Abstract
DURING the last forty years the Eternal City has possessed two astronomical observatories.It was at the old building, connected with the Collegio Romano, that Scheiner collected the principal materials for his famous work on the sun, called from its dedication to Prince Orsini, the Duke of Bracciano, “Rosa Ursina”; and though it is with some justice that Delambre speaks disparagingly of its contents as compared with its bulk, the observations of the solar spots show with what care they were made, and they afford the first indication of the now familiar fact that their rotation varies in duration in different heliographical latitudes, though Scheiner's idea seems to have been that it was not the same in the two solar hemispheres. But it was not until 1787 that the present observatory of the Collegio Romano was commenced, nor until 1804 that the general interest felt in the great eclipse of February 11 in that year induced Pope Pius VII. to provide G. Calandrelli with the means of furnishing it with suitable instruments. Another astronomical phenomenon, the appearance of the great comet of 1843, led his son Ignazio Calandrelli, to wish to form a new observatory on the Capitoline Hill; but it was not until five years later that Pius IX. was able, in 1848, to provide him with the means for carrying out this design. Mean-while Calandrelli continued his observations at Bologna, ably assisted by the subject of our notice.
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LYNN, W. Lorenzo Respighi. Nature 41, 254 (1890). https://doi.org/10.1038/041254a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/041254a0