted for the construction in 1875 of the Musconetcong Tunnel, a railway tunnel in the mountains of New Jersey. After completing the project, he studied law at Lafayette College and became the solicitor general of the Lehigh Valley Railroad from 1885 until 1905, when he became president of Lehigh University. He was the fifth president of Lehigh University, and the only alumnus to hold that position.  During his tenure, he … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: February 15 and July 21, 1969 – Apollo related visits

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This entry is part 9 of 12 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, we take advantage of the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing to jump out of the usual sequence and go to 1969.  The first part of today’s guestbook entry is from February 15, 1969, when Frank Borman made a visit. Next to his name, Col. Frank Borman, USAF (1928–) wrote, “Houston, Texas”. He came with his wife Susan and his two sons, Edwin and Fred, who also signed the book. Frank was an astronaut with NASA. He was mission commander on the Gemini 7 mission. After the disaster of Apollo 1 that killed its crew, Borman’s testimony helped convince Congress to continue the Apollo program. On Christmas Eve of 1968, Col. Borman and his crewmates on Apollo 8, Jim Lovell and William Anders, became the first human … Continue reading →

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

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This entry is part 8 of 12 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 →

Specola Guestbook: June 5, 1909 – George Ellery Hale

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This entry is part 6 of 12 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 →

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

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This entry is part 5 of 12 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 →

Specola Guestbook: December 29, 1908 – Dorothea Klumpke

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This entry is part 4 of 12 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 29, 1908, when Dorothea Klumpke made a visit.Next to her name, Dorothea Klumpke Roberts (1861-1942) wrote, “(Mrs. Isaac Roberts) Villa Rosa Bonheur France By-Thomery S. et M. [Seine-et-marne]” In 1893, she was the first woman to receive a doctorate in the sciences from the Sorbonne. (Possibly the first woman ever to get a doctorate in the sciences [not including mathematics] but I am having some difficulty confirming that.) She was an astronomer at the Paris Observatory who became the Director of the Bureau of Measurements.  She was one of the key participants in the Carte-du-Ciel program.  Her research involved astrophotography, measuring star positions, stellar spectroscopy, meteoritical research, and eclipse expeditions. With her late husband Isaac Roberts (also a notable astronomer, who … Continue reading →