Maria Mitchell Association Monthly e-Comet Newsletter

FEBRUARY 2024

Dear Friends –

I’ve been reading that January can be the longest month of the year, and I laugh because it feels to me as if time is simply flying by! We’ve started renovation of the Vestal Street Observatory Seminar Room and are very excited to create a space for our Astronomy Department work. Soon afterwards, we will begin the conservation of the interior of the historic pillar and dome rooms from 1908 and the 1922 Astronomical Study. We are very grateful to our generous donor Richard Wolfe, Maria Mitchell’s great great-nephew for supporting our project and for sharing the stories of Mammo, his grandmother and Maria.

We’ve been busy planning the Stargazer Gala, chaired by Elizabeth Georgantas and Tanya Forman, and we hope you save the date, Thursday, July 25, to come and support our mission. We are looking forward to a magical evening inspired by the music of the late Jimmy Buffet who frequented Nantucket and was a fellow ocean explorer and lover of nature.

Camp registration has launched for 2024 and we have space available for your child to learn about the nature of the island – sky, land, and sea. We welcome our new camp director William Evans, who has been with us first as an intern and then as assistant camp director, and we are confident he will create many memories and experiences for your children.

We’re still waiting for the snowy owl to appear this year and wonder if they will? It seems like we’ve had unusually warm weather and the daffodils are even sneaking up. It is five short weeks until daylight savings time when we spring forward and that extra light cannot come soon enough!

Enjoy the “hibernation period” of the island, read some good books, explore a new path, and drop by our Hinchman House Natural Science Museum for a weekend visit to say hello!

With deep appreciation,

Joanna Roche

Executive Director

jroche@mariamitchell.org

MMA UPCOMING EVENTS

Join Us In Support Of Our Biggest Event of the Year!

The Maria Mitchell Association

STARGAZER GALA

July 25, 2024

Ahoy Sailors!

Embark with the MMA on a mid-summer evening and journey along the shores of Polpis Harbor! Enjoy delectable bites, sip on rum punch,

and let the rhythm of live tunes, inspired by the legendary spirit of

Jimmy Buffett, carry you away.

Your support of our gala serves as the wind in our sails as we chart a course of action to develop a cutting-edge Discovery Center and Aquarium at

33 Washington Street. This initiative continues to preserve the legacy of Maria Mitchell and her unwavering passion for

Nantucket's natural wonders.

Help us foster a love for marine life, exploration, and the history of our island’s waters by joining us for this meaningful night under the stars.

TICKETS AVAILABLE SOON at mariamitchell.org

Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call,

Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall.

You've seen it all, you've seen it all.

- Jimmy Buffett

Please email Tess McCarthy regarding sponsorship opportunities.

MMA OPPORTUNITIES

2024 MARIA MITCHELL INTERNSHIPS

Internship opportunities are still open for education, history/art history/historic preservation, event planning and non-profit development, and communications and marketing through March 1.

Apply Today and Join our Amazing Team this Summer!

If you have a qualified undergraduate or graduate student in mind who would enjoy interning on picturesque Nantucket Island this summer,

help us spread the word by sharing the link below!

MMA INTERNSHIPS

AFTER-SCHOOL WINTER SERIES AND

WINTER BREAK DISCOVERY CAMP

for Ages K - 5

Join us for an after-school series of outdoor exploration and hands-on learning, happening now through February 22!

On island for February Break? Sign up for our Winter Break Discover Camp running the week of February 26.

School might be out but the curiosity never stops!

Click the links below for more information.

AFTER-SCHOOL

WINTER BREAK

DISCOVERY CAMP REGISTRATION CONTINUES!

The Maria Mitchell Association

Offers a Wide Selection of Age Specific

Discovery Camp Offerings for

Ages 5 -16

Campers have the opportunity to participate in activities such as beach exploration, snorkeling, seining, kayaking, discovery hikes, wetland studies, survival skill instruction, astronomy, live animal programs, orienteering, Nantucket history, nature related games, art projects, insect collecting, and more!

Camp registration is available to MMA Members only.

MAKE SURE YOUR

MMA FAMILY MEMBERSHIP

IS ACTIVE PRIOR TO REGISTRATION.

After you join or renew, please use the link below to activate your membership, and ensure that you are signed in by locating your e-mail address in the top right corner of the web page.

