Costa Lobo and the study of the sun in the first half of the twentieth century

Abstract

In 1925 the first scientific unit devoted to astrophysics was created in Portugal as a section of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra. A state-of-the-art instrument in solar physics – a spectroheliograph – was installed at that Observatory. This achievement was due to the efforts of Francisco Costa Lobo, professor of Mathematics in the Faculty of Sciences and astronomer at the Observatory. As President of the Institute of Coimbra (IC), an academy associated with the University which had been founded in 1852, he managed to get government support and to establish some international scientific contacts which were essential to his goals. Several articles published in O Instituto, the journal of the Institute, reveal the chain of events leading to the beginning of solar studies in Coimbra and the outcome of the first investigations at the new section of the Observatory. Coimbra benefited from the cooperation of the French astronomers Henri Deslandres and Lucien d’Azambuja, both working at the Observatory of Meudon, Paris. D’Azambuja visited Coimbra to help install the new instrument. Costa Lobo’s son, Gumersindo Costa Lobo, also played a pivotal role in the endeavor. Together they gave birth to the cooperation between Meudon and Coimbra, which persists today, being one of the oldest scientific exchanges between two countries.