Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Cliff Stoll - astronomer, teacher and author of the book The Cuckoo’s Egg, which tells the story of how he tracked down a group of German hackers working for the Soviet KGB in 1986. Cliff is also a long-time buddy of Br. Guy. Co-Hosts: Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Bob Trembley: Factotum for the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Guest: Cliff Stoll is an astronomer, author, and teacher...

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Rev. Richard A. D'Souza - the incoming Director of the Vatican Observatory! He takes the reins from Br. Guy on September 19, 2025. Co-Hosts: Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Bob Trembley: Factotum for the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Guest: Rev. Richard A. D'Souza, Sj was born in 1978 in Pune, India and hails from Goa, India. His initial school years were spent in Kuwait. From 1990,...

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Dr. Deana L. Weibel - a cultural anthropologist whose work focuses primarily on religion, especially the topics of pilgrimage, sacred space, the mutual influence of scientific and religious ideas on each other, and religion and space exploration. She spoke to us on those topics… and science fiction movies, as well! Co-Hosts: Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Bob Trembley: Factotum ...

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Dr. Michelle Francl about her book Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea, which explores the chemistry behind different styles of tea. The book caused quite a stir with various international news agencies - and a virtual firestorm in Britain. Dr. Francl was also a guest for the Vatican Observatory podcast in Dec. of 2021 with an episode named: A Taste for Heavy Water. Hosts: Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Ob...

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Br. Bob Macke about being a team member of two asteroid missions: the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, and the Lucy mission to the Trojan asteroids. Hosts: Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Bob Trembley: Factotum for the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Guest: Br. Bob Macke, SJ: Curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory Vatican Observatory website: https://www.va...

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Charles F. Bolden Jr. during the 30th anniversary celebration of 'first light' into the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope. Hosts: Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Bob Trembley: Factotum for the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Guest: Charles F. Bolden Jr.: Marine Corps Major General (retired), space shuttle astronaut and former NASA Administrator, Vatican Observatory website: http...

Matthew Pinson SJ is a young Jesuit scientist from Australia. He was one of the students at the 2023 Vatican Observatory Summer School held in Rome during June. Hear what it was like to be a student at the school, and how Matthew’s journey took him from a farm in Australia to a doctorate at MIT, then the Jesuits, and finally to the Vatican! Hosts: Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Bob Trembley: Factotum for the Vatica...

This podcast was taken from the Full Moon Meetup on Friday, January 6, 2023. To begin the year, we had a roundtable discussion with several members of the Vatican Observatory staff. We covered everything from Befana, the Italian Epiphany witch, to the 30th anniversary of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), and the year ahead. Hosts: Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Bob Trembley: Factotum for the V...

What spurs an artist to start sketching celestial objects as they look in her small telescope? What thrills her the most? Is it seeing the fine details of nebulae through large telescopes? Sketching the Moon's slowly changing terminator and Sun's prominences? Working with children - helping them understand the night sky, and awakening their curiosity in science? Deirdre Kelleghan is an astronomical artist, living in western Ireland, under incredibly dark skies. With an eye to the telesc...

So, how many people do you know who have had a children’s book written about them? Dr. Heidi Hammel gained international fame in 1994 by leading the Hubble Space Telescope Team that imaged Jupiter during the impacts of Comet Shoemaker Levy 9, but in fact her main research has focused on the “ice giant” planets, Uranus and Neptune. Her ground-based telescope observations were crucial to interpreting the Voyager spacecraft flyby images, and she now helps direct planetary observations with the W...