Nantucket's heavenly legacy:

1
Nantucket's heavenly legacy

• Maria Mitchell discovers a comet

2
Nineteenth Century Nantucket

• Cobblestone streets, brick mansions
• Whaling capital of the world
• Stately homes with rooftop lookouts

3
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

4
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

5
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.

6
Other Notable Activities

• Solar eclipses
• Lead expeditions
• Fund-raising
• Vassar Observatory
• Observation
• Great Comet of 1882
• Womens rights
• Salary equal to younger male professors

7
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

8
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