HYBRID – General Meeting – January 2025

Presentation:  The Vatican Observatory in Arizona

This talk’s title may seem an odd juxtaposition of words, until Father Christopher Corbally runs through the 440-year history of the Vatican Observatory. Learn about the Papacy’s long-standing interest and support for astronomical research, including Pope Leo XIII ‘s 1891 formal refounding of an earlier papal observatory into The Vatican Observatory in Vatican City. In 1935, with urban growth brightening Rome’s sky too much, the Observatory was officially moved to the Papal Summer Residence at Castel Gandolfo, southeast of Rome. But Rome’s population kept growing, making the skies above the Observatory still too bright. In 1981, the Observatory founded the Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG) in Tucson. Father Corbally will discuss how VORG has grown, including its construction in collaboration with Steward Observatory of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) on Mt. Graham, AZ. The VATT, now 31 years old, recently became robotic. Father Corbally will explore the new era of observations this update can bring.

Bio: Father Christopher Corbally is a Jesuit priest and research astronomer. Born near London, England, he entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1963, and holds degrees in philosophy (Licentiate 1968, Heythrop College, a Pontifical Academy in England), physics (B.Sc. 1971, U of Bristol, England), astronomy (M.Sc. 1972, U of Sussex), and theology (B.A. 1976, Heythrop College, London Univ., with a Pastoral Diploma in 1977). In 1983, he obtained a PhD in astronomy at the University of Toronto (Canada). Since then, Father Corbally has been based at the Vatican Observatory Research Group, UA, where he was its Vice Director until 2012. His primary interest is probing the personalities of stars via their spectra, and with an anthropologist-biologist colleague, investigating the challenges to humans of traveling and living in space.

Caption: Father Corbally at Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT)
Credit: Vatican Observatory