Hi,
Some of you will know Br. Guy Consolmagno from his appearances at Star Parties (Whirlpool several years back now for one) and IAS/SDAS/Gonzaga public lectures down the years, for others he will be better known as the guy who wrote "Turn Left at Orion", and mass goers may know him as the astronomer who writes for 'The Tablet'.
In a private audience with Pope Francis yesterday to mark the 80th anniversary of the Observatories move to the Papal Summer Palace, Br. Guy was appointed as the Director of the Vatican Observatory.
He's only just starting the job but he's put up some thoughts on how he sees things panning out for the Vatican Observatory at
brotherguy.livejournal.com/89872.html
. It seems as though he will be mainly working in the US, where the 1.8m Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope is based. Hopefully his continued commitment to outreach will see him giving public lectures again here in future. I recall one previous lecture in Gonzaga he put up a photo of the plaque at the observatory which in latin reads "Deum Creatorem venite adoremus", and then gave an impromptu latin lesson (almost Life of Brian style!) to, I think, Paul Tipper to translate it to English!
Cheers,
~Al
  