Which astronomer are you most closely connected to?

Question

In celebration of the solar eclipse on April 8, and the International Day of Human Flight in Space on April 12, we are featuring astronomers this week.

Are you closer to Maria Mitchell, the first acknowledged female astronomer and the discoverer of a comet, or Carl Sagan, pioneer in the field of exobiology (extraterrestrial life in space)?

Here are more astronomers to check your connection to:

• Tycho Brahe, who argued in favor of a geo-heliocentrism
• Nicolaus Copernicus, argued in favor of heliocentrism and the earth spinning on an axis
• Eise Eisenga, founder of the oldest continuously operating planetarium in the world
• Caroline Herschel, the first woman to discover a comet
• Sir Thomas Maclear, His Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope
• Simon Newcomb, one the founders of and the first president of the American Astronomical Society
• Sir Isaac Newton, one of the first to make a reflecting telescope
• Pierre Puiseux, created a photographic atlas of the moon
• Beatrice Tinsley, Queen of the Cosmos
• Edith Woodward, researcher of binary stars

Which of these is closest to you on our single family tree? If you're one of the 32.6 million of us who are connected to each other on our big tree, you can check with the Connection Finder. On any WikiTree profile, you can select "Connection to Me" from the pull-down menu.

MyConnections can find your relationships to any of our Featured Connections and in any category on WikiTree such as Astronomers, Astrophysicists, and Mathematicians. Click the green button you'll see in the upper right hand corner of the category page if you are logged in.

Let us know how you're related below. If you want to share your connection on social media with cousins and friends, click the "get shareable image" button below your connection path. (Please refrain from sharing your connection on the featured profiles. It can clutter important conversations on research and collaboration. Thanks!)

P.S. Play this week's Connection Combat game! Are you closer to Carl Sagan or Maria Mitchell? Can your connection be verified with reliable sources?

P.P.S. Help us find and improve the profiles for next week's feature: Foodies.

Comments

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Answer 1

22 degrees to Maria Mitchell. My 22nd cousin 5x removed. We link up here Ferch_Ednywain-1

Answer 2

16th degrees to  Maria Mitchell, 8th cousin 3xr

Answer 3

Cousins (Other Connection)
Simon Newcomb - 7C5R - (16 degrees)
Isaac Newton - 9C12R - (23 degrees)
Edith Woodward - 14C3R - (20 degrees)
Tycho Brahe - 15C16R - (27 degrees)
Maria Mitchell - 22C7R - (17 degrees)

Connections
Carl Sagan - 25 degrees
Caroline Lucretia Herschel - 25 degrees
Eise Eisenga - 28 degrees
Beatrice Tinsley - 28 degrees
Thomas Maclear - 30 degrees
Pierre Henri Puiseux - 33 degrees
Nicholaus Copernicus - 35 degrees

Answer 4

I am most closely connected to Edith Woodward at 16 degrees of separation.

Cousins

• 21 degrees from Isaac Newton (7C, 9R)
• 16 degrees from Edith Woodward (15C, 4R)
• 25 degrees from Tycho Brahe (15C, 4R)
• 19 degrees from Simon Newcomb (15C, 7R)
• 18 degrees from Maria Mitchell (20C, 5R)

No Relationship Found

• 23 degrees from Caroline Lucretia Herschel
• 24 degrees from Eise Eisenga
• 26 degrees from Carl Sagan
• 26 degrees from Beatrice Tinsley
• 28 degrees from Thomas Maclear
• 32 degrees from Nicholaus Copernicus
• 32 degrees from Pierre Henri Puiseux

Answer 5

My closest is Simon Newcomb at 16 degrees.

Next is Edith Woodward at 17 degrees.

Answer 6

cousins -- connections 

Maria Mitchell  - 4^th cousin 5x rem. -- 14 deg. (via Joanna (Folger) Coleman)

Tyge Ottesen Brahe - 16^th cousin 13x rem. -- 23 deg.

Simon Newcomb -    5^th cousin 6x rem. –16 deg.

Isaac Newton -    8^th cousin 10x rem -- 20 deg.

Edith J (Jones) Woodward -   8^th cousin 3x rem. --17 deg.

Answer 7

I am 18 degrees from Tycho Brahe (Third cousins 11 times removed)

 21 degrees from Caroline Lucretia Herschel

23 degrees from Simon Newcomb (24th cousins twice removed)

23 degrees from Isaac Newton (20th cousins five times removed)

24 degrees from Maria Mitchell (very distant cousin)

26 degrees from Beatrice Tinsley

26 degrees from Edit Woodward (25th cousins twise removed)

29 degrees from Nicholaus Copernicus

30 degrees from Eise Eisenga

30 degrees from Thomas Maclear

30 degrees from Pierre Henri Puiseux

33 degrees from Carl Sagan

Answer 8

I am 29 steps from Carl Sagan, but we share a birthday.

I am 21 steps from Maria Mitchell - and am also a female astronomer! I started early yesterday with an interview about the solar eclipse on Irish radio, and ended the day trying to get a glimpse of the eclipse - but we were clouded out.

Roll on August 2026 and northern Spain.

