MMA Fall 2022 Hours and Programs

Erin Holdgate • September 9, 2022

Nantucket, MA – The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA), your portal to Nantucket’s Natural world, announces its schedule for another fall full of science education, research, and exploration of the sky, land, and sea of Nantucket Island through its award-wining programs, events, and properties.


Fall Hours

Updated hours for MMA properties are listed below.

 

Aquarium (28 Washington Street): Friday-Sunday, 10 AM - 4 PM

Hinchman House Natural Science Museum (7 Milk Street): Friday-Sunday, 10 AM - 4 PM

Historic Mitchell House (1 Vestal Street): Fridays, 10 AM - 4 PM

Research Center (2 Vestal Street): Saturdays, 10 AM - 12PM


A MMA property pass ($20 Adult, $12 Child) provides admission to the Aquarium, Hinchman House Natural Science Museum, and Historic Mitchell House, and can be purchased in-person upon entering the properties. A single entry to the Historic Mitchell House is available for $10. In addition to entry at the three properties, the property pass provides admission to an Open Night, which must be registered for in advance. Admission to all properties is FREE for MMA Members.

 

Fall Programs

Details and registration links for the programs featured below can be found on the MMA website’s calendar at https://www.mariamitchell.org/calendar.

 

Open Nights at Loines Observatory are offered Thursdays from 8PM - 9PM ($20 admission, free for Members, free with property pass). New this year, you must register in advance online at: https://www.mariamitchell.org/open-nights for these programs. As always, MMA staff will lead constellation tours and guide visitors through different viewing stations inside and outside the observatory domes. Participants will have a chance to view the Moon, planets, star clusters, nebulae, and even other galaxies! Open Nights will end on October 27.

 

Fall Feeding Frenzy is offered daily, Monday through Sunday, from 9AM - 10 AM (group price is $75 for Members, $125 for Non-Members – up to 5 guests). Join MMA Aquarium staff on a private tour as they feed the ever-hungry creatures at the Aquarium before it opens to the public! You will learn all about the fascinating marine animals as you observe their unique feeding behaviors. The Feeding Frenzy is very popular, so advance registration is required. The maximum capacity per registration is 5 guests. At least one adult must sign up with children. This program ends on October 7.

 

Ravenous Reptiles is offered daily, Monday through Sunday, from 9AM - 10 AM ($10 for Members, $15 for Non-Members). Learn about the unique adaptations of turtles, frogs, snakes, and more at the MMA Natural Science Museum! You will get to get to touch or hold several of the MMA Natural Science Museum display animals. If you love animals, this a great way to learn about native and non-native species up-close. Pre-registration is recommended. At least one adult must sign up with children. This program is designed to be interesting for adults and children ages 4 and up. This program will continue throughout the fall.

 

Nantucket Bird Walk with Ginger Andrews is offered Saturdays from 7:45AM - 10AM ($10 for Members, $15 for Non-Members). Join Ginger Andrews, Nantucket native, MMA Field Ornithologist, and Inquirer and Mirror columnist, to look for amazing Nantucket birds. With fun facts, local natural history, and humor, Ginger Andrews leads a fascinating tour. Bird Walks will explore various habitats around town and beyond, depending on availability of participants’ transportation. Indoor study, using the collections in the Research Center, may also be used on cold or rainy days. This program will continue throughout the fall.

 

Biological Collections Open Hours is offered at the Research Center on Saturdays from 10AM - 12 PM (Free to all). Join the MMA's Field Ornithologist, Ginger Andrews, to learn about the collections, why collections are so important to science, and examine different specimens during each session. From specimens of birds and mammals to insects and plants, you never know what will be on display! This program will continue throughout the fall.

 

Fall Beach Biology Field Trip is offered Saturdays from 2PM - 3:30PM ($10 for Members, $15 for Non-Members). Join Aquarium staff to learn about the fascinating biology, ecology, and geology that make Nantucket's beaches so unique. We will discover shells and bones of over 15 species of marine animals and are likely to observe live mole crabs, sand fleas, shore birds, beach insects, and seals! This program meets at the Madaket Beach Parking Lot. Participants must have their own transportation. At least one adult must sign up with children. This program will continue throughout the fall.

