Maria Mitchell Observatory
The Maria Mitchell Observatory in
The observatory has extensive public education and research programs. For more than 50 years, the observatory has offered summer research internships in astronomy and astrophysics for undergraduate students, funded by the National Science Foundation. The importance of this work was recognized with a 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, given by President Barack Obama to the Maria Mitchell Association.[1] [2]
The two observatories consist of three domed
Staff
Regina Jorgenson became the Director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory in January, 2016.[3] She received her PhD in physics from the University of California in San Diego, for a thesis on physical conditions in damped Lyman-alpha systems. Prior to becoming the director at Maria Mitchell, she held the following positions: postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Astronomy (IoA), University of Cambridge, UK (2008-2011); NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA), University of Hawai`i at Manoa (2011-2014), and Visiting Professor at Willamette University, Oregon (2014-2015). In 2014 she published with coauthors an estimate of the primordial abundance of deuterium.[4]
Past Directors of the Maria Mitchell Observatory:
- Margaret Harwood (1912-1957)
- Dorrit Hoffleit (1957-1978)
- Emilia Pisani Belserene (1978-1991)
- Eileen Friel (1991-1996)
- Vladimir Strelnitski (1997-2013)
- Michael West (2013-2015)
Astronomer Gary Walker is the observatory's telescope engineer. An aeronautical engineer by training, he has spent more than 30 years observing, building telescopes and observatories, photographing the heavens, and making photometric measurements of variable stars with CCD cameras. He is a past president of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) and currently holds the office of secretary of the organization.
See also
References
- National Archives.
- ^ "Maria Mitchell Association at the White House". Inquirer and Mirror. Archived from the original on February 26, 2018. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
- ^ "New Director of Astronomy at the Maria Mitchell Association". www.mariamitchell.org. Maria Mitchell Association. Archived from the original on 2016-03-01. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
- ^ "Precision measures of the primordial abundance of deuterium". Archived from the original on 2020-12-12. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
Further reading
- Hoffleit, Dorritt (2001). "Maria Mitchell Observatory — For Astronomical Research and Public Enlightenment". Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. 30 (1): 62–93. Bibcode:2001JAVSO..30...62H.
External links
- Maria Mitchell Association
- Nantucket Island Clear Sky Clock Forecasts of observing conditions covering MMA's observatories.