Category of Astronomical Heritage: tangible immovable
Castel Gandolfo Observatory in the Papal Summer Apostolic Palace, Vatican City

Description

Geographical position

Castel Gandolfo Observatory, Vatican

Location

Latitude: 41°44'50.91''N; Longitude: 12°39'1.27'' E, Elevation 440m above mean sea level.

IAU observatory code

036

Description of (scientific/cultural/natural) heritage

Fig. 1. Castel Gandolfo Observatory, Vatican Observatory and Pontifical Palace (1932/35), (CC3, Rb85)

Castel Gandolfo Observatory, Vatican Observatory and Pontifical Palace (1932/35)

....

Aloisius Gatterer (1886--1953) from Vienna, was author of the first "Spectrochemical Atlas" (1938) with all line spectra of 73 chemical elements (1949, three volumes), as well as the "Spectrochimica Acta" with molecular spectra of 40 metal oxides and 45 UV-emitting elements that are still indispensable today.

Joseph Junkes (1900--1984) from Munich, was director of the astrophysical laboratory from 1935 to 1977, and co-author of the "Spectrochemical Atlas" (1938).

History

Fig. 2. Castel Gandolfo Observatory, Vatican Observatory and Pontifical Palace (1932/35), (CC4, H. Raab (User:Vesta))

Instruments

33-cm-Astrograph -- Double Refractor (focal length: 343cm),
Carte du Ciel telescope (1891), English mounting, in an 8m dome,
13cm x 13cm photographic plates at an image scale of 1'/m, field 2° (last plates in 1953),
first in Leonine Tower in the Vatican,
since 1942 in the dome on the top of the Apostolic Palace -- Barbarini Domes in the Papal Gardens
40-cm-Visual Refracting Telescope (focal length: 600cm), made by Carl Zeiss of Jena (1935) in a wooden garden dome of 8.5m
with a Graff photometer for observing variable stars and
with a micrometer for measuring double stars
with a Danjon stellar interferometer, constructed by the Specola workshop -- used for the determination of distances and positions of double stars and the diameters of planets.
Double Astrograph, made by Carl Zeiss of Jena (1935), German mounting, in a wooden garden dome of 8m in the northeast corner of the palace:
40-cm-Refractor: Four lens objective (focal length 200cm)
60-cm-Reflecting telescope, parabolic mirror (focal length 240cm)
Newton System: plane secondary mirror of 22cm
Cassegrain System: convex secondary mirror of 15cm (equivalent focal length 820cm)
Photographic plates 30cm x 30cm, plus two finders and a guiding telescope, mounted on the same polar axis.

The astrograph was used for photographic observations of variable stars and for the photographic determination of the positions of minor planets and comets.
Two large (61.2cm diameter) flint prisms of refracting angle 4° and 8° respectively could be attached singly or together at the upper end of the astrograph for large field spectra.
A large spectrograph could be attached to the reflector for astrophysical research.
65cm/98cm-Schmidt Telescope (1953--1957), made by by Thomson & John Bowton Ltd, Optics by Hargreavers & Cox, Fork mounting,
Spherical mirror aperture: 98cm, focal length 240cm,
Correcting lens 65cm,
Image scale 1.26'/mm, Field 5°, Photographic plates 20cm x 20cm,
in the dome on the top of the Apostolic Palaces in the Papal Gardens.

Directors

1930 to 1951 -- Johan Willem Jakob Antoon Stein (1871--1951)
1952 to 1971 -- Daniel Joseph Kelly O'Conell (1896--1982)
1971 to 1978 -- Patrick Treanor (1920--1978)
1978 to 2006 -- George Coyne (1933--2020)
2006 to 2015 -- José Gabriel Funes (*1963)
2015 to today -- Guy Consolmagno (*1952)

State of preservation

no information available

Comparison with related/similar sites

no information available

Threats or potential threats

no information available

Present use

no information available

Astronomical relevance today

"Yet another unexpected juxtaposition of empiricism and faith will take place next spring, in May 2017, when the Observatory hosts an international workshop on "spacetime singularities" and gravitational waves at Castel Gandolfo, the Vatican compound on Lake Albano, the flooded crater of an extinct volcano southeast of Rome." (Atlas oscura)