 

Fall Marine Ecology Field Trip is offered Sundays from 2PM - 3:30PM ($10 for Members, $15 for Non-Members). Help collect, identify, and release fish, crabs, shrimp, and other marine life! The Harbor is filled with interesting animals that will amaze you in their shapes, colors, and habits. This program is part of a long-term research project and is interesting for adults and children alike. This program meets at the parking lot at the Hither Creek Beach Access, Madaket. Participants must have their own transportation to caravan to the beach. At least one adult must sign up with children. This program will continue throughout the fall.

 

Bug Bonanza is offered Fridays from 11AM - 12PM and Saturdays from 1PM - 2PM ($10 for Members, $15 for Non-Members). Enjoy an afternoon collecting insects with the Natural Science Museum staff! We will learn how to collect insects like a scientist, use microscopes, and read dichotomous keys to identify each creature that we catch. This is a reoccurring program, but the specific focus and materials provided will change each week. This program is appropriate for children ages 4 and up. All children must be accompanied by an adult, and all participants must register. Please check in for this program at the front desk of the Natural Science Museum on 7 Milk Street. This program ends on October 30.

 

Nature Story Hour is offered Fridays from 1PM - 2PM, Saturdays from 11AM - 12PM, and Sundays from 1PM - 2PM ($10 for Members, $15 for Non-Members). Enjoy your afternoon with this program specially-designed for the young explorer in your family! During each session, an MMA educator will read a nature or science related book, introduce you to one of the MMA’s animal friends, and we will finish up with an activity related to the story! This is a reoccurring program, but the specific focus and materials provided will change each week. This program is appropriate for children ages 3 and up. All children must be accompanied by an adult and all participants must register. Please check in for this program at the front desk of the MMA Natural Science Museum on 7 Milk Street.

 

Discovery Sundays at Discovery Park, beginning Sept. 18, is offered Sundays from 10AM - 2PM (Free to all). Join the Maria Mitchell Association at the Discovery Playground at Hinsdale Park! Every Sunday we will bring an animal touch tank and fun STEAM activities for the public! Come and explore the curious world of STEAM with us! No registration necessary. Meet at the Discovery Playground, 54 Old South Road.

 

WYN: Whatever You Need Homework Help is offered Wednesdays through Sundays from 3PM - 4PM (Free to all). Do you have science, math or history homework that you don’t want to tackle alone? Or do you just want to explore how to use laboratory microscopes and equipment? Drop into the Maria Mitchell Research Center, on 2 Vestal Street, and dive into the world of exploration! Walk-ins welcome, no registration required but encouraged. Feel free to email ahead of time if you have a specific question you need help with: jgurley@mariamitchell.org.

 

Fall Night Marine Ecology Field Trip is offered Sept. 11 and Sept. 29 from 8PM - 9PM ($10 for Members, $15 for Non-Members). Join our Aquarium staff to learn about the fish, squid, crabs, and more that come out to feed at night in the shallow water. This program meets at the MMA Aquarium, 28 Washington Street. Flashlight or headlamps will be provided, but feel free to bring your own lighting, too! At least one adult must sign up with children.

 

Owl Prowl is offered Sept. 15 from 6:45PM - 8:15PM, Oct. 6 from 6:40PM - 8:10PM, and Oct. 27 from 6PM - 7:30PM ($45 per participant). Join the MMA's Field Ornithologist, Ginger Andrews, as we listen for calls of a variety of nocturnal animals and birds. We will watch for owls as they begin their nightly activity. While an owl sighting is not guaranteed, you will certainly be able to observe several fascinating nocturnal animal species. This program is meant for adults, but children 8 and up are welcome to register with an adult guardian.

