Sky-Watching with Maria

Her Eyes on the Stars: Maria Mitchell, Astronomer 

by Laurie Wallmark; illus. by Liz Wong 

40 pages; ages 8-12

‎Creston Books, 2023

theme: biography, Women in STEM, comets

Night after night, Maria and her father climbed the stairs to her magical world – their rooftop observatory.

This is a story about Maria Mitchell and how she fell in love with astronomy. At the age of 18 she took a job as a librarian – one of the few jobs open to women, writes Laurie. Eleven years later, Maria is the first American to discover a comet.

What I like about this book: I like the narrative style; Laurie seamlessly slides facts into the story, like details of how Maria determined that what she saw was really a comet. I like how the story shows Maria’s work opening up possibilities for women to study astronomy. And I love that back matter includes Maria’s Rules of Astronomical Observation – which are good rules for applying to any endeavor. There’s also a timeline, glossary, and handy information for observing solar eclipses.

After reading, I had One Question for Laurie:

Me: What made you want to write a book about Maria? 

Laurie: When I first started to research and write my book about Maria Mitchell, there was only one trade book published about her. And that book was closer to historical fiction based on her life rather than a true biography. I felt the need to tell a factual story about her life. Even forgetting her many achievements as an astronomer, maybe her biggest accomplishment was encouraging future generations of women to enter the field.

Sky-Watching Beyond the Books:

Watch a solar eclipse. An annular eclipse happens Oct. 14, 2023, and will be visible in the US from Oregon to Texas. Check out information here. The next total eclipse visible in the US will be April 8, 2024. You can read more about it and find maps for what cities lie in the path here. 

Planning to view an eclipse? Do it safely. Here’s how you can make a viewer from a cereal box.

Go comet hunting! You may have a chance to see a brand-new comet in October 2024. Check out this article from Earth Sky.

Laurie is a member of #STEAMTeam2023. She has written tons of biographies about women in STEM including these two which I have reviewed on this blog: Numbers in Motion and Code Breaker, Spy Hunter.

You can find out more about Laurie at her website, http://www.lauriewallmark.com/

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Because this book appeals to older kids, on Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the author.

Wednesday Explorers Club ~ Close Encounter with a Comet!

In mid-December a comet named Wirtanen (46P) will be approaching the sun. And it may be bright enough that we’ll be able to see it without a telescope or binoculars. So make sure you’ve got lots of layers on, grab a thermos of hot cocoa, and head out to watch the sky.

Comets are dirty snowballs. Only much, much bigger! They are left over from when the stars and planet were formed billions of years ago. Comets begin their existence as huge chunks of rock and ice floating around in the Oort Cloud. That’s a cloud of icy bodies located about 186 billion miles from the sun, way past Pluto and its Kuiper Belt buddies.

The thing about comets is - you don’t see them until they’re close. When a comet comes near the Sun, the heat warms it up and causes the ice to sublimate. That’s a nifty word that describes what happens when ice turns into steam without becoming water first. Ice boiling off as steam releases dust and gas, too. All of this creates a thin atmosphere around the snowball nucleus as well as a tail. The tail can stretch millions of miles! Then the comet goes around the Sun and heads back into space. After a while we lose sight of it.

The last time 46P/Wirtanen flew by was in April of 2013. This year the comet will approach the sun on December 12 and fly closest to the Earth a few days later, on December 16. According to astronomers, this fly-by will be close, by comet standards - around 7.1 million miles away. That’s about 30 times as far as the moon’s distance from Earth.

Find out more! Check out this video and read more here.

Caroline's Comets

March is Women's History month, so I thought I'd kick it off with a true story of a woman in science:

Caroline's Comets, a true story
by Emily Arnold McCully
40 pages; ages 6-10
Holiday House, 2017

In 1786, Caroline Herschel became the first woman to discover a comet. She was also the first woman to be paid for doing scientific research.

Weaving Caroline's memoir and correspondence into the text, Emily McCully takes us into the life of an early astronomer.

Caroline's father was the first to show her the stars; her mother taught her the practical skills she would need. But then, when she was 22 years old, her brother William invited her to join him in England. In addition to helping around the house, he needed some help recording his astronomy observations - and some help building a telescope.

So Caroline became his assistant inventor. She pounded and sifted dried horse manure so her brother could build a mold for making the mirror. Their first telescope magnified things 6,000 times. That might not seem like a lot these days, but back in the 1700s it was astronomic.

They discovered that the Milky way was made of stars. They discovered a new planet (Uranus). And then, as the King's Astronomer, William began a sweep of the sky.Caroline discovered nebulae and star clusters and two new galaxies - and all the while she did needlework, kept William's accounts, and cleaned all the equipment.

Then, December 21, 1786, Caroline discovered a comet. McCully fills the pages with wonder, discovery, and comets. She also includes great back matter with a timeline, glossary, and additional notes.

 Today we're joining the STEM Friday roundup. Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copy provided by publisher.

Look for New Comet this Week & Next

The astronomers at Kopernik Observatory & Space Center say that we should be able to see a new comet this week. The comet, "PanSTARRS" was first detected in June 2011 and is believed to have originated in the Oort clout out beyond Pluto. With an orbital period of 100,000 years it's not going to be a frequent visitor.

The comet has been visible to the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere for a few weeks; now people in the Northern Hemisphere will get a view. We should be able to see it through March 21 - look low in the west right after sunset.

Check out EarthSky for Everything You Need to Know about Comet PanSTARRS - including photos and a great video about how this comet formed.

And, as you look for PanSTARRS, keep in mind this advice from comet-hunter David Levy: Comets are like cats; they have tails and they do precisely what they want.