Page 33 - The Secret Museum

BROTHER GUY CONSOLMAGNO IS THE curator of the Vatican Observatory. The

observatory used to be in Rome, but moved out to the Pope’s summer home, Castel
Gandolfo, in Albano, just outside Rome, when light pollution in the city made it
impossible to see the stars.

I took a train from Rome to Albano. When I arrived, Brother Guy was waiting on
the platform. I had thought he might be in monk’s robes, but he was wearing a red
waterproof jacket, jeans and trainers. That is because he is a Jesuit and his order
don’t wear robes, they prefer to blend in and work among lay people. He was
immediately friendly, bright and charming and I knew it would be a fun day.

We walked up through the sleepy town until we reached the main square. It was

quiet but for the sounds of birds and a few people chatting in restaurants. On one side
of the square is a pink wall which divides the town from the papal grounds. Built into
this wall is a door with a sign beside it carved into stone that reads ‘Specola
Vaticana’. We opened the door and entered the Papal Grounds and the observatory’s
museum. Guy explained that the Pope’s house is 2 kilometres away from the museum,
across orchards and fields.

The observatory isn’t often open to the public. More often than not, the curators
and astronomers have the place to themselves. However, the day I visited they were

preparing for the arrival of 500 diplomats from around the world the following week
and there were several people painting walls and polishing clocks in anticipation.

Guy showed me a film he was putting together for their visit. It tells the history of
the observatory, one of the oldest astronomical institutions in the world. It was
founded in 1582 when the Church replaced the Roman, or Julian, calendar with the
Gregorian (which introduced the idea of having a leap year every four years to
eliminate the discrepancies in time that had built up over the centuries). At first, the
observatory’s telescopes pointed out at the universe from inside the Vatican itself,

from a room called the Tower of the Winds.
The telescopes were brought to Albano in 1935. Guy has worked here for years.

‘It’s much better out here, the security isn’t so tight,’ he jokes. He spends half of his
year here, researching, writing and teaching astronomy students. The other half of the
year Guy spends in the desert, at the second Vatican Observatory in Tucson, Arizona.
This is the home of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, a very high-spec
model with an internal mirror designed by a man called Roger Angel. ‘Yes, the
Pope’s telescope was designed by an Angel,’ said Guy. ‘It is used for exploring new

areas of the universe. I use it for looking at the colours of faint comet-like objects out
beyond Neptune. These are the things that Pluto was part of before we realized that
Pluto is not a planet but part of the vast band of Trans-Neptunian objects.’ He works
there with a team of 14 others.

Back in Albano, Brother Guy works with another team to look after the
observatory. He ushered me into the vast library of 20,000 books and journals. His
favourite book is by a fellow Jesuit brother, Father Angelo Secchi (1818–78) and is