A day at the Vatican Observatory

I am at the Vatican Observatory — the Specola Vaticana — for another week, and here is a taste of a day at the Specola in photos.


8 am

A view out the edgy apartment I stayed in for
the first two days in Albano.

It's a cup of tea and a chance to check my email in the apartment I'm staying in at Albano Laziale, a small town about an hour outside Rome where the Specola has been since 1930 (having moved out from their quarters in Vatican City in Rome).

The entrance to the Specola

9 am
I've left Italy to go to work in another country, no passport control needed, I just opened the door with a key and walked in.  The Specola is housed in the Papal Gardens in Castelgandolfo, where Popes John Paul II and Benedict spent the summers (and I understand why - it's decidedly cooler here than in  Rome).  An "extraterritorial" part of Vatican City State's, the gardens cover more area than the Holy See in Rome.

10 am coffee and conversation is sacrosanct

10 am
Cappuccino!  The astronomers meet for coffee and conversation in a sunny room off the courtyard. Alessandro Omizzolo (a specialist in galaxies and a priest of the diocese of Padua) is the barista.  Paul Mueller, SJ, the superior of the Jesuit community here and a philosopher of science is headed out the door, while curator of meteorites, Bob Macke SJ points out the science humor on the bulletin board (in both English and Italian) and Gina Savinetti (who cooks for the Specola) stirs her cappuccino.

Bonus - Guy Consolmagno, SJ, who directs the Observatory returns from a month-long sojourn in the US.  Last stop was Philly!

View into my office from the Specola library

11 am
Working in my office under the eaves, the view is over the courtyard, the library right outside the door.  It looks nothing at all like what Dan Brown described in The DaVinci code, despite the bearded Jesuit brother who directs the Observatory working downstairs.  You know you are at home when the network recognizes your laptop as soon as you lift the lid!  It's a great spot to work, quiet, light filled and in the heat of last week, delightfully cool.

George Lemaître's signature in the guest book.

Noon
There are historic photos and artifacts dotted around the building, every visit I find something I haven't seen before.  Fr. George Lemaître, who put forward what has become known as the Big Bang theory was a visitor here, as you can see from his signature in the guest book (it's directly above Martin Schwarzchild's).

Pranzo with the Jesuit community.

Meanwhile, I am finally catching up on work email, clearing out the backlog from the vacation I took right before heading to Rome, the travel (from Cape Breton to Rome in 48 hours) and a couple of days of work in Rome proper.








1 pm
Pranzo!  Lunch with the Jesuit community.  The other two guests at lunch are here from the Deutches Museum to tend the Specola's historical clocks.  The treats Alessandro is holding were baked by the guests. After lunch, we headed up to the "alta" for coffee and conversation(or grappa, or for those of us still struggling with jet lag, Coke Zero)



4 pm
Bob Macke consulted with me and my students last spring as we worked to set up an apparatus similar to his to measure the heat capacities of meteorites.  We had trouble with atmospheric water condensing into our liquid nitrogen (which messed with the mass measurements we were tracking). Bob has a useful bit to add to our set-up:  a pasta storage container to enclose the dewar.

Bob Macke SJ with some scientific
equipment!

The scientific group working at the Specola is a diverse one, including the Jesuit staff, other astronomers and technical staff and a dozen adjunct scholars like myself, and sloshes from one side of the Atlantic to the other (between the VATT on Mt. Graham in Arizona and the Specola outside Rome). To help everyone get to know each other, Bob Macke is filming short interviews with each person that can be shared internally. It's been great to find out what other people are doing on the research front, and how they found themselves working here.  Bob recorded my interview this afternoon.

Afterwards, I dug into working on the proofs for a manuscript.  I have an inordinate attachment to commas, which Crash has been kind enough to point out to me.  So most of the work on this paper has been pulling out comma after comma, which really does make it read more smoothly.

7 pm
One of the graces of the Specola that I particularly appreciate is the small chapel upstairs, and daily Mass, whether in Italian (that's the language of the house) or in English, or sometimes a mix of both.

Giuseppe Koch, SJ (the Specola librarian) presided tonight.  The opening line for his homily was, "Io sono Giuseppe!" true and from today's readings about Giuseppe and his fratelli (Joseph and his brothers).  I'm glad of the small Italian missals which let me blunder my way through the responses.

8 pm

Gelato!  Along with the pane quotidiano, one of the best parts of my daily routine here.  Today Alessandro treated Guy to gelato on his return (along with me and Bob).  I have limone e frutti di bosco in hand, that's Bob's cone in front, with Oreo gelato. Who knew?

Curious about the work of the Observatory?  You can read more about it at the Catholic Astronomer blog, or ask me in the comments and I'll do my best to answer.