The Maria Mitchell Observatory in

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, USA, was founded in 1908 and named in honor of

Maria Mitchell Maria Mitchell ( ; August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889) was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI (modern designation C/1847 T1) that was later known as " Miss Mitchell's Comet ...

, the first American woman

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

. It is a major component of the

Maria Mitchell Association The Maria Mitchell Association is a private non-profit organization on the island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts. The association owns the Maria Mitchell Observatory, a second observatory (the Loines Observatory), a Natural Histor ...

. The Observatory actually consists of two observatories - the main Maria Mitchell Observatory near downtown Nantucket and the Loines Observatory about a kilometer west of town. It is also the repository for a valuable collection of over 8,000 wide-field (13° x 16°) glass

photographic plate Photographic plates preceded film as the primary medium for capturing images in photography. These plates, made of metal or glass and coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, were integral to early photographic processes such as heliography, d ...

s, recording observations of large swaths of sky from 1913 to 1995. The observatory has extensive public education and research programs. For more than 50 years, the observatory has offered summer research internships in astronomy and astrophysics for undergraduate students, funded by the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

. The importance of this work was recognized with a 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, given by President Barack Obama to the Maria Mitchell Association. The two observatories consist of three domed

telescopes A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

. The Vestal street location houses research offices as well as the 17-inch Plane Wave Dall-Kirkham telescope. This telescope was installed in 2008 after the completion of the Loines Observatory. The Loines Observatory houses the historic 7.5-inch

Alvan Clark Alvan Clark (March 8, 1804 – August 19, 1887) was an American astronomer and telescope maker. Biography Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Clark started as a portrait painter and engraver (c.1830s–1850s), and at the age of 40 became involved ...

refractor, which is used for public stargazing. At this location there is also the larger 24-inch Richey-Chretian reflecting telescope, installed in 2006, which has been made accessible for public tours. Both the 17-inch and the 24-inch telescopes are also used for research year round.

Staff

Regina Jorgenson became the Director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory in January, 2016. She received her PhD in physics from the University of California in San Diego, for a thesis on physical conditions in

damped Lyman-alpha system Damped Lyman alpha systems or Damped Lyman alpha absorption systems is a term used by astronomers for concentrations of neutral hydrogen gas that are detected in the spectra of quasars – a class of distant Active Galactic Nuclei. They are defi ...

s. Prior to becoming the director at Maria Mitchell, she held the following positions: postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Astronomy (IoA), University of Cambridge, UK (2008-2011); NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA), University of Hawai`i at Manoa (2011-2014), and Visiting Professor at Willamette University, Oregon (2014-2015). In 2014, she published with coauthors an estimate of the primordial abundance of deuterium.

Past Directors of the Maria Mitchell Observatory: * Margaret Harwood (1912-1957) *

Dorrit Hoffleit Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit (March 12, 1907 – April 9, 2007) was an American senior research astronomer at Yale University. She is best known for her work in variable stars, astrometry, Astronomical spectroscopy, spectroscopy, Meteoroid, meteors, and ...

(1957-1978) * Emilia Pisani Belserene (1978-1991) * Eileen Friel (1991-1996) *Vladimir Strelnitski (1997-2013) *Michael West (2013-2015) Astronomer Gary Walker is the observatory's telescope engineer. An aeronautical engineer by training, he has spent more than 30 years observing, building telescopes and observatories, photographing the heavens, and making photometric measurements of variable stars with CCD cameras. He is a past president of the

American Association of Variable Star Observers The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is an international nonprofit organization. Founded in 1911, the organization focuses on coordinating, analyzing, publishing, and archiving variable star observations made largely by ama ...

(AAVSO).

References

External links

Maria Mitchell Association
Forecasts of observing conditions covering MMA's observatories. {{Portal bar, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System, Education, Science Astronomical observatories in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Nantucket, Massachusetts Tourist attractions in Nantucket, Massachusetts

Staff

See also

References

Further reading

External links