1. Maria Mitchell(August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889)By: Sam Martinez and GuiRegos

2. Background • Born in Massachusetts in 1818 • She was a Quaker, thus she believed in education for men and women • When she was twelve, her father taught her how to use a telescope. She helped him calculate the precise time of an annular eclipse. • Her father then built an observatory on his roof and put in a four inch telescope to do observations for the US Coast Guard. • Maria helped him with those measurements.

3. Achievements • Her greatest achievement came when she discovered a comet with a two inch wide telescope. She tracked it over a few days. This was known as “Miss Mitchell’s comet.” • Before, the only other women to have discovered a comet was Caroline Herschel • Maria rose to fame after the discovering “Miss Mitchell’s comet” in 1847

5. Achievements • First professional women astronomer in the United States. • Voted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Association for the Advancement of Science as the first women in 1848 and 1850, respectively. • US Nautical Almanac Office offered her a job to calculate the positions of the planet Venus. • Discovered that sunspots are whirling vertical cavities and not clouds.

6. Achievements • She became a professor of astronomy at Vassar College in 1865. • She became the Director of the Vassar College Observatory, where she got to use the 12 inch telescope, the third largest in the US at the time • She still studied the surfaces of Jupiter and Saturn, and photographed stars. • In 1869 she was the first women elected to the American Philosophical Society and in 1873 she helped found the American Association for the Advancement of Women.

7. Later Years • She retired in 1888 because of bad health and eventually died in 1889. • In honor of Maria Mitchell, the Maria Mitchell Observatory was built. • The Maria Mitchell foundation was founded in 1902. • She was also inducted into the U.S National Women’s Hall of Fame.

8. Sources • http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/maria-mitchell-bio/ • http://www.sheisanastronomer.org/index.php/history/maria-mitchell