Google doodle for Aug 1st honors astronomer Maria Mitchell

[LongTomH]

Today's Google doodle celebrates the birthday and achievement of Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), America's first female astronomer and discoverer of the comet which bears her name. As the article in PC magazine points out, she made her discovery using a small telescope:

As the National Women's History Museum (NWHM) noted, the discovery is noteworthy because Mitchell "used a mere two-inch telescope, which illustrates her true skill as an astronomer."

The two-inch scope she used was smaller than the 60mm scopes most stores sell for young astronomers today. Also, the one you'll buy at your local science store is achromatically corrected; that is, corrected for chromatic distortion (rainbows around viewed objects).

At the time, Mitchell was "sweeping the sky from the roof of the Pacific National Bank on Main Street, where her father was a cashier, [and] spotted a small blurry object that did not appear on her charts," according to the Maria Mitchell Association.

Mitchell reportedly had to battle an Italian man who also claimed to have discovered the comet, but she ultimately prevailed. It was named "Miss Mitchell's Comet" and appeared in Elias Loomis's The Recent Progress of Astronomy, the NWHM said. The accomplishment earned her a place in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1848, the first woman to accomplish this feat and the group's only female member for almost a century.

Her astronomy work wasn't her only achievement:

Beyond astronomy, Mitchell was also an active anti-slavery and women's rights activist, eventually helping to co-found what would become the American Association of University Women (AAUW). But she continued her scientific studies at Vassar College, where she became the college's only female faculty member in 1865.

The Maria Mitchell Association webpage has articles about her and about their programs to encourage young astronomers.

[pokerfan]

1. Maria Mitchell Quotes

[center]Question everything.

Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.

Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.

We travel to learn; and I have never been in any country where they did not do something better than we do it, think some thoughts better than we think, catch some inspiration from heights above our own.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/maria_mitchell.html[/center]