Answer 9

22 degrees from Maria Mitchell,
29 degrees from Carl Sagan,
25 degrees from Tycho Brahe,
33 degrees from Nicholaus Copernicus,
22 degrees from Eise Eisenga,
21 degrees from Caroline Lucretia Herschel,
18 degrees from Thomas Maclear,
21 degrees from Simon Newcomb,
24 degrees from Isaac Newton,
32 degrees from Pierre Henri Puiseux,
18 degrees from Beatrice Tinsley
and 22 degrees from Edith Woodward

Answer 10

I'm 14 degrees from Eise Eisinga. The planetarium he built in his house in Franeker, Friesland, Nederland, is the oldest working planetarium in the world. It became an Unesco World Heritage site in 2023.

Answer 11

Edith Woodward is only 15 degrees away with one marriage on the path.  Close behind are Simon Newcomb at 16 degrees and Maria Mitchell at 17. All three are cousins, but none closer than 5th 6 times removed (Maria Mitchell).

Maria must have been something special.  I'm sure she faced discrimination, but to read the biography she simply learned what she needed to know and did the science and teaching that was in front of her.  Add the anti-slavery and suffrage work and it's quite a resume.  Of course it helps to have your father build an observatory you can use, but as the bio points out, she was the only sibling who really built on that start.

Answer 12

Sir Isaac Newton 5c10r

Simon Newcomb 7c3r

Edith Woodward 17c

Maria Mitchell 20c3r

Answer 13

18 degrees from Beatrice Tinsley, a surprising distance given that her grandfather and my great-grandfather lived just a half-dozen miles apart. But her family were weavers and mine were farmers, and the two rarely intermingled.

Answer 14

14 degrees Simon Newcomb, 18c, 4r, mrca Clare-18, Bruce-517

16 degrees Edith (Jones) Woodward, 15c, 1r, mrca Mallory-9, Corbet-5

17 degrees Maria Mitchell, 22c, 4r, mrca Ferch_Ednywain-1, Ab_Edwin-3

20 degrees Isaac Newton, 6c, 7r, mrca Tailboys-2, Tyrwhit-4

20 degrees Tycho Brahe, 15c, 14r, mrca Piast-16, Kiev-19

22 degrees Beatrice Tinsley

22 degrees Carl Sagan

23 degrees Caroline Herschel

26 degrees Eise Eisenga

27 degrees Thomas Maclear

30 degrees Pierre Puiseux

31 degrees Nicholaus Copernicus

Answer 15

16 degrees from Edith Woodward (10th cousin, 4x removed)
16 degrees from Simon Newcomb (6th cousin, 5x removed)
17 degrees from Maria Mitchell (7th cousin, 4x removed)
19 degrees from Isaac Newton (8th cousin, 10x removed)
22 degrees from Carl Sagan
22 degrees from Tycho Brahe (14th cousin, 11x removed)
22 degrees from Caroline Lucretia Herschel
22 degrees from Beatrice Tinsley
26 degrees from Eise Eisenga
28 degrees from Thomas Maclear
29 degrees from Pierre Henri Puiseux
31 degrees from Nicholaus Copernicus

Answer 16

16 degrees from Maria Mitchell. (If we throw out the Pitt/s line as disproven by DNA tests.) 19th cousin 4 times removed. MRCA Finudd ap Lywarch (b. abt 1145).

17 degrees from Edith Woodward. 16th cousin 1 time removed. MRCA Margery (Venables) Mainwaring (abt 1369 - 1459).

18 degrees from Simon Newcomb. 15th cousin 6 times removed. MRCA Mistress (Unknown) (b. abt 1340) (of William Douglas) .

18 degrees from Isaac Newton. 8th cousin 10 times removed. MRCA Elizabeth (Clarell) Gresley (abt 1395 - aft 1449).

20 degrees from Caroline Lucretia Herschel/

23 degrees from Tycho Brahe. 15th cousin 13 times removed. MRCA Boleslaw (Plast) Polski (abt 1086 - 1138).

24 degrees from Carl Sagan.

24 degrees from Beatrice Tinsley.

27 degrees from Eise Eisenga.

28 degrees from Thomas Maclear..

30 degrees from Pierre Henri Puiseux.

31 degrees from Ncholaus Copernicus.

Comments

If somebody is up for it, I think it would be interesting to see which eminent alchemist (magician even) folks are most closely connected to. Tycho, above, for instance, qualifies as both astronomer and alchemist.

Answer 17

I am most closely connected to Simon Newcomb and Isaac Newton at 20 degrees.

Answer 18

Simon Newcomb - 6th cousins four times removed

Maria Mitchell - 6th cousins four times removed

Isaac Newton - 13th cousins 11 times removed

Tycho - 14th cousins 16 times removed

Edith Woodward -16th cousins three times removed

Answer 19

Ancestors and Cousins

• 17 Degrees - Maria Mitchell (5C 6xR)
• 17 Degrees - Simon Newcomb (7C 4xR)
• 20 Degrees - Edith Woodward (10C 1xR)
• 22 Degrees - Isaac Newton (12C 8xR) Uncertain
• 24 Degrees - Tycho Brahe (15C 14xR)

Connections

• 22 Degrees - Eise Eisenga
• 22 Degrees - Beatrice Tinsley
• 23 Degrees - Caroline Lucretia Herschel
• 24 Degrees - Carl Sagan
• 27 Degrees - Thomas Maclear
• 31 Degrees - Pierre Henri Puiseux
• 33 Degrees - Nicholaus Copernicus

Answer 20

My closest is Tycho Brahe at 15 degrees (12th great uncle).