The Vatican Observatory, also known as the Specola Vaticana, was refounded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 as an institution that would show the Catholic Church's support for scientific research. It built on a long papal tradition of astronomy, which included the Tower of the Winds observatory used in the sixteenth-century work leading to the Gregorian calendar reform. The first director of the modern observatory was the Barnabite priest Francesco Denza, who took part in the international astrographic survey of the sky. As Rome's lights and pollution worsened observing conditions, the instruments were moved to the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo in the 1930s, and later a research group was set up in Arizona, where the telescopes are run by Jesuit and lay astronomers.
Before and after
- from 29 December 1890 to 15 January 1891Ghost Dance War
- 1891Founding of California Institute of Technology
- 1891Construction of University of California, Santa Barbara
- 1891Founding of Hong Kong Stock Exchange
- 1891Founding of Vatican Observatory
- 1891Discovery of Gundestrup cauldron
- 22 January 1891Birth of Antonio Gramsci
- 11 April 1891Birth of Sergei Prokofiev
- 3 May 1891Birth of Mikhail Bulgakov
More in Universe & space
- 1774Founding of Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- 13 March 1781Discovery of Uranus
- 23 November 1843Discovery of 4P/Faye
- 23 September 1846Discovery of Neptune
- 28 June 1851Discovery of 6P/d'Arrest
- 17 August 1877Discovery of Phobos
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.