Nantucket Star Count

Logan Gomes • April 11, 2022

Nantucket, MA – Nantucket Lights and the Maria Mitchell Association invite Nantucket residents to take part in Nantucket Star Count: April 22-30.


Star-filled skies have historically been one of the most magical things about Nantucket. Nothing beats looking upwards to see velvety blackness, with twinkling constellations as far as the eye can see. But artificial light at night is increasing each year, adversely affecting our ability to enjoy truly dark skies as well our circadian rhythms, ability to sleep, and general quality of life. There is also growing evidence that light pollution has a serious detrimental effect on wildlife, including plants, insects, and even marine life. Satellite data indicates that light pollution has increased at a rate of 2.4% a year since 2012 on Nantucket but it might be even worse than that because satellite sensors are blind to the blue light emissions emitted by many LEDs.


To get a better understanding of how and where light pollution is affecting our dark skies, Nantucket Lights, a citizen advocacy group dedicated to combating light pollution on the island, and the Maria Mitchell Association are calling upon Nantucket residents to become “citizen scientists” and report their night sky observations on at least one night between April 22 and April 30. Those are the dates of 2022 International Dark Sky Week, an initiative of the International Dark-Sky Association to raise awareness about the importance of preserving dark skies around the world.


You won’t need a telescope to participate in “Nantucket Star Count” – just your eyes, a smartphone or tablet, and a willingness to help. Basically, you’ll be asked to compare what you see with your naked eye in or near the constellation “Leo the Lion” with what you see on star “magnitude charts” and report your observations via a web app.


If enough people participate, the data collected will show where our skies are the darkest as well as where the most light-polluted areas are. For comparison purposes, Nantucket Lights and Maria Mitchell plan to repeat this in July or August to assess how much the summer crowd contributes to light pollution.

Step-by-step instructions are available on the Nantucket Lights website and on Friday April 22 and Saturday April 23, if the weather cooperates, the Maria Mitchell Association will kick-off the week with Open Nights at Loines Observatory (59 Milk Street Extension) to provide in-person guidance. From 8:30pm to 10:00pm, astronomers will be on hand to explain the steps involved and answer any questions so that participants can span out and report observations from all over the island during the rest of the week. It can take around 10 minutes for the human eye to adjust to night time darkness, so participants are advised to dress warmly. Registration is not required. 

 

The founder of Nantucket Lights, Gail Walker, urges everyone to participate. “We need people all over the island to do this to have a good set of data. It would be wonderful to see families with children doing this together. By counting stars and mapping our dark skies together, we can fight back against light pollution and preserve our night sky.”

 

Joanna Roche, Executive Director of the Maria Mitchell Association, added, “We are excited to participate alongside Nantucket Lights and to engage the community in this effort.”

For Immediate Release

April 11, 2022

Contact: Logan Gomes, Director of Advancement

lgomes@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

The Birth of the Maria Mitchell Observatory: Celebrating Over 100 Years of Discovery

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 30, 2025
As we are now complete with the conservation of the historic Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO), I thought it would be good to post a series of blogs concerning it history and activities, as well as some of the amazing people who have made it what it is over the last 100 plus years. Therefore, over the next few weeks, the focus will be on the MMO. And it is now open for tours – Monday through Saturday 11-1PM. Founded in 1902, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) had its beginnings in the Mitchell House where Maria Mitchell was born. Over the first few years, the preservation of the Mitchell House, family artifacts, and the collection and display of Nantucket’s native flora and fauna, as well as a small library, were the key components of the MMA. Special “Moon Evenings” were held on the lawn and people observed Nantucket’s night skies using several small telescopes, including William and Maria Mitchell’s two-and-three-quarter-inch Dollond telescope. The popular evenings led to the inevitable – a desire and need to expand based on the demands of the visitors to, and members of, the MMA. In 1906, Lydia Hinchman, a founder of the MMA and a family member, purchased the house and lot adjacent to the Mitchell House. The house – once the home of William Mitchell’s father and mother – was taken down. The MMA began a dialogue with the Harvard College Observatory and its director, Edward Pickering, Ph.D. The connection to Harvard was to become essential to the success of the beginning years of the Maria Mitchell Observatory and continued a legacy of friendship and work – Maria Mitchell and her father worked with the Bonds who once ran the observatory at Harvard and the families were close friends. Besides his assistance, Pickering asked a member of his staff, Annie Jump Cannon, to assist the MMA. This “provided an indispensable collaboration for Nantucket astronomy,” with Cannon spending two weeks on the island in 1906 and 1907 lecturing and teaching. While back at Harvard, she continued to teach the students on Nantucket by mail. Cannon would go on to be recognized as the leading woman astronomer of her generation and as the founder of the MMA’s Astronomy Department. JNLF

