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The Vatican Observatory (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1901)

Article (encyclopedia entry) 2 pages Level: all audiences The entry for the Vatican Observatory in the 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia. The entry was written by J. G. Hagen, S. J., director of the Observatory at that time. From the article: The Vatican Observatory now bears the official title, “Specola Astronomica Vaticana”. To understand its history it is necessary to remark that the designations osservatorio or specola are not restricted to astronomy, but may mean any elevated locality from which aerial phenomena are observed. From this point of view the history of the Specola Vaticana has passed through four successive stages…. Click here to access this article via Google Books. … Continue reading →

The Vatican Observatory (Popular Astronomy, 1903)

Article 5 pages Level: all audiences This 1903 article in the magazine Popular Astronomy describes the Vatican Observatory after it had been re-established by Pope Leo XIII. Some photos are included in the article. The author, W. Alfred Parr, writes: When towards the middle of the ninth century Pope Leo IV sought to stem the further ravages of the Saracen hordes by strengthening the defences of Rome and enclosing the Vatican hill with massive turreted walls, he could little imagine that these same walls, designed so well to bear the engines of war that were to dominate the country round, would, more than a thousand years later, be required by a successor and namesake to harbor a weapon of science of a potency little dreamt of in those days—a weapon whose range of power should penetrate to the confines of the unknown itself. For, after the conclusion of the International Photographic Conference on the charting of the heavens, held in Paris … Continue reading →

Science and Religion Advance Together at Pontifical Academy

Article 3 pages Level: all audiences This 2001 article written by Charles Seife for the journal Science discusses the Pontifical Academy of Science, with a side-bar article on the Vatican Observatory. Seife writes: Since its founding, the Pontifical Academy has numbered among its members such scientific luminaries as Alexander Fleming, Niels Bohr, Chandrasekhara Raman, and Werner Heisenberg (elected in 1955)…. Candidates are nominated and elected by the members, although technically they are appointed by sovereign act of the pontiff—who looks for more than mere scientific eminence. The institution’s charter specifies that members must possess “acknowledged moral personality.”… Once on board, members share a simple set of duties: to meet and talk. Members say they choose their own speakers and topics and debate issues freely. “The Catholic Church is supporting this academy,” says Crodowaldo Pavan, a geneticist at the University of Sao Paulo and a member of the academy. “They pay for this meeting and don’t say what we should say—they give us … Continue reading →

Progress on Mount Graham

Article 150 words Level: all audiences Below is the text of a “News Notes” article from Sky & Telescope Magazine, March 1994, announcing the dedication of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, or VATT: Click here to access this article via Ebscohost (available in many libraries). Click here to access this article via Archive.org. Progress on Mount Graham Two pacesetting telescopes were dedicated last September 18th at the University of Arizona’s Mount Graham International Observatory. One is the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT), a cooperative project with Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy; the other is the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT). Both are presently undergoing final alignment and calibration and will begin science programs this year. After years of contentious debate and judicial wrangling, the opening of these instruments is welcome news for university astronomers who had to overcome objections from such diverse groups as the Sierra Club, Native Americans, and government agencies. Mount Graham had been selected in the early … Continue reading →

Deep-dish astronomy: First light for VATT

Article 150 words Level: all audiences Below is the text of a “News Notes” article from Sky & Telescope Magazine, July 1995, announcing the first use of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, or VATT: Click here to access this article via Ebscohost (available in many libraries). Click here to access this article via Archive.org. Deep-dish astronomy: First light for VATT Observing is now under way at the new Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona. At the end of January, Richard P. Boyle, S.J. (Vatican Observatory) and Austin B. Tomaney (Columbia University) took the first visible-light images with the 1.8-meter Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT). First among the $3-million instrument’s noteworthy attributes is its deep, “salad-bowl” f/1.0 primary mirror (S&T: March 1994, page 12). It was one of the first to be formed by spin-casting techniques developed at the University of Arizona. Such a fast primary requires the secondary to be positioned with micron precision to achieve proper focus. These inaugural images of the Crab Nebula in Taurus … Continue reading →

Vatican space explorations

Article 1600 words Level: all audiences A general overview of questions pertaining to space and the Vatican, from Our Sunday Visitor Newsweekly, 2009. Vatican space explorations Study of astronomy reminds us of the beauty of the universe — and its Creator OSV Newsweekly Why does the starlit sky hold such a profound fascination for us? Perhaps because it is there that we encounter, commingled, the mystery of light and darkness — two primal experiences connected with the beginning and end of human life. Perhaps it comes from seeing the order, both overt and occult, in the movements of the celestial spheres, with which we sense ourselves secretly involved. Perhaps it is because we feel so small before the starry universe: like a straw tossed into the ‘great sea of being,’ we feel ourselves confronted with destiny…” So begins Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo in his introduction to the new book “The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican” (Our Sunday Visitor, $39.95), which celebrates the … Continue reading →

Sneaking a visit inside the Vatican Observatory

Article 460 words Level: all audiences This brief 2009 article, written by John Norton and published in Our Sunday Visitor Newsweekly, provides a short introduction to the Vatican Observatory. Sneaking a visit inside the Vatican Observatory The Church played a significant role in the advance of astronomy. John Norton OSV Newsweekly I spent Christmas 1989 with two college friends in Castel Gandolfo, a small town outside Rome best known as the site of the pope’s summer residence — and, less so, as the headquarters of the Vatican Observatory. We ended up there because a friend knew a family named the Buccis who owned a small and very inexpensive hotel in Castel Gandolfo. So there we set up camp for two weeks, making daily forays by train into Rome, and drawn back each night by Mama Bucci’s cooking. Twenty years on, I still get hungry at the thought of her white lasagna. Another regular mouth at Mama Bucci’s table belonged to … Continue reading →

Preserving and sharing the wealth of the Vatican Observatory

Article 2 pages Level: all audiences This article by Fr. Alessandro Omizzolo, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, describes efforts to preserve the photographic archives of the Vatican Observatory. The article appeared in The Planetarian in December 2015. Omizzolo writes: The photographic plates, over time, are subject to deterioration and, in some cases, the posting from sensitive layer of glass jelly with consequent loss without possibility of recovery of any information. For this reason, in 2003 the Vatican Observatory decided to preserve the photographic archive by digitizing it…. In addition to preserving the heritage they contain, scientific goals can be reached thanks to digitalization, including: the study/discovery of previous transits of near-Earth objects, stars with high proper motion, spectral classification on large fields, curves of variability of quasars or variable stars, and more. The only way to preserve information stored in photographic plates and make it available to the international scientific community is to digitalize it and store the … Continue reading →

The Outreach Programme for Science and Education at the Jesuit Colleges of Tamil Nadu in India

Article 8 pages Level: high school and above This article by M. Devasagayam, S. J., of the Department of Mathematics at St. Xavier’s College in India, highlights a variety of science education activities. It was published in International Symposium on Astrophysics Research and Science Education, published in 1999 by the Vatican Observatory. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS. … Continue reading →

Dark Matter, Johannes Kepler, and What We Know

Video 11 minutes Level: all audiences In this video from the Vatican Observatory Foundation Dr. Brenda Frye (University of Arizona) talks with Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J. (Director of the Vatican Observatory) about Dark Matter. Dr. Frye connects the idea of Dark Matter all the way back to Johannes Kepler’s theory of orbits in the solar system. Questions arise: do we actually know less now than we once did, and how fast will we progress in our knowledge of the universe? … Continue reading →

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