Astronomy Club
Astronomy Club Meeting , Thursday 21 March in Theatre
Vatican Astronomer visited Gonzaga
The well-known Vatican Observatory astronomer Br Guy Consolmagno, SJ spoke to the Astronomy Club at their meeting in March.
Br Guy is regularly in the media and speaks widely about the Church and Science. He is Curator of the Vatican Observatory Meteorite Collection and also sits on a number of international committees. He is also co-author of the popular "Turn Left at Orion" book that is regularly recommended as a must-read book for amateur astronomers
A Wikipedia entry on Br Guy can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Consolmagno
The title and summary of Br Guy's talk is ..
Discarded Worlds: Astronomical ideas that were almost correct...
Astronomy is more than just observing; it's making sense of those observations. A good theorist needs a good imagination... and no fear of being wrong. Aryabaha in ancient India and Ptolemy in ancient Rome, the medieval bishops Oresme and Cusa, the 19th century astronomers Schiaparelli and Pickering, all rose to the challenge; and they were all almost correct. Which is to say, they were wrong... sometimes hilariously, sometimes heartbreakingly so. What lessons can 21st century astronomers take from these discarded images?