 

Big History Nights is offered on Sept. 22 and Sept. 29 from 6:30PM - 8PM (Free to all). Join Dr. Rich Blundell, visiting scientist at the MMA, for a weekly Big History Storytelling at Loines Observatory. "Big History," an academic discipline that examines history from the Big Bang to the present, has been pursued since the Renaissance. During this 90-minute visual lecture incorporating large-scale videos and the Loines Observatory telescopes, Dr. Blundell will tell the fascinating story of the cosmos and our place in it. Registration is required.

 

Earth Story Walk & Talk with Dr. Rich Blundell is offered on Sept. 22 and Sept. 29 from 2PM - 3:30PM ($25 per participant). Join the MMA's visiting scientist, Dr. Rich Blundell, on this 2.9 mile walk through the history of planet Earth, each stride will account for approximately one million years of natural history. Along the way, we will stop to explore the major thresholds of geologic time and draw on the local setting whenever possible to help tell the story. Come ambulate and contemplate the established, scientific understandings, and reconsider how the events and processes of deep time have led to our current global predicament. By considering the broader scales of life on Earth, we will gain new insights to reinterpret the science in more meaningful ways. Registration is required.

 

Four Centuries Domestic Tour is offered Sept. 10 and Oct. 1 from 10AM - 12PM. ($10 per participant). A unique and extremely popular collaborative walking tour with the MMA's Deputy Director & Curator of the Mitchell House, the Nantucket Preservation Trust, and the Nantucket Historical Association that looks at the changes in domestic life over four centuries and how it shaped homes, buildings, neighborhoods, and land use. Participants should meet at the Oldest House on Sunset Hill (tour will end on Main Street). Tour includes brief visits inside each building visited. No registration required.

 

Maria Mitchell and the Daring Daughters of Nantucket Island Walking Tour is offered Sept. 17 from 10AM - 12 PM ($10 for Members, $15 for Non-Members). Join Jascin Leonardo Finger, curator of the Mitchell House, for a walking tour concerning the lives of Maria Mitchell and Nantucket’s famous and infamous women, as well as the lesser-known women of our island. Learn why whaling, Quakerism, and the isolation of an island afforded these women opportunities that women elsewhere in America at the time were not afforded. Space is limited and pre-registration is required.


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.

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For Immediate Release

September 8, 2022

Contact: Erin Holdgate, Marketing Director

eholdgate@mariamitchell.org

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Curator Almost Eaten By Large Lobster

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 17, 2025
Clementine has finally molted! We at the MMA have been awaiting this for quite some time so I decided to re-post an old blog about Clementine. Well, not quite. But, part of my job is to also take care of all of the MMA properties. So, I headed over to check on one and what cleaning supplies are needed for the summer and for our staff spring clean-up of the site. In one room, some of the animals from the Aquarium over-winter. One of those is “our” lobster, Clementine, so-called because she is orange in color. (Orange lobsters are five times rarer than blue lobsters and only one in ten million lobsters are orange.) She is fairly active and though the hope is that she “sleeps” a bit for the winter, she doesn’t seem to. So, enter curator into room who glances over and hopes the lobster does not “run” to the side of the tank asking to be fed. Yes, she really does that – she has gotten used to people. I always hate it because I feel guilty – I do not feed her because that falls to the Natural Science Department and I do not want to hurt her or her schedule in any way. In any case, “Whew!” She actually seemed quiet at the back of the tank. Maybe she was “sleeping.” I kept moving to the next room and glanced back. Low and behold, she was at the front of the tank waving her claws! Seriously? So I kept moving on – after telling her, “I can’t feed you,” – and she went to the back of the tank again! Another, “Whew!” I decided to text Emily, our Director of Natural Science (at that time), and relay what happened. I get a text back. “You can feed her if you want.” “Really?” I texted back. “What do I give her?” So, Clementine then ran back to the front of the tank when she saw me opening the freezer and taking out the mussels and a shrimp. I got another text from Emily: “Use the forceps to hand them to her.” Well, I wasn’t about to put my hand in there! So, I get the shrimp, put it in the forceps, open the top of the tank and start to put my hand down, and INSTANTLY two HUGE lobster claws come out of the tank and grab not the shrimp but the forceps! I wish I had a picture. I was afraid she was going to take the forceps. And then, I was afraid my hand was going to be her lunch. I could not get her to release the forceps – it was a battle royale though the battle was more on her part because I was afraid I would break her claw! After some twisting of the forceps and tugging, she finally relented, took the shrimp, and began her lunch. Another, “Whew!” I was afraid I was either going to hurt her or I was going to be explaining to my three-year old what happened to Mommy’s hand at work. Veuve Clicquot with that, Clementine? Apparently, someone else knew what transpired with the lobster. As I left the building, a male mallard duck was paddling around in the rather large puddle – if you can call it that – located on the property. We have recently had a large amount of rain. He was laughing (I mean quacking) at me. In all seriousness, I have never met a lobster with so much personality. Yes, personality. Clementine may just have changed my tune on lobster rolls. JNLF

