Last week, the current director of the Vatican Observatory paid a visit to Lake Tahoe to see the more than 150-year-old measuring method in person.
Researchers with UC Davis’ Tahoe Environmental Research Center have been tracking water clarity for more than 50 years.
But the method for taking those measurements can be traced back to the 1800s in Vatican City.
It was then that Papal scientist Father Angelo Secchi developed the Secchi Disk: a small weighted plate that is used to gauge visibility as it’s lowered deep into open water.
“Angelo Secchi was possibly the greatest scientist nobody’s ever heard of,” Brother Guy Consolmagno, the current director of the Vatican Observatory, said.
UC Davis TERC staff still use the Secchi Disk every 10 days, monitoring changes in Lake Tahoe year-round.
Last week, Guy joined the staff at TERC to witness Father Secchi’s methods in person.
“To see it with your eyes, it’s just, it’s special,” Guy said. “[Secchi] started doing this in 1865. It’s the kind of measurement you can still do today. You can compare what you see today with what they were measuring a century ago.”
Like Secchi, Guy has a lifelong love for science, holding degrees in planetary science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona. He took orders as a Jesuit Brother following his Ph.D. and has served at the Vatican Observatory since 1993.
“The reason that we exist in particular now is to show the world that the church does support science,” Guy said.
When asked about how he connects a love of science with religious life, Guy said […]
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