Vestal Street Observatory


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.

Conservation Underway:


The Vestal Street Observatory will be the recipient of some much needed conservation and maintenance work over the next several years as the MMA spearheads a project to make repairs to spalling brick, mortar cracks and lintels that have shifted since it was built. Once the exterior is completed, work will be completed on the historic interior to conserve its original woodwork, windows, and the dome and pillar room. A new exhibit will be created in the 1908 pillar room. The work to the exterior of the building is made possible from a grant from the Community Preservation Act and Committee of Nantucket and the M. S. Worthington Foundation. 

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..

CONSERVATION UNDERWAY


Due to maintenance (read more above), the Vestal Street Observatory is unavailable for tours.


3 Vestal Street

Nantucket, MA


Take A Guided Tour


The Vestal Street Observatory is closed this year for guided tours.

Our Research


In addition to our public programming, one of the major tasks of the Maria Mitchell Astronomy Department is to conduct astronomical research, in particular, supervised research for talented, carefully selected astronomy undergraduate students from all over the country. This highly successful Presidential Award winning program is funded by the National Science Foundation. Learn more about the program here.

Beginning in the early 1900s, over 8,000 photographic glass plates of the skies above Nantucket were taken at the historic Vestal Street Observatory.

Each year, MMO NSF-REU interns and astronomers present their research work at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

MMO NSF-REU interns have won the prestigious Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Award for their research presentations for four out of the five past years.

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