Sunday, August 12, 2018

Roots of National Identity




Random number between 1401 and 1680, page 1633 of the sixth volume of Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation, The Spanish Colonial Period (18th/19th Centuries), Roots of National Identity, is part of the article "An Eyeful of Sky: The Observatory of Manila and How it Grew" contributed by James Hennessey, SJ, former director of the Manila Observatory. Caption on the photograph reads, "An 18-inch refracting telescope, specially ordered from the Mertz factory in Germany in 1890, was installed at the Manila Observatory, and for the first time local astronomers could view the splendor of the heavens and the stars."

It was the founder of the Manila Observatory, Fr. Federico Faura, SJ, who planned and ordered for the telescope, astronomy being only one of his many scientific interests. He is credited for being the one to first predict typhoons in this region of the world in 1879, and he also led an expedition to observe a total solar eclipse in Celebes on 18 August 1868. He would not see the the Observatory completed with facilities in astronomy, however:
Failing health made it clear in 1896 that Faura's career as director was near its end. He had founded an observatory and except for the astronomical section it was complete in its basic structure. On January 23, 1897, within a month of the death of his friend Jose Rizal, he departed. Honored by the many users of his Padre Faura barometer, endowed by the city council in 1880 with the title Adopted Son of Manila, Federico Faura was given further tribute when his name was given to the street in Ermita where the Manila Observatory was located from 1888 to 1945. [p. 1633]
Titles from my personal library were pre-selected for liwaliw Pages this month in observance of National History Month per Proclamation No. 339, series of 2012, by former President Benigno S. Aquino III.


[This post is antedated: 20180901]
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