Maria Mitchel

Image from Maria Mitchel House

“We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but is somewhat beauty and poetry.”

"Question everything." 

"Do not look at stars as bright spots only - try to take in the vastness of the universe."  
 (Quotes by Maria Mitchel)

Maria Mitchel (1818-1889) was the first female astronomer in the USA in a time that life was not easy for women, being the lives of scientist women no exception to that rule.
She came from a Quaker family and her father taught her to observe the stars when she was a little child. Her father's aim was not only to make navigation calculations much more accurate (they lived in Nantucket, an important whaling fleet town) but also he wanted to give her daughter the same education as boys had.
She became a famous astronomer in 1847 when she discovered a new comet now called Comet Mitchell 1847VI.  And this is the telescope that she used:

Image from the Smithsonian Institute

 We remember her on the first of October, the day (we better should say the night) she found that comet when she was exploring the sky with the telescope you see above.

Would you like to become a scientist? you can start by reading The Scientist Magazine.

 And here you have a Trailer of the movie Moby Dick so you can imagine how the whale hunting business was: