He built two observatories, set up a great planetarium and implemented one of the major physics laboratories in the country. Self-taught, passionate about the secrets of the universe and recently awarded by the U. Catholic, has trained several generations of astronomers and Chilean scientists. This is the story of the priest Juan Bautista Picetti.
Among the semi-darkness, a dozen students from 11 to 12 years in silence listening to Father Juan Bautista Picetti.
The priest of 80 years shows the wonderful astronomical instruments, which make the old auditorium of the Colegio Seminario Conciliar de La Serena, which makes classes more than half a century, is the prelude to the universe. Children delight in the energy from the old man who still speaks with an Italian accent and that does not stop as he explains what it is this or that. They are artifacts from his travels brought up to form this physics lab, one of the most complete in Chile.
When you stand up, students follow him to another room and the surprise will be capitalized. The lights go down and turn the planetary Picetti school. There are three areas: the universe and the earth and the moon, which project to a fabric dome. And there, in a space that seems endless, students see the larger constellations, eclipses of the moon and the exact place where the Southern Cross appears. The children look happy and amazed. Picetti then introduced into the universe and constellations is marked on the face.
Recently awarded by the Catholic University in 2007 Michael Faraday Prize for Teaching in Physics, the priest has been the trainer of several generations of astronomers in Chile. Also of cell biologists and engineers, all come out of the theological seminary.
54 years ago arrived in La Serena sent from Italy by the congregation of the Barnabites. In this school he met a former laboratory that opened a new world had equipment that had never seen: an Edison bulb, original phone from its true inventor, the Italian Antonio Meucci, who lost his front license American Alexander Graham Bell. In addition, there were small planet where you could see the eclipse of the moon, spectrographs, equipment for viewing X-rays
Picetti, who was a physics fan, thought that a divine power brought him to the right place. The laboratory before their eyes was, perhaps, only in Chile, and its head, a huge sky at night showed him more stars I had seen in his life. There he learned that astronomy was the branch of physics that would teach. And he felt the need that these children will be excited by science and that sky.
Today, these students listen carefully now you know Cuatic physical elements, Einstein know and understand their statements. Even some boys from previous courses built a rudimentary cell phone to apply their knowledge of Boolean algebra, a system in which computer technology is based. And not only this laboratory and this planet are born product of its efforts, but has raised two astronomical observatories: Tololito first and then the Mayu.
In 1969, Picetti thought to make the first one in the same school. And he built with his hands, along with some students. The Tololito was wooden. But in 1972 he enlarged and replaced by concrete timber and metal. Silver dome that now dominates the universe in the city and the entry is written a warning from the priest: "Young man, let's all very well ordered. And peace and silence of the infinite are yours. "
"Imagine the impression of a child of 15 years, who in the late going to the Academy of astrophysics and the father shows the projection of an atom in the field ion microscope and then to explain it takes to complete for the class to Tololito observe Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System. I think that was the day I discovered how wonderful it may be the science, "says Fredy Orrego, an astronomer, a former student of the religious.
"VENUS IS IN SIGHT?
It is night. The school van is on the side of the hill, between plantations of papaya. Just as the sun sets, the stars begin a full invasion of space. The universe is once again in the eyes of Picetti priest, who asked for the telescope, if plants are watered and if astronomers have food for later.
The three astronomers at the observatory are you smiling. All three are alumni of the religious. Jorge Fernandez, Freddy Orrego, who are in charge of the observatory, and William Danke, who works in the Tololo.
This place is the ultimate dream of the priest. It is the final instruction to his former students and children is responsible. After four years of work, getting a good ground for observation, placing lawyers, architects, financiers, managed to construct the Cultural and Educational Center Astronomy Cerro Mayu, a modern observatory 25 km from La Serena. Since light flooded his small Tololito, the father decided to seek Picetti silence and darkness and constructed a building to house a comfortable place for observation in the evening and received the largest number of children during the day. The U. Oxford, NASA and a university in Tucson, Texas, know his work.
The night is perfect, because only around 1 am the Moon will come out and illuminate the sky.
"Without money, telephoning around the world, came this. So we are still dreaming. Me and these boys she liked it so much science. Here one can find the whole truth and all beauty. You can talk to them. We can do it through silence, and we find the inner world and the outside world, "reflects Picetti.
Danke William watches her mentor. He scored over 800 points in physics when he entered college. Everything he learned, he says, he owes much to Picetti.
