Related papers: Boscovich and the Brera Observatory
In the paper we will describe three instruments of particular historical and didactic interest belonging to the Historical Collection of Physics Instruments of Palermo University: a convex mirror most likely dating back to the early…
Johann Kepler (1571-1630) is sometimes considered as a precursor of science-fiction novels with the writing of "Somnium, sive opus posthumum of astronomia lunaris". In this work published posthumously in 1634 by his son Ludwig, Kepler…
The Nabateans built several monuments in Petra and elsewhere displaying a decoration with a preference for astronomical motifs, possibly as a reflection of their religion. However, due to the lack of direct written accounts and the scarcity…
Observation of auroras at low latitudes is an extremely rare event typically associated with major magnetic storms due to intense Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejections. Since these energetic events represent one of the most important…
A brief review is given of some recent positive developments regarding the reception of archaeoastronomy by the archaeological institutions in Italy. Discussions and problems that are currently going on in this field are also mentioned,…
An overview is provided for 200 years of galactic studies at the Tartu Observatory. Galactic studies have been one of the main topics of studies in Tartu over the whole period of the history of the Observatory, starting from F.G.W. Struve…
The studies of Bonaventura Cavalieri's indivisibles by Giusti, Andersen, Mancosu and others provide a comprehensive picture of Cavalieri's mathematics, as well as of the mathematical objections to it as formulated by Paul Guldin and other…
The scientific revolution in the first half of the seventeenth century, pioneered by figures such as Harvey, Galileo, Gassendi, Kepler and Descartes, was disseminated to the northernmost countries in Europe with considerable delay. In this…
This paper provides an overview of work, published since the opening of the archives of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the end of the twentieth century, regarding the Vatican confronting evolution in the…
Gerbert of Aurillac was the most prominent personality of the tenth century: astronomer, organ builder and music theoretician, mathematician, philosopher, and finally pope with the name of Silvester II (999-1003). Gerbert introduced firstly…
Views on mechanics and cosmology by the observers of the supernova of 1572
The Clementine gnomon has been built in 1702 to measure the Earth's obliquity variation. For this reason the pinhole was located in the walls of Diocletian's times (305 a. D.) in order to remain stable along the centuries, but its original…
In January of 1616, the month before before the Roman Inquisition would infamously condemn the Copernican theory as being "foolish and absurd in philosophy", Monsignor Francesco Ingoli addressed Galileo Galilei with an essay entitled…
2025 marks the 300th birthday of Father Eliseo della Concezione, professor of Experimental Physics at the Royal Academy of Studies of Palermo. To celebrate this anniversary, the Physics and Chemistry Library of the University Library System…
The Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA's Great Observatory for infrared astronomy, was launched 2003 August 25 and is returning excellent scientific data from its Earth-trailing solar orbit. Spitzer combines the intrinsic sensitivity achievable…
In this contribution we schematically summarize a number of ongoing, coordinated spectro-photometric projects devoted to the study of the stellar population properties in Omega Cen. All of these investigations are part of a global…
This work describes the rescue and enhancement of several thousand spectrophotometric plates from the La Plata Observatory. These plates and their attached handwritten documents, date from the beginning of the 20th century and contain…
The history of astronomy in Odessa is briefly discussed with a special emphasis on the scientific school of variable star researches founded by Prof. V.P.Tsesevich.
The history of the Institute of Physics at the University of Florence is traced from the beginning of the 20th century, with the arrival of Antonio Garbasso as Director (1913), to the 1960s. Thanks to Garbasso's expertise, not only did the…
Astrometry, the most ancient branch of astronomy, was facing extinction during much of the 20th century in the competition with astrophysics. The revival of astrometry came with the European astrometry satellite Hipparcos, approved by ESA…