02-28-2017, 02:38 AM
she was asked about the impact of the TMT on Mauna Kea she responded to the questioner with her own series of questions including, and I paraphrase, would the Catholic Church have a telescope in the Vatican? The questioner agreed that most likely that would not be the case, auntie.
Oh the irony!
I assumed the observatory at the Vatican is common knowledge, I guess not. It's over 125 years old and held in high esteem by the church. It's still active and holds workshops on science all the time. http://www.vaticanobservatory.va/content...na/en.html
As light pollution eventually made it hard to study fainter objects they opened the VATT in 1993 http://www.vaticanobservatory.va/content.../vatt.html which TomK mentions: "The Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG) operates the 1.8m Alice P. Lennon Telescope with its Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility, known together as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) in southeastern Arizona where sky conditions are among the best in the world and certainly the Continental United States."
Fewer people probably know the idea of the Big Bang came from a Catholic priest, Georges Lemaitre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre
As Richard Ha has often said on his blog (I'm paraphrasing): We can either be leaders in science or be left behind.
Oh the irony!
I assumed the observatory at the Vatican is common knowledge, I guess not. It's over 125 years old and held in high esteem by the church. It's still active and holds workshops on science all the time. http://www.vaticanobservatory.va/content...na/en.html
As light pollution eventually made it hard to study fainter objects they opened the VATT in 1993 http://www.vaticanobservatory.va/content.../vatt.html which TomK mentions: "The Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG) operates the 1.8m Alice P. Lennon Telescope with its Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility, known together as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) in southeastern Arizona where sky conditions are among the best in the world and certainly the Continental United States."
quote:(emphasis added is mine)
In its historical roots and traditions the Vatican Observatory is one of the oldest astronomical institutes in the world. For the first foreshadowing of the Observatory can be traced to the constitution by Pope Gregory XIII of a committee to study the scientific data and implications involved in the reform of the calendar which occurred in 1582. The committee included Father Christoph Clavius, a Jesuit mathematician from the Roman College, who expounded and explained the reform. From that time and with some degree of continuity the Papacy has manifested an interest in and support for astronomical research. In fact, three early observatories were founded by the Papacy: the Observatory of the Roman College (1774-1878) (illustrated), the Observatory of the Capitol (1827-1870), and the Specula Vaticana (1789-1821) in the Tower of the Winds within the Vatican. These early traditions of the Observatory reached their climax in the mid-nineteenth century with the researches at the Roman College of the famous Jesuit, Father Angelo Secchi, the first to classify stars according to their spectra. With these rich traditions as a basis and in order to counteract the longstanding accusations of a hostility of the Church towards science, Pope Leo XIII in 1891 formally re-founded the Specola Vaticana (Vatican Observatory) and located it on a hillside behind the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.
Fewer people probably know the idea of the Big Bang came from a Catholic priest, Georges Lemaitre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre
As Richard Ha has often said on his blog (I'm paraphrasing): We can either be leaders in science or be left behind.