Vatican Observatory


The Vatican Observatory is an astronomical research and educational institution supported by the Holy See. Originally based in the Roman College of Rome, the Observatory is now headquartered in Castel Gandolfo, Italy and operates a telescope at the Mount Graham International Observatory in the United States.

History

The Church has had a long-standing interest in astronomy, due to the astronomical basis of the calendar by which holy days and Easter are determined. For instance, the Gregorian Calendar, promulgated in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, was developed by Aloysius Lilius and later modified by Christoph Clavius at the Collegio Romano from astronomical data. The Gregorian Tower was completed in 1580 for his purpose, designed by Bolognese architect Ottaviano Nonni.
In the 18th century, the Papacy actively supported astronomy, establishing the Observatory of the Roman College in 1774. In 1787–1789, the Specola Vaticana in the Tower of the Winds within the Vatican was established under the direction of Msgr. Filippo Luigi Gilii. When Msgr. Gilii died, the Specola was closed down because it was inconvenient for students in the city because the dome of St. Peter's obstructed its view. Its instruments were transferred to the College Observatory. A third facility, the Observatory of the Capitol, was operated from 1827 to 1870.
Father Angelo Secchi SJ relocated the College Observatory to the top of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio. In 1870, with the capture of Rome, the College Observatory fell into the hands of the Italian Government. Out of respect for his work, however, Father Secchi was permitted to continue using the Observatory. After Secchi's death in 1878 the Observatory was nationalized by the Italian government and renamed the Regio Osservatorio al Collegio Romano, ending astronomical research in the Vatican.
In 1891, however, Pope Leo XIII issued a Motu proprio re-founding the Specola Vaticana and a new observatory was built on the walls at the edge of the Vatican. The new Vatican Observatory remained there for the next forty years.
In the late nineteenth-century the Vatican Observatory was part of a group of top astronomy institutions from around the world which worked together to create a photographic "Celestial Map" and an "astrographic" catalog pinpointing the stars' positions. Italian astronomer Father Francesco Denza led the Vatican's contribution to the project until his death in 1894. In the early twentieth century, Father John Hagen took over the project and recruited a group of nuns from the Sisters of the Holy Child Mary to work on the necessary recording and calculations. The nuns, Sisters Emilia Ponzoni, Regina Colombo, Concetta Finardi and Luigia Panceri, helped map and catalog nearly half a million stars.
file:Pontifical palace and Vatican Observatory, [Castel Gandolfo.jpg|thumb|left|Vatican Observatory and pontifical palace, Castel Gandolfo]
By the 1930s, the smoke and sky-glow of the city had made it impossible to conduct useful observations in Rome. Pope Pius XI relocated the Observatory to Castel Gandolfo, which is southeast of Rome. By 1961, the same problems with light pollution made observing difficult at Castel Gandolfo. The Observatory then established the Vatican Observatory Research Group , with offices at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.
D.K.J. O'Connell produced the first color photographs of a green flash at sunset in 1960. In 1993, VORG completed construction of the Vatican [Advanced Technology Telescope], which is at Mount Graham near Safford, Arizona.
The Observatory's headquarters remain in Italy at Castel Gandolfo. In early 2008, the Vatican announced that the Observatory would be relocated to a former convent a mile away from the castle as part of a general reconstruction of the Papal residence. Its former space would be used to provide more room for the reception of diplomatic visitors. The old quarters in the castle were cramped and very poorly laid out for the Observatory's use. VORG research activities in Arizona continued unaffected.
Brother Guy Consolmagno was Director of the Observatory for ten years, from 2015 to 2025 by Father Anthony D’Souza, S.J. on 19 September 2025.

Locations and Equipment

Castel Gandolfo

In Castel Gandolfo, there are four observatory domes, two of which are located on the roof of the Papal Palace and two in the gardens of the Papal Palace. These instruments now only partially meet modern astronomical requirements.
The two wooden domes on the roof of the Papal Palace contain:
  • Zeiss Double Astrograph, consisting of a refractor and a reflecting telescope, together with two finders and a guiding telescope, all rigidly mounted on the same polar axis. Conceived as the observatory’s main instrument, it was inaugurated in 1935.
  • Zeiss visual refractor telescope, also inaugurated in 1935. Zeiss supplied a set of nine eyepieces and various accessories; the instrument was also equipped with a Graff photometer for observing variable stars and a micrometer for measuring double stars.
The two connected domes in the gardens of the Papal Palace contain:
  • Carte du Ciel telescope, consisting of a double refractor, which was acquired for the Vatican Observatory’s participation in the international Carte du Ciel project to create a photographic star atlas. The instrument was installed in 1891 on the Tower of St. John in the Vatican Gardens and was moved to Castel Gandolfo in 1942. The last photographic plates for the Carte du Ciel project were taken in 1953.
  • Schmidt reflecting telescope by Hargreaves & Thomson, inaugurated in 1957.

Mount Graham

Since 1981, the Vatican Observatory has operated the Vatican Observatory Research Group at the University of Arizona, along with additional collaborations with other observatories, primarily in the United States. Since 1993, the Vatican Observatory Research Group has been associated with the VATT, an observatory with a 1.8-meter telescope located on Mount Graham in Arizona.

People

Leadership

Other notable people

Prof Sister Natalia Zotov OP SFCC spent two summers at the observatory, the first woman to work there as an astronomer.
In 2008, the Templeton Prize was awarded to cosmologist Fr. Michał Heller, a Vatican Observatory Adjunct Scholar. In 2010, the George [Van Biesbroeck Prize] was awarded to former observatory director, the American Jesuit, Fr. George Coyne.