Christmas Eve is on December 24 and marks the culmination of the Advent period before Christmas that starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Eve. Many churches mark the end of Advent with midnight church services. During modern times, it is popularly celebrated on the night before Christmas Day. - National Today
The Quadrantids have the potential to be the strongest shower of the year but usually fall short due to the short length of maximum activity (6 hours) and the poor weather experienced during early January. The average hourly rate is 25 meteors per hour.
Earth will be at the closest point in its orbit around the Sun on this date - 91,403,034 miles.
Epiphany also known as Theophany in the east, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation (theophany) of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. Articles about the Feast of the Epiphany on the VO Faith and Science Archive.
Mercury's 88-day orbit around the Sun will carry it to its furthest point to the Sun – its aphelion – at a distance of 0.47 AU.
"Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. Born in Atlanta, King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, tactics his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi helped inspire." - Wikipedia
The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this annual day of commemoration, the UN urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides. […]
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM FRS (/ˈrʌsəl/; 18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, essayist, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate. At various points in his life, Russell considered himself a liberal, a socialistand a pacifist, although he also confessed that his sceptical nature had led him to feel that he had "never […]
A celebration in honor of Br. Guy's newest book, a Jesuit's Guide to the Stars
James Renn, a member of the Vatican Observatory Foundation's Council of Advisors will be giving this talk at the Holland Center in Scottsdale, AZ, Tue., Feb. 4, at 6 pm
Saint Valentine was a widely recognized 3rd-century Roman saint, commemorated in Christianity on February 14. From the High Middle Ages his Saints’ Day is associated with a tradition of courtly love. – Wikipedia
On February 15 2013 an asteroid exploded in the sky over the city of Chelyabinsk, in the the southern Ural region of Russia. The shock wave blew out windows all over the city, injuring over 1600 people, and damaged several buildings.
The planet Venus is a Perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun) on this date.
Sir James Dewar FRS FRSE (20 September 1842 – 27 March 1923) was a British chemist and physicist. He is best known for his invention of the vacuum flask, which he used in conjunction with research into the liquefaction of gases. He also studied atomic and molecular spectroscopy, working in these fields for more than 25 years. - Wikipedia
Val Logsdon Fitch (March 10, 1923 – February 5, 2015) was an American nuclear physicist who, with co-researcher James Cronin, was awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics for a 1964 experiment using the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory that proved that certain subatomic reactions do not adhere to fundamental symmetry principles. Specifically, they proved, by examining the decay of K-mesons, that a reaction run in […]
The Moon will pass into Earth’s shadow and appear to turn red on the night of March 13 or early in the morning on March 14.
Eusebio Francisco Kino, SJ (Italian: Eusebio Francesco Chini, Spanish: Eusebio Francisco Kino; 10 August 1645 – 15 March 1711), often referred to as Father Kino, was a Tyrolean Jesuit, missionary, geographer, explorer, cartographer and astronomer born in the Territory of the Bishopric of Trent, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. For the last 24 years of his life he worked in the region then known as the Pimería Alta, modern-day Sonora in Mexico and southern Arizona in the United […]
Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, lit. 'the Day of the Festival of Patrick'), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. 385 – c. 461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century and is observed by the Catholic Church, […]
Saint Joseph's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Joseph or the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, is in Western Christianity the principal feast day of Saint Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary and legal father of Jesus Christ, celebrated on 19 March. It has the rank of a solemnity in the Catholic Church. It is a feast or commemoration in the provinces of the Anglican Communion, and a feast or festival in the Lutheran Church. Saint […]
The World Meteorological Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations, based in Geneva. It "is dedicated to international cooperation and coordination on the state and behaviour of the Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with the land and oceans, the weather and climate it produces, and the resulting distribution of water resources." The World Meteorological […]
Christopher Clavius, SJ (25 March 1538 – 6 February 1612) was a Jesuit German mathematician, head of mathematicians at the Collegio Romano, and astronomer who was a member of the Vatican commission that accepted the proposed calendar invented by Aloysius Lilius, that is known as the Gregorian calendar. Clavius would later write defences and an explanation of the reformed calendar, including an emphatic […]
Tullio Levi-Civita, ForMemRS (English: /ˈtʊlioʊ ˈlɛvi ˈtʃɪvɪtə/, Italian: ; 29 March 1873 – 29 December 1941) was an Italian mathematician, most famous for his work on absolute differential calculus (tensor calculus) and its applications to the theory of relativity, but who also made significant contributions in other areas. He was a pupil of Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro, the inventor of tensor calculus. His work included foundational papers in both pure and applied […]
Francesco Zantedeschi (August 20, 1797 – March 29, 1873) was an Italian Catholic priest and physicist. A native of Dolcè, near Verona, Zantedeschi was for some time professor of physics and philosophy in the Liceo of Venice. Later he accepted the chair of physics in the University of Padua, which he held until 1853 being then obliged to resign on account of failing sight. He was an […]
Join Brother Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory, on Saturday, March 29th, for a day of discovery as we explore how to find God in the universe.
Cesar Chavez (born César Estrada Chávez, locally ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and Latino American civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, later renamed the United Farm Workers (UFW) union. - Wikipedia
April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (sometimes called All Fools' Day) is an annual celebration on April 1, commemorated by practical jokes and hoaxes. The player(s) of the joke(s) or hoax(es) often exposes their action by shouting "April fool(s)" at the recipient(s). The recipient of these actions are called April fools. Mass media can be involved in these pranks that the following […]
Spend an evening with Br. Guy Consolmagno - Director of the Vatican Observatory, and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Br. Guy will discuss his new book A Jesuit's Guide to the Stars, and the many threads of Faith and Science that the Vatican Observatory staff weaves into a tapestry of public outreach and education. […]
The Moon is at First quarter on this date -it will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
Br. Guy Consolmagno will lead this retreat which will explore the close connection between Ignatian spirituality and astronomy.
The General Assembly, in its resolution A/RES/65/271 of 7 April 2011, declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight “to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of […]
Mars will be at the farthest point in its orbit around the Sun on this date - 154,425,919.9 miles.
Illustration from the Bibliographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1945. The Royal Society, London. Sir John Ambrose Fleming FRS died in 1945, aged 95 (born 29 November 1849). "He was an English electrical engineer and physicist who invented the first thermionic valve or vacuum tube, designed the radio transmitter with which the first […]
The Moon is at Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) – rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.
The Moon is at Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) – rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.
First held in 1970, Earth Day is held annually on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection.
Peak: ~Apr 21-22, 2020 The Lyrids are a medium strength shower that usually produces good rates for three nights centered on the maximum. These meteors also usually lack persistent trains but can produce fireballs. These meteors are best seen from the northern hemisphere where the radiant is high in the sky at dawn. Activity from […]
On Girls in ICT Day– marked annually on the fourth Thursday in April – the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is highlighting the need to promote technology career opportunities for girls and women in the world's fastest growing sector.
Curious about God, the cosmos and you?You can ask the Pope’s astronomer!Come with your curiosity and questions to hear Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, 7:00 pm, Thursday, April 24, 2025, at Saint Thomas More Catholic ChurchIn his new book, A Jesuit Guide to the Stars, Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, asks, “Do we need to know about the […]
