Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association's Biggest Event of the Season: The Stargazer Gala

Kelly Bernatzky • May 28, 2021

Join the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) on August 5, 2021 for its annual fundraiser, The Stargazer Gala. This not-to-be-missed event will be hosted at a private home on Hulbert Avenue with stunning views of the sunset over Nantucket Sound. The Stargazer Gala will include food by Island Kitchen, dancing to the music of The Sultans, an auction, fun games, and stargazing with the MMA’s Director of Astronomy, Dr. Regina Jorgenson. The event will be held outdoors under a tent. The 2021 Stargazer Gala Co-Chairs are Carolyn Holt and Cheryl Woodford.

 

All proceeds and donations from the Stargazer Gala will be used to continue the MMA’s mission and programs. The Gala is the MMA’s largest fundraiser of the year and is vital to supporting the Aquarium, Open Nights at the Observatory, the Science Speaker Series, the historic programs run through the Mitchell House, and the many activities that the MMA offers to island residents and visitors. 

 

Reimagined based on the MMA’s Red Tie Soirée summer fundraiser, The Stargazer Gala will be a fun night of live music, dancing, and good food. Tickets are $350 a person and are available online at mariamitchell.org or by calling the MMA at 508-228-9198. Host committee and sponsorship opportunities (individual and business) are available on the website. 


The MMA would like to thank its wonderful Gala Co-Chairs, Carolyn Holt and Cheryl Woodford, our Event Committee, and our generous Stargazer Gala sponsors and host committee for making this event possible. 


The Maria Mitchell Association is a private non-profit organization. Founded in 1902, the MMA works to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages.

For Immediate Release

May 28 2021

Contact: Kelly Bernatzky, MMA Development Associate

kbernatzky@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

E. Dorrit Hoffleit, Ph.D.

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • September 8, 2025
Dorrit Hoffleit began her tenure at the MMO in 1957. A graduate of Radcliffe, Hoffleit earned a Ph.D. from Radcliffe in 1938. During World War Two, she worked for the U. S. government on missile trajectories and joined Yale’s Astronomy Department in 1956. Her directorship of the MMO allowed her to work part of the year on island and the remainder at Yale with the two organizations sharing her salary. She was the principal author of the Yale Bright Star Catalog – work that was continually added to over fifty years – and her work also focused on the study of variable stars. Hoffleit continued in the path of Harwood with research and public outreach, and bringing worldwide recognition to the MMO. Among her many accomplishments on behalf of the MMO, Hoffleit is known for her work with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a grant she received in 1957 to allow for the summer training of female undergraduate students in astronomy. This was the pilot project for the national program of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) in various branches of science and technology, launched by the NSF in 1990. The MMA became a permanent REU site in astronomy, which is funded by the NSF based on periodically submitted proposals. Today, the MMO continues to have a lasting effect on its students. More than five percent of all the U.S. women becoming Ph.D.s in astronomy have participated in the MMA REU program. The probability of a current MMA REU student (either female or male) to become a Ph.D. is approximately sixty percent. Approximately fifty current professors of astronomy in the U. S. have participated in the REU program at the MMA. Hoffleit who retired from the MMO in 1978, continued her connections to the MMA up until the last weeks of her life. She passed away in 2007 at the age of one hundred. JNLF

Astronomical Study

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 25, 2025
With Margaret Harwood’s growing collection of glass plates of the night skies needing better storage and Harwood in need of a warm place to work in the fall and spring, the Hinchman family gave $5,000.00 towards the construction of a study and storage area at the MMO. The MMA was able to raise the remaining $1,500.00 needed and the Astronomical Study was built in 1922 between the Observatory and Mitchell House. The Astronomical Study was built as a memorial to Eliza R. Mitchell, the Treasurer of the MMA from 1905 to 1918, and a family member. JNLF

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 18, 2025
August 17{1857} Today we have been to the far-famed British museum. I carried as “open sesame” a paper given to me by Prof. Henry asking for me special attention from all societies with which the Smithsonian {is} connected . . . . The art of printing has brought us incalculable blessings, but as I looked at a neat manuscript book by Queen Elizabeth copied from another, as a present to her Father I could not help thinking that it was better than worsted work! On August 2, 1857, Maria Mitchell and the young woman she was accompanying as a chaperone, Prudence Smith, arrived in Liverpool England for their European tour. Maria Mitchell’s “open sesame” was a letter of introduction – she went with several. She would find that the doors were thrown open for America’s first woman astronomer – she was that well known in America and abroad. She would become quite close to Sir George Airy, the British Astronomer Royal, and his wife Richarda, as well as the astronomical Herschel family. JNLF
Show More