Summer 1997

MIRA - The Wonderful
Gordon Jones
MIRA Board Chair

As we celebrate our 25th anniversary, we reflect on our acronym, MIRA, which is more than a double entendre... In Spanish, "Mira!" means "Look!" and that is what astronomers do. In Arabic, the language that was used to name so many stars, "mira" is "...the wonderful." The Latin root for "miracle" is found in MIRA. That is often how I think of MIRA, the Monterey Institute for  Research in Astronomy, -Look! The wonderful, a miracle...

Among the guests celebrating MIRA's 25th Anniversary were (at left) Karen Love, Lynne Chester, and Gary Love; Ron Chester (right), and Claas & Whitney Shane.

And at a delightful gathering of the founders and long-time friends at the Naval Postgraduate School on April 25, we had the opportunity to reflect on the twenty five years of achievement and growth and to look forward to the next twenty five years of exciting activities. Bob Webb noted that as we dined, there was perhaps the most spectacular comet of our first quarter century, a true starry messenger, blazing through the evening sky.

Wonderful sights such as this provide the inspiration for MIRA's continual search of the universe. Discoveries that increase our understanding of the cosmos, contributions to the educational resources of our community, and astronomical research of great value in the world of science - all of these are the mission of MIRA. We anticipate a future filled with promise and many more "miracles."
 
Laura Cohan, Ron Chester, Ansley Hill, Craig Chester, and Gary Love discuss MIRA’s plans for its next 25 years.