We are excited for another summer of Discovery Camps at the

Maria Mitchell Association!

Please note: If you register for a camp program without the required discount code or for the wrong week of camp, you will be responsible for all processing and transaction fees associated with the correction.

Come explore the island with us!

BECOME A MMA MEMBER

ACTIVATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP

DISCOVERY CAMP OPTIONS

Thanks to the generous support of multiple foundations, the MMA is able to provide scholarships and discounts, including those specific to Nantucket Island Families for our Discovery and School Break Camps.

For more information, please click the link below.

SCHOLARSHIPS AND DISCOUNTS

PROGRAMS AT HINCH!

THE HINCHMAN HOUSE NATURAL SCIENCE MUSEUM IS OPEN!

Stop by Friday through Sunday, from 10am to 2pm,

to feed and meet the animals, and to learn more about the natural world.

WINTER 2024 PROGRAMS AT "HINCH," 7 Milk Street:

Ravenous Reptiles: Friday through Sunday, 9am - 10am

Astro Story Hour: Saturdays, 10:15am - 11:15am

Nature Story Hour: Sundays, 10:15am - 11:15am

Sensational Science: Saturdays, 12pm - 1pm

Nantucket Bird Walk: Saturday mornings, dates coming soon

Program details can be found on our calendar here.

WINTER WELLNESS WALKS

Saturdays at 1pm

February 10, 17, and 24 | March 2 and 9

Join the Nantucket Land & Water Council, Fairwinds, and Nantucket's environmental organizations, including the MMA, for a fun and free community series of walks starting in February.

These weekly walks, hosted on Saturdays at 1 pm, will last approximately

45 - 60 minutes and will be led by staff from the environmental organizations. At the start of each walk, a member of Fairwinds, Nantucket's behavioral health center, will give a brief introduction and background on the

services they offer.

All are welcome! Please be sure to dress for the weather! Get outdoors this off-season and enjoy Nantucket's natural environment together.

Registration is required.

Click on the link below and select your date.

MMA NEWS

MMA ASTRONOMERS TRAVELLED TO LARGEST

GROUND-BASED OPTICAL TELESCOPES IN THE WORLD

FOR RESEARCH

Above: Emmy Wisz in front of Keck I (right) and Keck II (left) on top of Mauna Kea at 13,803 feet.

Photo taken by August Muller

Below: The Mauna Kea summit viewed from Keck Headquarters. Five domes are visible through the clouds – from left to right, they are the Canada-France-Hawai’i telescope, Gemini North, Keck II, Keck-I, and Subaru. Photo taken by August Muller

Last December, the MMA astronomers travelled to the site of the largest ground-based optical telescopes in the world, the Keck Observatory, located on the Big Island of Hawai’i. The MMA’s National Science Foundation (NSF) astronomy post-baccalaureate research fellows, Emmy Wisz and August Muller, travelled to the Big Island of Hawai’i to use the famous Keck telescopes to obtain observations of distant galaxies for their research projects unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

The Keck Observatory is located at nearly 14,000 feet elevation near the summit of Mauna Kea but is accessed remotely by astronomers around the world who operate the telescopes’ scientific instruments and collect astronomical data. The 10-meter telescopes are essential tools for many research projects, so groups must participate in a competitive process of proposal submission to secure observing time.

Wisz and Muller joined in on observations as part of two international collaborations that were co-founded by the MMA’s Director of Astronomy, Dr. Regina Jorgenson, and supported by funding from competitive grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The first collaboration, called the Fast and Fortunate for FRB Follow-up, or F4 Collaboration, is using the Keck telescopes in an effort to probe the cosmic web, to understand what makes up the space between galaxies, and to identify the progenitors of the still mysterious fast radio bursts – extremely energetic and brief flashes of radio radiation. The second collaboration, called the Multi-wavelength Analysis of Neutral Gas Observed in Emission and Spectroscopy, or MANGOES Collaboration, is utilizing the cutting-edge astronomical technology on the largest telescopes in the world to detect and study the elusive "baby galaxies" – those forming just a few billion years after the Big Bang.

Read more here.

BIRD ON!

By Ginger Andrews

"If you don't look, you don't see. You have to go and look."

