Showing posts with label Maria Mitchell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maria Mitchell. Show all posts

August 1 - Happy Birthday, Maria Mitchel

 Posted on August 1, 2021


This is an update of my post published on August 1, 2010:


 

Born on this day in 1818, in Massachusetts, Mitchell became a self- and home-educated astronomer. She became known for her discovery of a new comet...



...and she went on to study sunspots, moons, and “surface features” of Jupiter and Saturn.

(Obviously, I really mean that Mitchell studied the “features of the top layer of clouds of Jupiter and Saturn.”)

Mitchell was a professor at Vassar College and was the first woman to be a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.


Maria Mitchell said...

"We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire..."

“We especially need imagination in science.”

“Question everything.”

 





 

Read about Mitchell.

Read the book Maria's Comet, by Deborah Hopkinson, or Rooftop Astronomer, by Stephanie McPherson.

Or how about this one:




Astronomy is fun!

Make a comet using this recipe.
Find puzzles and games on this NASA website.




Also on this date:





















































(First Sunday of August)








(First Sunday of August)





(First Sunday of August)


(First Sunday of August)






(First Sunday of August)










(First Sunday of August)





Satchmo Days 
(July 31 - August 1, 2021)







Plan ahead:


Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:


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September 11 – Happy Birthday, Mary Watson Whitney

Posted on September 11, 2019

About a quarter of a bajillion years ago, I featured American astronomer Maria Mitchell. 

 Today's famous birthday, born on this date in 1847, was another American astronomer. Like Mitchell, Mary Watson Whitney was a woman who managed to get a much better education than most women and who managed to do valuable work in a field completely and almost totally dominated by men: astronomy.

 It turns out, Whitney met and was taught by and worked with Mitchell!

 Born in Massachusetts, Mary Whitney had a father with enough wealth that she was able to get a great education compared with most girls and women. After attending a local school, Whitney had a private tutor for a year and then went to Vassar College, where Mitchell was a professor.

 Whitey obtained Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Vassar, and she was able to attend some courses in Harvard (only as a guest - women weren't allowed to attend Harvard for credits then!). She went to Switzerland for three more years of study, although she apparently didn't obtain a PhD.

 When Whitney returned to the U.S., she became a high school teacher. However, she soon became an assistant to Mitchell at Vassar and, when Mitchell retired, became a professor and the director of the observatory. 

 Whitney's astronomical research dealt with double stars, variable stars, asteroids, and comets; and under her direction more than 100 articles were published at the observatory.
Double stars are stars that circle around one another.
Variable stars change in brightness.
Some variables change in cycle through
expansion and contractions, swelling and
shrinking, with the temperatures and
brightness cycling along with the size.
Asteroids are chunks of rock ranging in size from
600 miles (1,000 km) across to particles of
dust; they circle the Sun, many of them in the
"asteroid belt" located between Jupiter and Mars.
Comets are bodies made of ice and dust that circle the
Sun in long elliptical orbits; when near the Sun, a "tail" of
gas and dust particles point away from the Sun.




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