E-Comet Newsletter of the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association |
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Dear Friends –
The night skies have been busy this week – Space X overhead this past weekend, and Saturn and Jupiter shining brightly all this week. Open Nights continue on Thursdays, where you can come and learn all about the sky over Nantucket. In fact, today, October 1, we celebrate the 175th anniversary of the discovery of Miss Mitchell’s comet – known as C1847V1.
On that evening in 1847, Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) climbed to the rooftop of the Mitchell family home, then located at the Pacific Bank where her father, William Mitchell, was cashier. This was her nightly regimen, but it was not to be an ordinary night. On that cool evening, Maria swept her telescope across the sky and noticed something that did not belong. It was her comet. Confirmation from her father and then their friends, the Bonds at the Harvard College Observatory, led Maria to be awarded a gold medal from the King of Denmark for her discovery, setting her on a path that changed the trajectory of her life forever. From professor of astronomy at Vassar College, to lifelong friendships with the great scientists and thinkers of the nineteenth century, to a legacy that not just influenced the path for women, but for all of us in the sciences, even today.
What is most grounding to me is that when we look up, we see the same skies that Maria observed. The year and all the technology developed along the way are very different. How far women have come and how far we still have to go, remains. Nantucket shares in this legacy, as a place that embraced women as community members, leaders, teachers, and scientists. It was the first place in the 19th century where women held power of attorney for their husbands or fathers, managing money and land. It was the first place where women were in charge of a monthly Quaker meeting. It was a place where necessity fostered innovation.
The MMA has a long tradition of nurturing women as future scientists and as leaders. This month, we launch an endowment match that honors one of them – Jane Stroup, who worked at the MMA from 1970 – 1994 as our librarian and who has left a bequest of $50K that we would like to match. If there is a woman in your life – a mother, a daughter, a partner who has that same spirit of discovery and love of nature that made Maria Mitchell iconic – please consider a donation in her name and help us continue to inspire leadership in STEAM to all young women and their allies.
We welcome two such young women this month, to a year-long appointment as astronomy research fellows, and look forward to seeing both their work in the community. You will hear both Fiona and Michelle sharing the STAR REPORT on 97.7FM weekly.
My favorite part of October is the light – it changes to a golden yellow, making everything softer. As we move into fall, things are cooler, the air crisper, and the days shorter. We follow this rhythm, this cadence, that nature provides effortlessly. Take a moment to appreciate the wonder of our clear night skies and remember we all see the same stars.
With gratitude for your support,
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Joanna Roche
Executive Director
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Celebrating the 175th Anniversary of Maria Mitchell's Comet Discovery! |
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On October 1, 1847, Maria Mitchell was sweeping the sky from the roof of the Pacific Bank on Main Street, where her father was the head Cashier and where they lived as a result of his position. She spotted a small, blurry object that did not appear on her charts. She had discovered a comet! After achieving her fame, Maria was widely sought after and went on to many notable accomplishments. She resigned her post at the Atheneum in 1856 to travel throughout the US and Europe. In 1865, she became Professor of Astronomy at the newly-founded Vassar College. She was a founder of the Association for the Advancement of Woman, the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and one of the first women members of the American Philosophical Society. Her position as the computer for the ephemeris of Venus for the US Nautical Almanac made her one of the first women to work for the US federal government. |
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Update to Open Night Hours on October 6 |
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In order to accommodate a private event at Loines Observatory, the MMA is shifting its Open Night hours to 9pm-10pm on October 6 only.
Open Night will resume its regular hours, Thursdays from 8pm-9pm, beginning October 13.
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October is Scallop Month at the MMA |
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Join MMA Aquarium Staff for a special Beach Biology Field Trip celebrating the opening of Nantucket's recreational scallop season! We will have a detailed discussion of scallop biology, eelgrass ecology, and the threats to Nantucket's eelgrass beds and scallop populations. We'll present live scallops to observe and touch, and discuss the most environmentally-friendly ways to harvest Nantucket Bay scallops.
