Tag Archives: sof-Secchi

Fr. Angelo Secchi, S.J. and the Voyage of the Immacolata Concezione

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Article 1300 words Level: all audiences This article from Br. Bob Macke, S. J. (an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory) is from the web page of the International Society of Limnology (SIL), the oldest and only international society devoted to the study of inland waters.  The SIL maintains a listing of Notable Limnologists, and Fr. Secchi is one of these, as well as being an astronomer. This article focuses on his work studying water while aboard the papal naval vessel Immacolata Concezione. Click here to access this article from SIL.     … Continue reading →

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

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Article (blog post) and video 1000 words (article)/17 minutes (video) Level: all audiences This short article, written by Br. Bob Macke, S. J. (an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory) and posted on the V.O.’s Sacred Space Astronomy/The Catholic Astronomer blog, provides an overview of the life and work of Fr. Angelo Secchi.  The video, produced by the V.O., features Macke, Br. Guy Consolmagno (Director of the V.O.), Dr. Ileana Chinnici of Palermo Observatory, and others—and some great footage of the areas in Rome where Secchi worked. Click here to access this article and video from Sacred Space Astronomy.     … Continue reading →

On Stellar Spectrometry

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Article 4 pages Level: high school and above This is an 1868 paper by Fr. Angelo Secchi, who conducted pioneering research into the nature of stars and whose work laid the foundations for the modern Vatican Observatory.  Here Fr. Secchi groups stars by the characteristics of their spectra, noting that stars seem to fall into a certain number of types.  He writes, “We have therefore, without doubt, in the heavens a grand fact, the fundamental distinction between the stars according to a small number of types; this opens a field for very many important cosmological speculations.”  He also notes that observing the spectra of stars can tell us something about their motions.  Indeed, studying the motions of stars by means of their spectra has yielded all sorts of information about them, including whether they have planets orbiting them. Fr. Secchi’s paper was published in the Report of the Thirty-Eighth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science [1868]. Click … Continue reading →

Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J., Jesuit Astrophysicist

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Video 17 minutes Level: all audiences Fr. Angelo Secchi, S.J., father of astrophysics, is one of the greatest astronomers you have never heard of. Discover why, and find out about his contributions to stellar spectroscopy, solar physics, terrestrial magnetism, meteorology, and oceanography. This video features contributions from Ileana Chinnici, Aldo Altamore, Fr. Matteo Galaverni, and Vatican Observatory Director Br. Guy Consolmagno.  It was produced by Br. Bob Macke, S.J. of the Vatican Observatory.     … Continue reading →

Astronomical Essays of Fr. G. V. Leahy: Cassini, Piazzi, Sechi, Denza, and Clerke

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Book (sections) 20 pages Level: all audiences This volume of astronomical essays has been compiled from a series of articles originally published in the Boston Pilot over the pen-name of Catholicus. The series is here presented connectedly at the request of the Most Reverend Archbishop of Boston, who has graciously written the author, “I highly commend your articles on astronomy for publication in book form.” So begins the Astronomical Essays, published in 1910, of Rev. George V. Leahy, S.T.L., who was professor of astronomy at St. John’s seminary in Brighton.  The Boston Pilot is a Catholic newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts.  Parts of Essays are as dated as one might expect for a science book from 1910, but Leahy’s discussions of various Catholic scientists are generally easy to read, interesting, and still relevant.  All of these sections are available courtesy of Google Books: Mr. D. Cassini and Saturn—click here to read Fr. Piazzi and the discovery of the first asteroid—click here to read Fr. … Continue reading →

Angelo Secchi, the Jesuit father of astrophysics

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Article 2000 words Level: all audiences An article about the 19th-century Jesuit astrophysicist Angelo Secchi, published in August 2018 in the magazine America: The Jesuit Review.  The author of the article is Adam Hincks, who is also an astrophysicist and a Jesuit.  Secchi was a pioneer in the use of spectroscopy to study the stars and planets.  Hincks writes: It is a mark of genius to come up with questions that are obvious in retrospect but that nobody had ever thought of asking before. The Jesuit astronomer Angelo Secchi (pronounced “sekki”), whose 200th anniversary of birth is being celebrated this year, had that talent. Before Secchi, astronomers were mainly interested in figuring out exactly where stars and planets were. This was important for navigation, and therefore commerce, and intricate mathematical systems were developed to track the motions of the heavens above in order to guide the motions of ships below. But Secchi asked a new question: What are stars and … Continue reading →

Father Secchi and the first Italian magnetic observatory

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Article 13 pages Level: university A well-illustrated article about the work of Angelo Secchi, S. J. in 19th-century Rome, published in History of Geo- and Space Sciences in 2012. The authors are N. Ptitsyna (Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation, Russian Academy of Science, St. Petersburg Filial, Russia) and A. Altamore (Physical Department “E. Amaldi”, University “Roma Tre”, Rome, Italy). Ptitsyna and Altamore write: The permanent observatories monitoring geomagnetic phenomena in the early decades of the 19th century have contributed greatly to our understanding of the dynamics of the Earth’s magnetic field. According to a guide on the organization of a geomagnetic observatory (Wienert, 1970): “The creation of a geomagnetic observatory is an ambitious enterprise which entails considerable financial commitments. Even more of a burden is the maintenance of the installation and the processing of data.” Seen in these terms, Father Secchi’s ambitious project was wholly successful. Secchi’s contributions to geomagnetism from the observational, theoretical, organizational and educational points … Continue reading →