Angelo Secchi

The Reverend Father

Angelo Secchi

ChurchLatin Church
Orders
Ordination12 September 1847
RankPriest
Personal details
Born(1818-06-28)28 June 1818
Died26 February 1878(1878-02-26) (aged 59)
Rome, Kingdom of Italy
NationalityItalian
DenominationCatholicism
AwardsLégion d'honneur, France
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
InstitutionsObservatory of the Roman College

Angelo Secchi S.J. (Italian pronunciation: [ˈandʒelo ˈsekki]; 28 June 1818 – 26 February 1878) was an Italian Catholic priest and astronomer from the Italian region of Emilia.[1] He was director of the observatory at the Pontifical Gregorian University (then called the Roman College) for 28 years. He was a pioneer in astronomical spectroscopy, and was one of the first scientists to state authoritatively that the Sun is a star.

  1. ^ Chinnici, Ileana. "Secchi, Angelo (1818–1878)". Documentazione Interdisciplinare di Scienza & Fede. Retrieved 29 June 2018. Many sources get his birthday wrong, thinking it was the 29th. He was born on the 28th, baptized on the 29th, writes current Vatican Observatory director Guy Consolmagno. Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also states 28 June as his birthday in a biographical article in La Civiltà Cattolica.