This program meets October 1 at the Madaket Beach Parking Lot at 2pm. Participants must have their own transportation. At least one adult must sign up with children.
Members: $10
Non-members: $15
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Scallop Dissection and Microscopy Workshop
October 15 | 10am - 12pm
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Join us for a scallop dissection and microscopy workshop, led by MMA Research Associate Dr. Valerie Hall. The workshop will be held on October 15 at the MMA Research Center at 2 Vestal Street from 10am-12pm. This workshop provides the opportunity to learn about the biology and ecology of the famously delicious Nantucket Bay scallop.
Since 2003, the MMA and the Nantucket Shellfish Association (NSA) have collaborated on a long-term study of the Nantucket Bay scallop to understand scallop longevity, reproduction, survival, and habitat preferences of the bay scallop.
This event is free to the public. Registration link below.
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Annual Aquarium Release Day
October 8 | 10am - 12pm
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Join in the FUN at the MMA Aquarium for our popular, end-of-season Aquarium Release Day! When the Aquarium closes at the end of the summer, the MMA hosts an annual Release Day event to say goodbye to our marine friends, and safely return them to the ocean until we encounter them again.
This annual event is free to the public, and a great opportunity to learn about the marine animals of Nantucket.
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Reintroducing Homework Help |
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The MMA is thrilled to reintroduce our Homework Help program! Do you have science, math, or history homework that you don’t want to tackle alone? Or do you just want to explore how to use laboratory microscopes and equipment? Drop into the MMA Research Center and dive into the world of exploration!
Walk-ins welcome, no registration required but encouraged. Feel free to email ahead of time if you have a specific question you need help with: [email protected].
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MMA Artist in Residence Reception
October 8 | 5pm - 8pm
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Please join us for a reception celebrating MMA Artist in Residence Henry Michaelis, following the MMA's annual Release Day on Saturday, Oct. 8, from 5pm-8pm at 33 Washington Street. Release Day will be held from 10am-12pm on the waterfront. |
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Halloween-Inspired Owl Prowls, Scallop-Themed Nature Story Hours, and More! |
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ACKlimate Beach Cleanup Recap |
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MMA Staff, ACKlimate members, and local volunteers gathered on Saturday, Sept. 17 for ACKlimate’s annual Beach Cleanup event in celebration of International Coastal Cleanup Day. Tara Corbett and Jasmine Lee of the Nantucket Boys and Girls Club (NBGC), plus their group of 6-8th grade volunteers, met our teams at Low Beach in ‘Sconset for the event. This team helped clean up 88.5 lbs of trash from the Nantucket shoreline - and they did so with enthusiasm and smiles on their faces! After the event, the NBGC group made their way over to the MMA Aquarium for an afternoon of fun with our marine creatures. Thank you to ACKlimate for hosting this event, and to Tara, Jasmine, and the NBGC group for your stewardship and help in keeping Nantucket’s shoreline clean for all to enjoy.
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Keep Calm and Bird On
By Ginger Andrews
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Confusing Fall Warbler season is finally here. While it is nice to have more of the little “feathered jewels” coming through, it can also be very frustrating as sometimes those ‘jewels’ are pretty rough, and hard to ID. Birds of the year are often still in cryptic, drab, female-type immature plumage.
Nothing, in my old-fashioned opinion, replaces Peterson’s “Confusing Fall Warbler” page, where all the most common and easily-confused are grouped together, with their differences noted. But if you use the Merlin app and are able to pick a likely species, you can see it in a variety of plumages. The catch is that the bird might fly off before you get through the key. If you can get a photo, great, but that usually requires a camera with an impossibly long lens, and that the bird holds still long enough to be photographed. Neither is easy, or quite as much fun as just sitting quietly and holding out for a good look at the bird. Studying the salient points for a refresher before going into the field doesn’t hurt either.
