Tag Archives: Vatican Observatory

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

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This entry is part 9 of 9 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 →

Moon Rocks and Me

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When I was a graduate student at the University of Central Florida finishing up my dissertation on meteorite densities and porosities, one day my advisor Dan Britt called me into his office. He said, “I have a little side project for you.” He made me put on laboratory gloves and then handed me a rock. It was small, a few centimeters on each side, grey in color with a few lighter and darker inclusions. It didn’t look like most of the meteorites that I had worked with. “I want you to measure the density and porosity of that,” he told me. And then he told me what I held in my hand. “That is an Apollo moon rock.” He had been allocated five specimens from Apollo missions 12, 14, and 15, as the first part of a new study. Our collaborator in this research, Walter Kiefer from the Lunar and Planetary Institute, wanted to use data of lunar gravity anomalies … Continue reading →

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

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This entry is part 8 of 9 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: October 11, 1909 – Eduard Study

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This entry is part 7 of 9 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 October 11, 1909, when Eduard Study made a visit. Next to his name, Christian Hugo Eduard Study (1862-1930) wrote “Bonn a. Rh. Argelanderstr. 126” (Bonn am Rhein, Argelanderstraße 126).  He signed the guestbook again on April 10 of the following year. Eduard Study was a mathematician who made significant contributions in the field.  At the time of his visit, he was a professor of mathematics at the University of Bonn. His contributions include the associative algebra of dual quaternions, kinematics, hypercomplex numbers, and, pertaining to quantum chemistry, a theory governing the coupling of angular momenta (that also applied to electron spin couplings). At least two mathematical concepts bear his name: Study quaternions (aka semiquaternions) and the Fubini-Study metric.   … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: June 5, 1909 – George Ellery Hale

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This entry is part 6 of 9 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 9 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 9 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 →

Specola Guestbook: April 27, 1908 – Simon Newcomb

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This entry is part 3 of 9 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 27, 1908, when Simon Newcomb made a visit. Next to his name Simon Newcomb (1835-1909) wrote, “Professor U.S.N. [United States Navy], Washington D.C.”  He was an astronomer and mathematician who served as the director of the National Almanac Office and later as a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University and in the U.S. Navy. Among his astronomical contributions, he was primarily interested in celestial mechanics, planetary motion, and improving navigation.  He published a book on ephemerides, entitled Tables of the Sun, that became the official international standard basis for related astronomical constants.  He corrected a table of lunar positions by incorporating data going back to 1672. He also made a few other contributions. He collaborated with Albert Michelson … Continue reading →

IAU Executive Committee meets at Vatican Observatory

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Written by Fr. Peter Lah, SJ The International Astronomical Union (IAU) executive committee visited the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana) on May 15th, 2019. The 23-member group included the executive committee members (13), division presidents (8) and two general secretariat staff. They held three working sessions on the premises of the Specola, followed by the tour of the permament exhibition in the telescope domes of Villa Barberini. The visit concluded with a dinner where they and their spouses were greeted by members of the Jesuit community. On Monday, May 13, the IAU executive committee met at the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome. Fr. Paul Mueller, the vice director of the Specola, gave a talk on the history of Vatican Observatory’s relationship with the Union. The Accademia dei Lincei is the place of the first IAU General Assembly in 1922, during which meeting the participants also visited the Vatican Observatory in its location in Vatican City. The Eighth IAU General Assembly also … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: April 24, 1908 – Elis Stromgren

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This entry is part 2 of 9 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 24, 1908, when Elis Strömgren made a visit. Next to his name, Svante Elis Strömgren (1870-1947) wrote, “Professor an der Universität, Kopenhagen” (Professor at the University of Copenhagen). He was a noteworthy astronomer who in 1907 became director of the Observatory of Copenhagen.  His area of interest was primarily celestial mechanics, and he computed orbits for several comets.  The asteroid (1422) Stromgrenia is named for him. What makes him particularly notable, however, is not his own contribution but that of his children. Bengt Strömgren (1908-1987) made several significant advances in astrophysics, including the measurement of elemental composition of stars: 70% hydrogen, 27% helium, and the remaining 3% everything else.  I will write more about him in a future post, as he also … Continue reading →

Specola Guestbook: April 9 1907 – H. A. Lorentz

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This entry is part 1 of 9 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.  This is the first post in a new series that will highlight some of these notable visitors. Today’s guestbook entry is from April 9, 1907.  On that day, H. A. Lorentz signed the book. Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853-1928) was a Dutch physicist at the University of Leiden. In his inscription, he wrote “Hoogleeraar aan de Universiteit te Leiden” (Professor at the University of Leiden). He is notable for two significant contributions. (Well, he has a list of significant contributions and various things that bear his name, but two are most significant.) First, he developed a theory to explain the Zeeman effect; i.e. the splitting of spectral lines in the presence of a strong magnetic field.  The splitting is due to the effect of the magnetic field on … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J. (1818-1878), Pioneer of Astrophysics

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This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

(This is the first article in the column “Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church” which looks at the lives and contributions of prominent vowed religious scientists.) The year 2018 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Fr. Angelo Secchi SJ, and so there have already been several articles on Fr. Secchi in this blog.  An interested reader could review any of these articles: “Ghost of elements, spectres of the universe: Angelo Secchi SJ” by Michelle Francl, Aug 8, 2018. “Solar Prominences and a Prominent Jesuit Astronomer” by Robert Macke, Oct 23, 2018. “Happy Birthday to the Father of Astrophysics!” by Guy Consolmagno, June 28, 2018. And outside the blog, here’s another article I wrote about Secchi’s oceanographic studies: “Fr. Angelo Secchi, S.J. and the Voyage of the Immacolata Concezione” by Robert Macke, International Society of Limnology webpage For the YouTube generation, here is a video to watch: Why begin this series with a scientist for whom so much has already … Continue reading →