Twinkling Telescopes
19/05/2007 08:20 PM
I wasn’t very impressed by Nantucket
today. It’s attractive, it’s quaint, and it has a fairly
interesting history. As a college student in the 21st century,
however, I am not rich. After walking around all afternoon, I
didn’t see much to do besides eat expensively, go sailing on
expensive boats, shop for expensive clothing or…walk around. So,
that is just what I did before returning to the lodging to rest. We
are staying in a really nice place at the Maria Mitchell Institute
in lodging where the interns stay over the summer.
Tonight we had a meeting with Vladimir, who works at the Institute and is an astronomer. He gave us a brief history of Maria Mitchell, who was the first woman astronomer and the first woman to see a comet. She was taught by her father, also an astronomer, and later taught herself everything she knew; she was obviously a brilliant woman and would have been considered especially brilliant in her time when women weren’t much more than mothers. Vladimir told us about the program they have for university students from the United States. Each summer they have six students (always a female majority) come to study astronomy. The key to their program is self-motivated learning and exploration, rather than simply telling students what is true and important. Participants are expected to figure things out for themselves.
After a briefing, Vladimir took us to the observatories where the Institute has two telescopes. The first one was white and brass and had recently been shined, gleaming its gorgeous structure. He explained about how telescopes work and how they are made. There are two types of telescopes - reflecting and refracting - and he moved us on to see the other, brand new telescope that had been his dream for years and years. It was shaped a lot less like what one expects a telescope to look like; instead of being long and thin, it was very short and wide and transmitted the images it captures onto a television screen.
Vladimir spoke for a long time, but it was never boring. He was so enthusiastic and knowledgeable and also had a lovely Russian and French-influenced English accent. I could have listened to him teach for much longer, especially if it had been a clear night so that he could’ve shown us the sky. For a minute there, I considered being an astronomer so that I could come to his institute and have him teach me for an entire summer!
Tonight we had a meeting with Vladimir, who works at the Institute and is an astronomer. He gave us a brief history of Maria Mitchell, who was the first woman astronomer and the first woman to see a comet. She was taught by her father, also an astronomer, and later taught herself everything she knew; she was obviously a brilliant woman and would have been considered especially brilliant in her time when women weren’t much more than mothers. Vladimir told us about the program they have for university students from the United States. Each summer they have six students (always a female majority) come to study astronomy. The key to their program is self-motivated learning and exploration, rather than simply telling students what is true and important. Participants are expected to figure things out for themselves.
After a briefing, Vladimir took us to the observatories where the Institute has two telescopes. The first one was white and brass and had recently been shined, gleaming its gorgeous structure. He explained about how telescopes work and how they are made. There are two types of telescopes - reflecting and refracting - and he moved us on to see the other, brand new telescope that had been his dream for years and years. It was shaped a lot less like what one expects a telescope to look like; instead of being long and thin, it was very short and wide and transmitted the images it captures onto a television screen.
Vladimir spoke for a long time, but it was never boring. He was so enthusiastic and knowledgeable and also had a lovely Russian and French-influenced English accent. I could have listened to him teach for much longer, especially if it had been a clear night so that he could’ve shown us the sky. For a minute there, I considered being an astronomer so that I could come to his institute and have him teach me for an entire summer!