"You do not realize the physics lab at the school have until you go and you find you're at a university. There are devices that do not easily find two excellent observatories for boys. And, moreover, the passion that the father gives them to his students makes you end up opting for science, "says Danke.
Astronomers help the father to prove the telescope that gave the Catholic University where he received the prize Michael Faraday.
- Venus is in sight? Asks the father.
"Over there," says one of his former students.
- Does the Milky Way? Picetti-questions.
"Over there, Father.
"God is everywhere. Not only there in the sky. It's in all the places you can look-sentencing the priest and falls into a deep silence.
The father's eyes stare at the universe. Behind him, a bright shooting star passes. All they see it, but him. But that does not seem to care.
It's been a happy man.
EINSTEIN VERSUS SAN MATEO
Picetti is small and thin. Her back is slightly bent. The priest is a man humble, nostalgic, and this is demonstrated in the sad face full of wrinkles, but is quiet.
"I entered the seminary in a village near Bergamo, northern Italy, just as World War II began. I had no more than 11 years, was the seventh of seven children, has fine-pitched voice. "We had very bad. We were hungry and cold, and heard the bombs falling. We were running to get warm, but we fatigábamos, because there was nothing to eat. Dilated eyes. Just when the war started to become a priest Barnabite, but I also learned that the brother who took me to the seminar had died in the war, and I loved him very much. In 1953 I sailed to Chile. "
It is said: here he found a huge sky, no clouds, a great dome lit by hundreds of thousands of stars located tens, hundreds, thousands and millions of light years. While recalls Picetti's eyes light up, take on a different intensity, almost magical, and seek to elevate to the highest possible point when they observe the universe.
Picetti came with a specific mission. After the defeat of the Nazis, a school the school of La Serena who was in charge of German priests passed to the Barnabites. The congregation then had to send young priests who had academic knowledge beyond the Scriptures and faith.
As a child, Picetti watched the events of the nature and disarming all had toy or machine parts. "All the knowledge I possess I have obtained through the school and child cuendo I liked to read a magazine called Sapere, where one could see the experiments, known issues specific to science. And it was a very beautiful world, "he recalls. "After I gave a test that would be like the entrance examination to college, and got the best grade in physics. Nobody pulled a 9, and I took a 9 ".
While in Rome attended numerous conferences in physics. At the time that science would determine the future of the world. Quantum physics had come to understand what would later be known as nuclear energy and all the power it entailed. Picetti marveled. In no time he felt the contradiction between the theological and scientific dogmas. To Picetti, both knowledge (and feelings), not necessarily had to face in their world of beliefs. There was no fight between giving credence to the theories of Einstein and those words of St. Matthew in the New Testament.
"Before there was much more confrontational. And sometimes, of course, someone smeared. But more than the Church and science, were the people that were wrong. I do not see is one thing against another. One sees it as a complement. You know how physics is explained through the language of mathematics. And it is wonderful. But that language can not explain the tears of a mother. "
In 1953 he boarded a ship in Genoa. Do not know much about Chile. The thirty-three days at sea made them alone. Clear: next to Picetti, cure genuine look young and had families of Italians who fled from a terrible past. And when he came to Valparaiso, that paralyzed his vision. "I was in that city for over 50 years, and never wanted to go," he confesses. "It was so nice to have seen the city, the road from Valparaiso to Santiago, who could not return. I decided that I would take that memory so beautiful in my mind, and I could live with that alone. "
The priest walks in the courtyard of the Colegio Seminario Conciliar and enter the physics lab. "Before going to Italy to see my family," she says. But now the nephews have grown, my parents are gone and my brothers are older. Now I'm going and I happened to Milan and see these devices (aimed astrophysical instruments), I fell in love with them and try to get me one for college. The shop owner knows me and gives me this half-price. "
While talking, keep walking and goes to the planetarium. Her students are waiting. He comes to the door, opened it and a huge, dark room is again before him.
Inside awaits his own universe.
Science and theology collide in the mind of Picetti. "I do not see is one thing against another. You see it as a complement, "he says.
His students know elements of quantum physics, Einstein know and understand their statements. Some produced a rudimentary cell.
I wonder what I would think if career?? as possible that share space with O'Higgins? those are good things happening today in Chile, in search of consensus and national reunion can give these things as Siu Generis. 
