Nantucket's heavenly legacy:• Maria Mitchell discovers a comet

Nineteenth Century Nantucket• Cobblestone streets, brick mansions

• Whaling capital of the world

• Stately homes with rooftop lookouts

A Place in the History of Astronomy• Familiar tools of navigation

– Sextant

– Telescope

• Maria Mitchell– Born 1818

– By age 12

• Familiar with these tools

• Passionate sky-watcher

Fateful Night: Oct. 1, 1847

• Rooftop telescope

• A fuzzy blob above the North Star– The Nantucket comet

• First comet found by U.S. citizen

• First comet found by a woman

Accolades and Awards

• King of Denmark– Gold medal

• Smithsonian– $100 prize

• American Academy of Arts and Sciences– First woman elected

• Vassar College, 1865– First female astronomy professor in the U.S.

Other Notable Activities

• Solar eclipses– Lead expeditions

• Fund-raising– Vassar Observatory

• Observation– Great Comet of 1882

• Womens’ rights– Salary equal to younger male professors

Commemorating Maria Mitchell• Preserved childhood home

• Maria Mitchell Association– Encourages natural sciences

– Summer student internships

• Promising students conduct experiments– Astronomy, biology, earth science

• On Nantucket Island

Original telescope she used

• The small telescope that Mitchell used to discover the Nantucket comet is now mounted in her childhood home on Vestal Street, across from the headquarters of the Maria Mitchell Association