Last night was the 2009 edition of the annual Kovalenko dinner in the UVa Astronomy Department. This is our formal event where we get together for dinner at the Rotunda. New additions to the department are recognized and a couple awards are given. Congratulations to my friend David who was given the Larry Frederick Teaching Assistant Award this year.

I had a very nice and interesting dinner. I was sitting next to Alice Rivlin who, in addition to being a member of the Brookings Institution and a respected economist, is the granddaughter of [[wikipedia:Samuel Alfred Mitchell] who was Director the Leander McCormick Observatory in the mid 20th Century. She was on hand to present a silver “thing” to McCormick Observatory. I believe this dish was presented to her grandfather by the McCormick family in recognition of his work in developing the Astronomy Department at UVa. It had been passed down through the family.

After some contact between a scientist in the Astronomy Department (Ricky Patterson), Alice decided to donate the silver dish to the Observatory. At dinner last night she gave a nice history of the dish and also some about her grandfather’s time at the Observatory. It was quite interesting to hear.

The “thing” is a silver egg-shaped dish (about a a foot and a half across) with legs. It was used in English country homes as part of breakfast. Served buffet style, this dish would have hot water in the bottom, with a tray in the middle holding the scrambled eggs. I’m looking forward to seeing in become part of the history collection up at the Observatory.