-Edith Andrews

Photos of a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks by Tom Griswold

BIRD ON! FEBRUARY

It might seem strange to look for signs of spring when we have barely had a taste of winter. The dull, dim, damp days of February hardly seem conducive to winter sports. Other than cross-country…slogging, why go out at all? With proper clothing, exercise in any weather is invigorating. So, what do we look for? Signs of spring are subtle, but they are there.

We used to think of the return of Red-winged Blackbirds, always expected on February 22, as the first sign of Spring. But now we see them year-round, particularly scarfing up seed at our feeders. Almost all are young males, with just a few adult males scattered among them. But there are other things to watch for: swelling buds of swamp azalea, leaf bracts on blackberry vines, and perhaps most heart-warming of all, Red-tailed Hawks pairing up.

At first you might see one or the other sitting alone on a branch. As in many raptors, the female is the larger of the two. But soon, another may be seen nearby, checking things out. Established pairs usually remain bonded, and often re-use old nests. Both birds will do an aerial display, often circling in updrafts on a fine day. Both collect sticks and twigs and bring them to the chosen nest site, but the female does more shaping of the interior. It may take as few as three to as many as five weeks before the first eggs are laid. They average two to three eggs, sometimes as many as four. Both parents incubate, but as hatching and nestling stages approach, the male does more food collection and the female more brooding of eggs and young.

Monitoring an active nest is a great way to welcome Spring. And by the time the young hatch and start begging, there are even more signs to watch for.

IN MEMORIAM

Anne Parks Strain

Anne Strain was a longtime member of the Maria Mitchell Association’s Honorary Board and served on the MMA’s Board of Directors for many years. Anne passed away on January 15, 2024.

An avid birder and a garden and plant enthusiast, Anne was a quiet and lovely woman who brought her long knowledge of Nantucket to the MMA. Nantucket was a part of her life from a young age and in later life she owned a wonderful house that overlooked Prospect Hill cemetery called “High Spirits.”

While I did not know Anne well, we shared a commonality besides gardening, birding and our love of the MMA and Nantucket, we are both women’s college graduates – Anne having graduated from Vassar College and myself, from Mount Holyoke College.

During a small event for the MMA, I spent much of it on the deck on a bench speaking with her and I enjoyed getting to know her better and watching the events unfold from our perch in the shade. It was in that conversation that we had that it became less of a board member and staff member and more of a sister of a shared experience. Even if different schools, we shared a similar college “upbringing” having attended women’s colleges – and each one us at one of the Seven Sisters.

What I did not know about Anne was her accomplishment as a fly fisherwoman – but I could see that – she had a quiet patience about her. I am sure she was a tremendous fly fisherwoman – just wish I had the chance to learn from her!

Jascin Leonardo Finger, MMA Curator of the Mitchell House, Archives, and Special Collections

THE CURIOSITY PROJECT

Curiosity Can Change the World.

The Maria Mitchell Association has launched the ACK CURIOUS PROJECT.

Over the next year, as we aim to build awareness of our Discovery Center & Aquarium project and ultimately support, we want to focus on curiosity.

We want to know what you are curious about.

We will field questions, offer explanations, find information, and offer inspiration, on anything SKY, LAND, AND SEA. Find something on the beach? See a bird on a walk? Want to know the name of the constellation you saw? We’ve got you.

Our team of researchers, biologists, ecologists, collective experts on all things nature will answer your questions. We’re going to do all of this on Instagram, and we will use the hashtag #AckCurious. Tag your question with this hashtag, and we’ll comment and repost an answer to stories or feed. Or e-mail us, call us, or ask us in-person.

By sharing the questions and answers, we encourage curiosity about our habitat, the inhabitants, and the wonder of Nantucket’s nature.

Maria Mitchell was known for her nature walks. She took one everyday. We invite you to join us in creating that simple practice in your life, taking a walk, where you are present and curious. We hope this sparks all kinds of questions, and we can’t wait to hear from you!

We remain grateful for your support, in all forms, and the privilege of inspiring and nurturing curiosity.

Stay tuned for our Curiosity Open Hours coming this summer.

#ACKCURIOUS

WATCH

NIGHT SKY ALMANAC

By Nick Graber, MMA Astronomy Program Assistant

Our view of the night sky is constantly changing as the Earth makes its way around the Sun. Each month gives us a chance to observe some new things, so check out our highlights below for February 2024!