Miss Herschel

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 10, 2025
A re-blog from years past. The item you see here is a small piece of what once was. Upon her visit to Europe as a young woman’s chaperone in 1857 –1858, Maria Mitchell visited many of the major observatories of Europe and met many of the movers and shakers in the scientific, art, and literary worlds of the continent. While Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848) and her brother, Sir William (1738 – 1822), were long dead, Maria was able to meet Caroline’s nephew (William’s son), Sir John Herschel (1792 – 1871). All three were astronomers, though Caroline found herself having to give credit – or have her brother accept credit – for much of her work because she was a woman. She has often been credited with the being the first woman to discover a comet. She was likely not – and the other woman who was the first lost credit through history as she had to “give” her comet discovery to her husband. See a pattern? Caroline was just one of many women in a long line of, “She couldn’t possibly do that – she is a woman!” As Maria once said, “But a woman, what more could you ask to be?” But back to this small item. It was a page from one of Caroline Herschel’s notebook’s, torn from its home by John Herschel to serve a s a memento for Maria of her visit to the family’s home. Maria was a bit shocked but . . . she took it! Over the years, the paper tore and ripped and just crumbled away until Maria finally decided that to save it, she needed to past it into one of her own journals. And thus, we have what we have. I assume Caroline’s notations refer to her brother William – “Wol” and Woll.” It could be an “I” but it really looks like an “O.” She is considered the world’s first professional woman astronomer – she would be compensated for her work after some time – and she warrants a greater look at – too much for a blog. So I encourage you to go take a look at her. Maria would want you to! JNLF

From The Rear

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 3, 2025
I am not so sure our founders would love that title but the image is of the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO) “from the rear.” I love this image as it is really the only one we have – unless you count the one that is taken from farther away and from further into the backyard of the Mitchell House. That one allows you to see the natural slope of the Mitchell House back lawn which would be altered when they added the Curator’s Cottage. Both of the images were taken before the Curator’s Cottage was added at the back of the Mitchell House in the early 1930s – and this one you see here was taken before 1922 when they added the Astronomical Study onto the MMO. It also shows the original dome – which was copper – before it was replaced in 1951 – which is the current dome. The copper did not hold up to our climate here – salt spray, damp, fog. But the new one, shipped over from England, has held up well. The current dome was donated by Margaret Underwood Davis (MMA board president at the time), in memory of her son, Cushing Davis who was an amateur astronomer. Margaret Davis served as president from 1930-1946 and again from 1949-1953. The image tells you some other things too. For instance, the grape arbor behind the Mitchell House is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell’s (Maria’s uncle) grape vine – I have blogged about it several times before – and you can see it in this image. You can also see how the Milk Room connects to the 1850s kitchen. The 1850s kitchen was added by Peleg Mitchell Jr and it’s the first little wart you see with the white pipe attached. The next wart is the Milk Room – also added by Peleg – it’s the one with the shutters on the window. Both still exist it’s just the Curator’s Cottage was attached in the 1930s. You will see another chimney too. It appears alongside the white pipe. That is likely the original chimney to what is now the Astronomer’s Cottage at the MMA. We acquired the Cottage in the 1920s but I believe all of the additions, and the removal of the chimney, were done before we were given it.  Fun! JNLF
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