Talk:Vatican Observatory

Italian
There are two different Italian names. Which is the good one? --84.20.17.84 09:00, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Missing text

 * The official astronomical observatory of the Vatican, in Italian Osservatorio Pontificio, Father Angelo Secchi relocated the observatory to the top of the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome.

Is some text missing? --84.20.17.84 09:01, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Oldest Observatory
I heard from a Jesuit who works there that it is the oldest continually operated observatory in the world. If that's true then it belongs in the article: can anyone else confirm that? Snowboardpunk (talk) 23:08, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

I work at the Observatory. We were re-founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 and have operated continuously since then. Prior to that, there was no Vatican Observatory (or Specola Vaticana if you prefer the Italian) for a period of about 20 years due to the Italian Unification which nationalized the instruments and observatories. One of the Jesuit astronomers, Angelo Seccchi was permitted by the new Italian government to continue working until his death [1878], but after that there was a break in Vatican sponsored astronomy (caused, in part, because all the instruments were "relocated" from the Roman College to the new Italian national observatory).

So, I guess the question becomes, is there any other observatory that's been in continuous operation since 1891? I think the answer is yes, there are. Harvard University's observatory, for example, seems to go back to the mid-1800's. I guess that means the Vatican Observatory is one of the oldest, but not necessarily the oldest continuously operating observatory.

Looking at the Vatican Observatory page, I think this part of the history needs a complete rewrite. For example, in one place implies that the institution of the Vatican Observatory became the Regio Osservatorio al Collegio Romano when it was really the instruments that were transferred. Likewise, 1930 wasn't the re-founding of the Vatican Observatory (which had been around for 40 years at that point), rather it was the time of the move from a site on the walls of the Vatican to Castel Gandolfo. Jonathan Stott 00:19, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Removed inline reference to VORG
It redirected to the Victorian Ornithological Research Group article.Wzrd1 (talk) 18:04, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
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