Castelgandolfo
Phone: +39-6-69863234
Steward Observatory - University of Arizona
Tucson Arizona 85721 USA
Phone: +1-602-6213225
Fax: +1-602-6211532
http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo
In its historical roots and traditions the
Vatican Observatory is one of the oldest astronomical institutes in the world. In 1981,
for the first time in its history, the Observatory founded a second research center, the
Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG), in Tucson, Arizona in the United States, one of
the world's largest and most modern centers for observational astronomy. The Observatory
staff have offices at Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona.
In 1993 the Observatory, in collaboration with Steward Observatory,
completed the construction of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) on Mt.
Graham, Arizona, probably the best astronomical site in the Continental United States.
This is the first optical-infrared telescope of the Mount Graham International Observatory
(MGIO), a project which in the coming years will see the construction of some of the
world's most sophisticated and largest telescopes. The VATT has pioneered the new
technology of creating large, lightweight, stable mirrors in a rotating furnace
(illustrated). With the VATT we are pursuing long-term research programs which, although
they were the hallmark of research at Castel Gandolfo, we have never been able to carry
out before in Tucson. Thus from its two centers, located at Castel Gandolfo and at Tucson,
the Observatory is continuing various current studies and international collaborations.
At intervals of about every two years we host either at Castel Gandolfo
or at Tucson a scientific meeting with some twenty invited scholars on one of the current
studies of the Observatory, and a book is published based on the results of the
conference.
Specola Vaticana's observatories
in Castelgandolfo Vatican (Italy)
