From Thursday, August 3, the Vatican Observatory, in collaboration with the Vatican Museums, will launch a series of guided tours. Among the rare treasures on display are samples of lunar rocks and meteorites, precious documents and artworks about the moon.
(Vatican News Network) From August 3, at the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, astronomy experts will lead visitors to explore moon rocks, meteorite samples, as well as precious documents and works of art on the subject. There are many photos and display panels on the walls of the observatory exhibition hall, showing the relationship between successive popes and the observatory. For example, one striking photo taken on July 20, 1969 shows Paul VI viewing the moon through a telescope hours before the Apollo 11 landing, while another shows the pope A message of blessing to astronauts. Another photo shows Pope Benedict XVI holding a handkerchief during his visit to a meteorite from Naikra, named after its discovery in Naikra, Egypt, in 1911, which is thought to have come from Mars.
History of the Vatican Observatory
The Vatican Observatory is a scientific research institution directly under the Holy See. Its origins can be traced back to the end of the 16th century. In 1578, Pope Gregory XIII invited Jesuit astronomers and mathematicians from the Roman College to prepare the calendar reform, which was subsequently promulgated in 1582. The observatory operated at the Vatican for more than 40 years, but in the early 1930s, with the addition of electric lights and the growth of the capital city, Rome’s skies became so bright that astronomers could not study the fainter stars. For this reason, Pius XI ordered the observatory to be moved to his summer residence at the Castle of Gandolph. In 1981, a second research center, the “Vatican Observatory Research Group”, was established in Tucson, Arizona, USA. In 1993, the Vatican Observatory, in partnership with the Steward Observatory, completed the state-of-the-art Vatican Telescope on Mount Graham, Arizona. Today, the Vatican Observatory cooperates with many international astronomical institutions, is a member of the International Astronomical Union and the International Network of Centers for Relativistic Astrophysics, and has been organizing the Astronomy Summer School in Castel Gandolfo since 1986.
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2023-07-28 09:00:24