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Astronomy and Whaling on Nantucket
Upon stepping off the ferry in Nantucket Harbor, my face salt-licked from the ride, I felt like an 1800s whaler returning home. It was my first visit to the island thirty miles out to sea off the coast of Massachusetts, and I was eager to attend the 97th annual fall meeting of the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers). This meeting was in honor of the hundredth anniversary of the Maria Mitchell Observatory, located on 4 Vestal Street.
Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) was a Quaker and America's first woman astronomer. During her time, whaling was an important industry for the island: Nantucket was the world whaling capital from 1800 to 1840. Mitchell was a smart, accomplished woman who began studying astronomy at the age of twelve. She was observing one night in 1847, when she discovered a comet--for which the King of Denmark awarded her with a Gold Medal. Later, she became the first professor of astronomy at Vassar College in 1865 and the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Women in 1875. Through her work, Mitchell hoped to encourage young women to engage in astronomy… she has certainly inspired me.
The Maria Mitchell Association was created in honor of this woman in 1902, followed by the construction of the Vestal Street Observatory next to her birthplace in 1908. The observatory holds a 7.5-inch Clark telescope from 1912, and there is also a science library that keeps Mitchell's telescope that she took to Colorado to view a solar eclipse. About a quarter-mile down the road from Mitchell's house is the Loines Observatory, built in 1968. There are two domes, one containing a 24-inch telescope and the other containing an antique 6-inch Clark telescope. Mitchell rests peacefully in the cemetery across the street from the observatory.
As part of the AAVSO meeting, I was able to learn about the Mitchell family, tour the observatories, and even gaze into space with the 6-inch Clark, though it had been cloudy earlier in the day. But the skies parted to reveal the twinkling stars and a nearly full moon just bursting with silver light. Through the old telescope, I observed the bluish Ring Nebula, the moon, and Jupiter. The evening offered a unique view of Jupiter because all four of the Galilean moons were visible: two on either side of the planet.
Just imagine, over a hundred years ago, a Nantucket whaler drifting on the seas, looking up at the dark skies, contemplating the wonders of the universe. And imagine Maria Mitchell peering through her telescope, saying "We must face the light and not bury our heads in the Earth. I am hopeful that scientific investigation pushed on and on, will reveal new ways in which God works and brings to us deeper revelation of the wholly unknown."
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