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Doing astronomy with photons of energies in excess of a GeV has turned out to be extremely challenging. Efforts are underway to develop instruments that may push astronomy to wavelengths smaller than $10^{-14}$~cm by mapping the sky in high…
The Domus Aurea, Nero's last "palace" constructed in the very heart of ancient Rome, is a true masterpiece of Roman architecture. We explore here symbolic aspects of the emperor's project, analysing the archaeoastronomy of the best…
With the installation of the T1 telescope and the Roman Pot stations at 147 m from IP5, the detector apparatus of the TOTEM experiment has been completed during the technical stop in winter 2010/2011. After the commissioning of the…
The GAPS project is running since 2012 with the goal to optimize the science return of the HARPS-N instrument mounted at Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. A large number of astronomers is working together to allow the Italian community to gain…
This paper reviews briefly the history of the Michelson experiment, invented and performed for the first time in the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam in 1881. The paper draws attention to the International Michelson Colloquium, held from…
Gerbert of Aurillac was Pope Sylvester II form 999 to 1003. His history is presented in order to understand his outstanding contribution in the establishment of quadrivium sciences (arithmetics, music, geometry and astronomy) in the…
Discussion of an astronomical orientation of Turin as Julia Augusta Taurinorum, based on the results previously given in 2012 and available at arXiv:1206.6062, and here refined according to the local natural horizon, the refraction of…
Did the papacy tacitly permit the circulation of an explicitly Copernican book in 1660? One scholar has recently argued that it did. A close analysis of a unique illustration from that book, Andreas Cellarius's atlas Harmonia Macrocosmica,…
About an essential suggestion to Einstein by Levi-Civita in 1915. Unicuique suum.
Nuclear astrophysics, the union of nuclear physics and astronomy, went through an impressive expansion during the last twenty years. This could be achieved thanks to milestone improvements in astronomical observations, cross section…
The great development of astrometric accuracy since the observations by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus about 150 BC has often been displayed in diagrams showing the accuracy versus time. Two new diagrams are provided here, one for…
High energy gamma ray astronomy is now a well established field and several sources have been discovered in the region from a few GeV up to several TeV. If sources involving hadronic processes exist, the production of photons would be…
It is widely believed that the advance of science in the Islamic world after the mid-fifteenth century A.D. suffered a decline. For the purpose of examining this belief, a manuscript by Qasim ali al-Qayini (ca. A.D.1685) was chosen based on…
During the first few centuries CE, the centre of the known world gradually shifted from Alexandria to Constantinople. Combined with a societal shift from pagan beliefs to Christian doctrines, Antiquity gave way to the Byzantine era. While…
In this work a comparison between different galaxy luminosity function estimators by means of Monte-Carlo simulations is presented. The simulations show that the C- method of Lynden-Bell (1971) and the STY method derived by Sandage, Tammann…
We use contemporary mathematical notation to describe the method for determining the age of the ecclesiastical moon as mandated by pope Gregory XIII and elaborated in the book of Christopher Clavius \emph{Romani calendarii explicatio}. The…
After presenting the main characteristics of the Sky of Salamanca, we analyse whether what is represented in it is motivated by astrological or astronomical considerations. We will see that the astrological explanation based on the system…
D\'ungal's letter to Charlemagne on the double solar eclipse in the year 810 is extremely interesting both for its form and for its subject matter. Part I of the present study deals with the epistula as a literary work (genre, language,…
In no other epoch of Western history like in the Middle Ages, cosmology was so key an element of culture and, one way or another, the motion of the heavens ended up impregnating the literature of that time. Among the most noteworthy poets…
The Italian Jesuit astronomer Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Riccioli constructed a powerful, thoroughly scientific argument in favor of geocentrism - an argument based on telescopic observations of stars. This paper contains a rendition…