Join us on July 10th for our next Full Moon-th On-line Meetup! Our guest will be Sean van Staden SJ., a Jesuit scholastic about to begin his Theology studies at Hekima College in Nairobi, Kenya. He was one of the participants of the 2025 Vatican Observatory Summer School in Castel Gandolfo.
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Our tradition of hosting online meetups with our Sacred Space Astronomy members and the Vatican Observatory staff, scholars and friends during the Full Moon in Tucson (or thereabout) continues on July 10, 2025 at 12:00 Noon ET (9:00 AM Tucson time – with daylight savings time).
This meetup is a perk for our Sacred Space Astronomy subscribers- you get to chat with each other, and astronomers and scientists from the Vatican Observatory!
We’ll also have the latest astronomy news and an update about the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope1.
Sean was born and bred in Johannesburg, South Africa. He studied Aeronautical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, completing a Master’s degree in residual stress measurement and parametric analysis of laser shock peening (shooting bits of aluminium with lasers to extend their fatigue life). During his studies, he felt a call to religious life, to put his gifts at the service of the Church and the world, and joined the Society of Jesus in 2018.
As a Jesuit, he has lived in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa and has visited and served in five other African countries. He earned a Master’s in Philosophy at Arrupe Jesuit University, Zimbabwe, focusing on philosophies of dialogue and encounter. For the last two years he has been working at the Jesuit Institute, South Africa. Here he learned a new skill – video production, and helped out in the Institute’s media department. He also learned about and practised Ignatian spiritual accompaniment, taught religion at a high school and accompanied young men discerning religious life with the Jesuits.
Sean is by nature curious and creative. He loves learning about how the world works and how we can solve problems. He loves people and finds their endeavours fascinating; he deeply values relationships. It was this curiosity about the Universe and people that led him to be a participant at the 2025 Summer School (which he enjoyed very much). He is still not sure what his future in the world of faith and science will look like, but he is excited to find out.
Sean wrote an article for the VOF titled My Experience of VOSS 2025.
You can follow Sean on Facebook.
When? Thursday July 10, 2025: Rain or shine
What time? These meetups will happen around lunch time in North America: in particular, 9:00 am Tucson time, which is 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
How do you access these meetups? Join Sacred Space Astronomy and you’ll get an email with the full link! If you are already a member, you can also log into this website, and the link will be visible below.
About the cover image background
Caption: Shimmering ejections emitted by two actively forming stars make up Lynds 483 (L483). High-resolution near-infrared light captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows incredible new detail and structure within these lobes, including asymmetrical lines that appear to run into one another. L483 is 650 light-years away in the constellation Serpens.
