The Maria Mitchell Observatory in

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

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

Maria Mitchell Maria Mitchell ( /məˈraɪə/; 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 Mi ...

, the first American woman

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

. 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 History ...

. 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 8000 wide-field (13° x 16°) glass

photographic plate Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a capture medium in photography, and were still used in some communities up until the late 20th century. The light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was coated on a glass plate, typically thinn ...

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 National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

. 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, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

. 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 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 defin ...

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.Precision measures of the primordial abundance of deuterium
/ref>

Past Directors of the Maria Mitchell Observatory: *

Margaret Harwood Margaret Harwood (March 19, 1885 February 6, 1979) was an American astronomer specializing in photometry and the first director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket, Massachusetts. An asteroid discovered in 1960 was named 7040 Harw ...

(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 star, variable stars, astrometry, Astronomical spectroscopy, spectroscopy, Mete ...

(1957-1978) *

Emilia Pisani Belserene Emilia Pauline Pisani (Lee) Belserene (December 12, 1922 – December 11, 2012) was an American astronomer specializing in the observation of variable stars and recognized as an expert on RR Lyrae variable stars. She became known for her work as ...

(1978-1991) *

Eileen Friel Eileen Dolores Friel is an American astronomer specializing in the metallicity of star clusters. She is a former director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory and Lowell Observatory, and a professor emeritus of astronomy at Indiana University. E ...

(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, focused on coordinating, analyzing, publishing, and archiving variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers. ...

(AAVSO) and currently holds the office of secretary of the organization.

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