For centuries, astronomy was strictly a science of position and motion. Astronomers charted where the stars were, how the planets moved, and when comets would return. The great philosopher Auguste Comte even famously wrote in 1835 that humanity would never learn the chemical composition of a star.
He was proven completely wrong just a few decades later by an extraordinary Italian Jesuit priest working from an observatory built on top of a church roof in Rome. His name was Father Angelo Secchi, and his revolutionary work with the spectroscope fundamentally shifted astronomy away from merely mapping the heavens and birthed the modern science of astrophysics. Come watch and learn more about him in this video and then head over to Eadsy Astronomy for the article I wrote about him. It also has attached a 1950 Popular Astronomy article on him and his spectra work for fun!
