Tag Archives: Specola Guestbook

Specola Guestbook: June 5, 1909

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This entry is part 6 of 7 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

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This entry is part 5 of 7 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

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This entry is part 4 of 7 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 →