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“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews
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Meet the 2022-2023 Maria Mitchell Observatory Post-Baccalaureate Fellows
The Maria Mitchell Association is happy to welcome two new post-baccalaureate astronomy research fellows, Fiona Powers Özyurt and Michele Woodland, to the MMA for the 2022-2023 academic year. These fellowships are funded by competitive grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The MMA’s Director of Astronomy, Dr. Regina Jorgenson, began this program three years ago in an effort to expand the MMA’s year-round research efforts and to create a "bridge" fellowship program with a purpose of encouraging and supporting women and other underrepresented groups in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). This bridge program provides an authentic research experience to traditionally under-represented students with a long-term goal of increasing their participation and leadership in STEM fields. This year, for the first time, the MMA welcomes two research fellows. Each fellow will become part of a larger collaboration consisting of Dr. Jorgenson’s scientific colleagues at research institutes around the world, including The Space Telescope Science Institute (Baltimore, MD), the University of California, Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA), Northwestern University (Evanston, Il), and the Pontificia Unversidad Catolica de Valparaiso (Valparaiso, Chile), among others.
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Fiona Powers Özyurt
Research Fellow Fiona Powers Özyurt will join the Galaxies Collaboration, a newly-formed collaboration that aims to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies in the early universe. As these galaxies are often too faint to find and detect directly, even with the largest telescopes in the world, this research collaboration focuses on understanding the physics of galaxies in the early universe that are detected via the imprint their gas makes on more distant, bright sources of light called quasars.
Fiona Powers Özyurt is a recent graduate of Wellesley College where she majored in Astrophysics and Islamic Studies. She grew up in Boston and developed a love of physics in middle school after news of the Higgs boson particle discovery. This quickly blossomed into a love of astronomy which tackles those fundamental human questions--Why are we here? Are we alone? As a post-baccalaureate fellow at Maria Mitchell Observatory, she is studying damped Lyman-α (DLA) systems using data from the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) integral field spectrograph. These unique systems are detected in the spectra of background quasars and contain significant amounts of neutral gas for later star formation. This year, she hopes to make the most of living on Nantucket, biking around the island and photographing the seasons while she prepares for graduate school in astronomy next school year.
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Michele Woodland
Research Fellow Michele Woodland will join the Fast and Fortunate for FRB Follow-up Collaboration, whose goal is to perform follow-up observations of the mysterious fast radio bursts (FRBs) in order to better understand their origins and to use them as probes of the "cosmic web" – the material between galaxies. This collaboration was started three years ago and has been so successful that the NSF continued its funding for an additional three years.
Michele Woodland graduated from the University of Massachusetts Lowell this past December with her bachelor's in Physics, minoring in Mathematics and Spanish. She plans on attending graduate school to pursue a Ph.D. in Astrophysics after her year at the Maria Mitchell Association. She has loved astronomy since she was eight years old, always asking questions about the universe along with admiring its beauty. Michele was an NSF-REU intern here on Nantucket during summer 2021 and is excited to be returning for an entire year. Over the next year, she hopes to further her understanding of Fast Radio Bursts and how they are used to probe the cosmic web, as well as to get involved as much as possible within the Nantucket community through the outreach programs the MMA offers. She is very excited to see what the next year holds!
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Listen to the latest episode of "Looking Skyward," a podcast with MMA Director of Astronomy, Dr. Regina Jorgenson, on WCAI. In this edition of Looking Skyward, CAI's John Basile talks with Dr. Regina Jorgenson of the Maria Mitchell Observatory on Nantucket about the first discovery of a dark stellar remnant in our galaxy.
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Learn more about Maria Mitchell and the MMA with "Maria Mitchell's Attic," a blog written on a weekly basis by the MMA's Deputy Director and Curator, Jascin Leonardo Finger.
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The Maria Mitchell Association creates opportunities for all to develop a life-long passion for science through education, research, and first-hand exploration of the sky, land, and sea of Nantucket Island. |
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Support the Maria Mitchell Association: |
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