Angelo Secchi - the Scientist that History Forgot

Many people think that religion and science are completely separate. People assume that true believers of Christianity cannot trust science, and true scientists must be skeptical about religion. But in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, most of the scientific discoveries were made by devout Christians. One example is Angelo Secchi.

Angelo Secchi, the son of a joiner, was born in Reggio, Italy in 1818. He was educated at a local school that was run by the Jesuits. There, he majored in science and mathematics. When Secchi was 15 years old, he joined the Jesuit order. In 1844 he began studying theology, and in 1847 he was ordained as a priest. He was a philosopher who based his ideas on a combination of science and theology. He made many, many contributions to the scientific world... all while practicing as a Jesuit and maintaining steadfast loyalty to the Pope, up until his untimely death in 1878.

In 1848, due to the Roman Revolution, Secchi and other Jesuits fled Italy. Secchi toured England briefly, and then taught for a while at Georgetown University in the USA. Upon his return to Italy in 1850, he was made the director of the Vatican Observatory at the Roman College. He was completely dedicated to the task of running the observatory. Eventually he decided to move the observatory to the top of the Church of St. Ignatius. The church had originally been designed to support a dome of 80 meters high and 17 meters wide. The dome had never been built, but the structure was perfect for a brand new observatory! Secchi had the new observatory, the Pontifical Observatory, stocked with new equipment for observing the skies. Although it soon became famous for being the place where Secchi made many of his best discoveries, it was more well-known to the local people because it was able to give them the exact time of day.

One of the things Secchi is most famous for is his creation of a spectral classification system for classifying stars. This happened when Secchi decided to try using a round prism in front of the lense of a Cauchoix refractor telescope. He was able to see more than 4,000 stars through it! Secchi noticed that there were many similarities among certain stars, and many differences. Using this information, he came up with four classes of spectra.

But one of Secchi's favorite things to study and observe was the sun! in 1860 he traveled to Spain to see the total eclipse, and he photographed the solar corona! He kept a daily record of the sun, writing down the appearances and motions of the sunspots. He drew pictures of the most interesting sunspots. Secchi was one of the first people to keep a diary dedicated to the sun and its phenomena. His writings laid the groundwork for the Sun Records, a record keeping system that is still used today.

If these things weren't enough, Secchi discovered so much more! He invented the heliospectroscope (used to examine the spectra of the sun), star spectroscope (used to study the spectra of the stars), telespectroscope, and meteograph.

He made the first systematic spectroscopic survey of the sky.

He studied double stars, weather forecasting, and terrestrial magnetism.

Between 1852 and 1853, he discovered three different comets.

He studied the physical conditions of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, and also studied Jupiter's moons.

He created an exact micrometrical map of the giant crater on the moon, Copernicus. This map was so detailed that the Royal Society of London had many copies made, and gave them out to people who were interested in astronomy.

He founded the Societa degli Spettroscopisti Italiani, which was devoted to spectroscopic studies of the sun.

He wrote many, many scientific articles that were published in journals around the world. He also wrote many books. Some of these books were very technical, but he wrote some for the general public. He even wrote a book for children!

Surprisingly, there is very little information published about Secchi. He has made so many great discoveries for the astronomical world, yet he is barely mentioned in books about astronomy. This Jesuit priest-slash- astronomer deserves a place in history books!