Pilawt
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Pilawt
Six miles up the road from KFLG, atop Mars Hill just west of downtown Flagstaff, is the Lowell Observatory. It is definitely worth a visit. It was there in 1930 that 24-year-old Clyde Tombaugh made and studied hundreds of photographic plates of the night sky, and happened to notice one tiny white dot moving amongst the field of thousands of stars. That tiny dot was the planet later named Pluto.
Here are the two tell-tale plates. The second was made on January 29, 1930, coincidentally the very day my father was born.
(I have a bit of a rooting interest in this story; I attended a class taught by Dr. Tombaugh at New Mexico State University in 1967.)
The Pluto Discovery telescope itself has been under renovation for the past couple of years, but has just now been reopened to tours.
The Pluto planet/non-planet debate is a touchy subject to the locals, as you would expect. The tour guide (completely unbiased, of course) told us that if the new IAU criteria promulgated in 2006 were strictly followed, only Mercury and Saturn would still qualify as planets.
I appreciated the sign at the entrance to the observatory visitor center, which pays homage to one of the great philosophers of our time:
Here are the two tell-tale plates. The second was made on January 29, 1930, coincidentally the very day my father was born.
(I have a bit of a rooting interest in this story; I attended a class taught by Dr. Tombaugh at New Mexico State University in 1967.)
The Pluto Discovery telescope itself has been under renovation for the past couple of years, but has just now been reopened to tours.
The Pluto planet/non-planet debate is a touchy subject to the locals, as you would expect. The tour guide (completely unbiased, of course) told us that if the new IAU criteria promulgated in 2006 were strictly followed, only Mercury and Saturn would still qualify as planets.
I appreciated the sign at the entrance to the observatory visitor center, which pays homage to one of the great philosophers of our time:
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