From Clavius and Secchi to the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, moments of the Specola Vatican

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From Clavius and Secchi to the Vatican Advanced
Technology Telescope, moments of the Specola
Vaticana

• José G. Funes, S.J.
• Vatican Observatory

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International Center for Relativistic
Astrophysics Network

• The Vatican Observatory is member of ICRA since
  1985 and ICRAnet from 2003.

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Collegio Romano(Pontifical Gregorian University)
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Christopher Clavius, S.J. (1538-1612)
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Angelo Secchi, S.J. (1818-1878)
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Specola Vaticana
www.vaticanobservatory.org
Castel Gandolfo (Italy)
Tucson, AZ (USA)
Mt. Graham, AZ (USA)
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Zeiss Visual Refractor 1935
Cart du Ciel 1891 (1942)
Zeiss Double Astrograph 1935
Schmidt 1957
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A Brief History of theVatican Advanced
Technology Telescope (VATT)
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Brief Chronology

• 1980 - Vatican Observatory Research Group
  established in Tucson
• 1985 Memo of Understanding with Steward
  Observatory to construct the VATT
• 1993 - Inauguration of the VATT

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Arizona SW USA
Vatican_and_Astronomy
Vatican_and_Astronomy
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The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope Project
Spin-casting 1985
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VATT Project Construction on Mt Graham
Thumb Test
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VATT
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VATT
SMT
Mount Graham International Observatory
LBT
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LBT TELESCOPE 
Mirror Lab
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LBT2 to Mountaintop
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Research with the VATT
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VATTs Scientific Scope

• Solar System
• Kuiper Belt Objects
• Stellar and Galactic
• Clusters and Nearby Stars
• Extragalactic
• Disk Galaxies and Mergers
• Cosmology
• The Accelerating Universe

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Solar System Asteroids,Kuiper Belt Objects
(TNOs), Centaurs
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Centaur Observing, October 2008,in an Efficient
Environment
Steve Tegler Melissa Brucker Guy Consolmagno

• HP Collaboration
• New servers
• Modern processing power
• An upgraded network
• Large computer displays

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Stellar and Galactic Milky Way
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Stellar and Galactic M56
Richard Boyle
VATT image
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Extragalactic Mergers Revealed
Mkn 975
(a) DSS Image
(b) VATT R adaptive filtered image
Mkn 315
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GALEX 11HUGS

• 11 Mpc Ha Ultraviolet Galaxy Survey

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The Cosmic Star Formation History

• Is one of the primary goal of galaxy formation
  and evolution studies.

(Hu Cowie 2006)
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• Dwarf galaxies spanning a range of star formation
  activities
• DDO 210
• U685
• N2537
• Galaxies exhibiting varying levels of dust
  extinction
• N7090
• N891
• Cen A

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The Local Volume Legacy A Spitzer Legacy Program

• A survey of 258 galaxies within the 11 Mpc local
  volume.
• Goal is to study star formation and interaction
  with the interstellar medium investigating the
  spatially-resolved star formation, dust, and red
  stellar populations of local galaxies
• Multi-wavelength ancillary data H? and GALEX UV
  imaging, stellar population mapping with HST, HI
  mapping with the VLA and GMRT, and broad-band
  optical imaging and spectroscopy

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David Brown

• Synthesis of stellar populations to model the
  UV excess in giant elliptical galaxies.

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Cosmology

• SN at High Z program at VATT, Peter Garnavich
  (Notre Dame).
• Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker models
  (Stoeger).
• Quantum Gravity (Gionti).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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Interdisciplinary Studies Science Faith -
Philosophy
George Coyne
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Vatican Observatory Summer School
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The Vatican ObservatorySummer Schools (VOSS)

• 280 alumni plus faculty members
• 85 of the alumni are still
• active in research and/or teaching astrophysics

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VOSS 2010 The Chemistry of the Universe
(www.voss2010.va)30 May 25 June 2010

• TOPICS chemical evolution of galaxies and the
  intergalactic medium, galactic archaeology of the
  Milky Way and Local Group, cosmochronology, Big
  Bang nucleosynthesis, stellar populations,
  chemical coolants and star formation,
  nucleosynthesis and stellar furnaces, laboratory
  and atomic astrophysics, cosmic rays and
  high-energy physics, the extreme physics active
  galactic nuclei and quasars, molecular chemistry
  in the 21st century, planetary surfaces and
  atmospheres, comets and asteroids, dust physics.
• FACULTY Brad K. Gibson (Chair), University of
  Central Lancashire, United Kingdom Sofia Cora,
  Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina Sue
  Lederer, California State University, USA Susan
  Trammell, University of North Carolina,
  Charlotte, USA.