Christopher Clavius

Christopher Clavius 

Christopher Clavius was one of the great astronomers and mathematicians in our world’s history. He was born in 1538 in Bamberg, Bavaria, where Germany is now located, and died in Rome on February 12, 1612. His original German name is not known because ‘Clavius’ is the latin form of his original name. In 1555, Clavius became a member of the Jesuit Order (the Society of Jesus). A year later, he went to study at the Jesuit College at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. His observation of the solar eclipse on August 21, 1560 caused him to devote his life to astronomy and mathematics and largely influenced his future. Clavius enrolled in the Jesuit Collegio Romano in Rome in 1560 in order to study theology, and began teaching mathematics there in 1964, the same year he was ordained. He became a full member of the Jesuit Order in 1575. Clavius taught mathematics at the Collegio Romano for his whole life except for a two year period where he spent time in Naples and Spain. 

Christopher Clavius is most notably known for his reform on the Calendar. Before his reform, the Calendar had too many leap years, causing the equinoxes and solstices to move away from their calendar dates. Pope Gregory XIII consulted his mathematical experts, of which Clavius was the most senior mathematician. Clavius proposed to the Pope to go from October 4, 1582 and then skip to October 15, 1582. He also proposed that leap years occur in years exactly divisible by four, except that years ending in 00 must be divisible by 400 to be leap years. Clavius wrote Novi calendarii romani apologia in 1595 to justify his reform. Another contribution Calvius made to our society was spreading the knowledge of mathematics. While he didn’t invent a lot of new mathematics, he was the first to use the decimal point and wrote a version of Euclid’s Elements in 1574, and wrote a book called Algebra in 1608. His books were used by famous and important mathematicians like Descartes and Leibniz. In addition, Clavius created several mathematical instruments that have been useful in further exploration and discoveries. Clavius was close friends with the famous astronomer Gallileo and was at first skeptical of his ideas but ended up accepting them. He also accepted Ptolemaic System rather than the Copernicus System for both scientific and religious reasons. Christopher Clavius’ works as a Jesuit leader, a mathematics professor, the reformer of the Calendar, along with several other important accomplishments have helped Mathematicians and Astronomers in his time and onward to make even more discoveries than before. 

http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/clavius.html

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Clavius.html

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04009a.htm

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Christopher_Clavius.aspx

Saturn Hurricane

This picture shows a hurricane located at Saturns North Pole. The hurricane was captured the Cassini spacecraft last year. This infrared image shows that the red clouds are closer to the planet and the green clouds are higher up. The hurricanes eye is 2,000 km wide and is rotating at more than 500 mph. I found it really cool that there are hurricanes not only here on Earth but on other planets in our solar system, and the fact that while we think that our huricanes are huge storms, the hurricane on saturn is tremendously larger.

Volcanoes and Auroras in Iceland

Volcano Hekla has erupted more than 20 times over the past millenium, but in 1991, it errupted at the same time that Auroras were visible about 100 Km above the erupting volcano. I chose this picture because I have always thought the Northern Lights were cool, and the way its shown in this picture along with the volcano is a very unique view of the Northern Lights. The way the volcano lights up the sky is very cool too.

Perigee Full Moon and Greece

This image is showing the largest full moon of the year, known as the Perigee. The Perigee only happens every 14 lunar months. This full Perigee moon rose on May 5, 2012, and the image captures the rising moon and the ancient Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion, Greece. I chose this picture because it shows the full Perigee moon well and the grandness of it.