Jupiter has reigned bright in our skies for a few months now, and it’s as great a time as any to take a look at it with a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope. Jupiter is our solar system’s biggest planet, a swirling ball of gas surrounded by almost 100 moons, and with just a little magnification, you can spot the four biggest moons! Ganymede, Europa, Io, and Callisto, Jupiter’s Galilean Moons, are usually visible to either side of the bright spot of the planet itself.

Online resources can help you determine the exact location of the moons on any given night to help you identify which is which, since to the eye they will only look like four tiny points of light. In reality, they have drastically different appearances. Ganymede, the biggest moon in our solar system, is bigger than the planet Mercury, while tiny Callisto has a surface marred by craters. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system, and Europa by comparison has a crust of water ice over its surface that is thought to cover a subsurface water ocean!

These four moons are known as the Galilean moons because the astronomer, Galileo Galilei, observed them in 1610, and noticed something that you, too, can observe: the speed at which they orbit! At a time when geocentrism—the idea that all other bodies in space orbited around the Earth—was the prevailing opinion, Galileo was able to note that from night to night, the position of these four moons around Jupiter was changing. This meant that they orbited the gas giant planet instead of Earth, proving that Earth was not the center of the universe! Take a look at them on a clear night and note their positions, and then check again the next night. The moons will have moved!

As the Earth makes its way around the sun, different constellations will be visible in the night sky. February is the best time to view the constellations Gemini, Canis Major, and Camelopardalis. The first two of these can be found from the Winter Hexagon discussed last month. From the bright overhead star Capella, look down towards the South to find twin stars Castor and Pollux. These are the heads of the twins in the zodiacal constellation Gemini, whose bodies reach down towards red star Betelgeuse. Canis Major can be found from the bright star Sirius, around the other side of the Winter Hexagon. Sirius, the “dog star,” is the brightest star in the winter sky, and sits like the tag on the dog collar of Canis Major, the “greater dog.” Look for the dim triangle of stars forming its head that point towards Capella, and see its hind legs stretch down to the horizon.

Camelopardalis the giraffe, one of the weirder constellations, isn’t a part of the Winter Hexagon at all, and may be challenging to find under all but the darkest of skies. Find Polaris in the north and Capella overhead, draw a line between them, and look at the midway point of that line for a faint triangle of stars forming the body of the giraffe while the head sticks up towards Polaris.

BECOME A MEMBER!

OUR MEMBERS ARE ESSENTIAL TO EVERYTHING WE DO!

Members Give:

Support that enables us to create opportunities for all to develop a life-long passion for science through education, research, and first-hand exploration of the sky, land, and sea of Nantucket Island.

2024 Members Receive:

Unlimited free admission to the Aquarium, Natural Science Museum, Loines Observatory, and the Historic Mitchell House;
Guest Passes (4 per year);
Registration access for Discovery Camp programs;
Free admission to Open Nights and lectures;
Free subscription to online newsletter, the e-Comet;
Discounts on field trips, workshops, and other programs;
20% discount on programs and merchandise;
Invitations to special Member-Only events;
Membership Sticker;
25% off Kids Birthday Parties;
Acknowledgement in our Annual Report.

BECOME A MEMBER!

After You Join, please use the link below to activate your membership, giving you access to your online benefits, including program discounts.

This step is required to receive program discounts.

ACTIVATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP

LISTEN

LOOKING SKYWARD

In this edition of "Looking Skyward," WCAI's John Basile talks with Dr. Regina Jorgenson of the Maria Mitchell Association Observatory about two recent missions to learn more about asteroids.

Listen here !

"THE NATURE OF NANTUCKET" and "THE STAR REPORT"

Check out our own podcast, "The Nature of Nantucket," brought to you by 97.7 ACKFM. This program airs on 97.7 every Sunday at 7:20am. You can listen to full episodes on Apple or Spotify. While you're there, don't forget to check out our weekly "Star Report," written and presented by the MMA Astronomy Research Fellows.

Listen here!

READ

MARIA MITCHELL'S ATTIC

Learn more about Maria Mitchell and the MMA with "Maria Mitchell's Attic," a blog written on a weekly basis by MMA Deputy Director and Curator, Jascin Leonardo Finger.

Read here!