Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory

Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory

Historic Building

 3 Vestal Street, Nantucket, MA 02554

Built in 1908, the original dome housed a 7.5-inch telescope with a lens from Thomas Cooke and Sons of York, England and a cast-iron pier, mount, and clockwork by Alvan Clark & Sons in Cambridge, MA.

The Maria Mitchell Association’s Astronomy Department was established over 100 years ago with help from the Director of the Harvard College Observatory, Edward Pickering, and Harvard astronomer Annie Jump Cannon who went on to chair the MMA’s Observatory Committee. “Moon Evenings’” at the MMA had become so popular that the fledgling organization realized it needed to expand its astronomy program in order to better honor its namesake. Maria Mitchell’s 5-inch Alvan Clark telescope became a guide for the larger 7.5 inch telescope. This larger telescope was necessary to begin the work of compiling the photographic plate library of the skies over Nantucket and helped to establish the Maria Mitchell Observatory (MMO) as a research observatory..

Location Info

Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory

3 Vestal Street

Nantucket, MA 02554