Putting Things By

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 23, 2025
An older term, that we seem to not use that much anymore but maybe that’s in part because not many people “put things by” anymore. It is having a bit of a resurgence as people try to return to the garden and focus on local produce. My in-laws used to spend a lot of time – before I knew them – canning and preserving many different things – from jellies to string beans that became “dilly beans.” I, on the other hand, do not can produce. Frankly, I fear messing up the process and making my family sick. So, for now, I stick to making refrigerator jams and pickles. I have made some chive vinegar – that is frankly, amazing, and a brilliant shade of pink! But in any case, Bartlett’s Farm opened for pick-your-own strawberries on June 7 and I made my way over on June 8. My son has been asking for strawberry jam since about February – I told him I wait for fresh and local but he wanted some so badly he was begging for store bought. I almost caved but then I told him – out of season and they taste like cardboard – and also made a LONG journey to get to us. Once people ate with the seasons – now we do not have to with trains, planes, and ships crossing all over. It is also, why, oftentimes, fruit has no flavor. Produce is picked often before it ripens and “ripens” as it ships – or with sprays – and since many varieties have been crossed with others or engineered, we have lost the taste. I remember tasting a peach a few years back from North Carolina – fresh off the tree. After rubbing it to get all the “fur” off, I bit into an exquisite peach that tasted like a peach of my youth. So, Maria was not eating a strawberry in January but she was eating them in June – local and full of flavor. And likely, putting some by as well. JNLF

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 16, 2025
June 1851 My Dear Sister . . . . Mrs. Dassel has painted me kneeling at my telescope. It looks like Adeline Coffin and is of course not handsome. If thee was here thee would have Mitchell’s {William Mitchell Barney, son of Sally and Matthew Barney} painted at once. She has a head of a child N. P. Willis that is very lovely. She has taken a room at the Atheneum and put up about a dozen pictures – very beautiful – Isabel is lovely. She has not tried to make a portrait, but a very pretty picture . . . . She is now engaged on Abra’m Quary – he is much flattered by it and it will be a fine portrait. I think we shall buy it or a copy for the Atheneum . . . . She will paint father also for herself – having made a pencil sketch . . . .We like her very much . . . . The above is from a letter sent by Maria Mitchell to her eldest sister, Sally Mitchell Barney. In it, Maria details what everyone in the Mitchell family is up to. She includes some details about Herminia B. Dassel, an artist who came to Nantucket to paint the last Native Americans and also took an interest in the famous Mitchell family. This was of course four years after Maria’s discovery of the comet. At the time of this letter, Maria was still the librarian for the Atheneum and the portrait of Quary that she mentions possibly buying for the Atheneum, she did buy as it hangs in the Atheneum by the front door today. Another Dassel portrait of Quary is in the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association and the portrait of Isabel Draper is currently on display at the NHA’s Whaling Museum – on loan from a museum in Rhode Island. The portrait Maria states she posed for at the start of the letter is in the collection of the MMA. It was given to us in the early 1990s by Sally’s great granddaughter – the granddaughter of Mitchell whom she mentions above as well. Maria and Dassel would become good friends – Maria was named the godmother of Dassel’s daughter. And the sketch of William made by Dassel that Maria states would become a portrait? It likely did come to fruition. It made its way down a side of the family but was unfortunately lost, likely sold as part of a family estate though we do have a photograph of it and one can tell it is the brush work of Dassel. JNLF
Show More