NEWSSERVICE NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY LAS CRUCES. N. M.
BOX 3K-AC 505-646-3221 8S003
Karen Taylor Jones
Feb. 28, 1975
LAS CRUCES - It was no job for a city slicker. It was 1929, and
the astronomers at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., were looking
for some hardy soul to help in their search for the mysterious Planet
X.
When a youngster from a wheat farm in Kansas submitted his
drawings of Mars and Jupiter, made as he looked through a homemade
telescope, the Lowell staff was sufficiently impressed to invite him
to Flagstaff for a trial employment.
"I guess they thought if I was willing to freeze my fingers
making drawings through a telescope, I was right for their observer's
Job," Clyde Tombaugh, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico
State University, recalled recently.
The 69-year old astronomer observed the 45th anniversary of his
discovery of the planet Pluto this month.
He was a raw-boned farm boy who had cut thousands of acres of
wheat during his youth when he was invited to Lowell Observatory for
the Planet X project. Armed only with a high school degree, an impressive amount of self-taught knowledge of astronomy, and a fantastic
love of the skies and their secrets, Clyde Tombaugh never dreamed that
within a year he would go down in history as the discoverer of the
ninth planet in the solar system.
-more-
Taylor, Karen Jones; Gyula, Schalk; Lovelady, J. R.
Subject
Press releases; Tombaugh, Clyde William, 1906-1997; Hungary; Amateur astronomy; White Sand Missile Range (N.M.)--Officials and Employees; Telescopes; Optical instruments; Burdett (Kan.); Memorials; White Sands Missile Range Hall of Fame; Exhibitions;
Relevant Names
Lowell, Percival, 1855-1916; New Mexico State University; Tombaugh, Clyde William, 1906-1997; United States. Congress
Digital Publisher
New Mexico State University Library
Collection
NMSU Department of Astronomy: Clyde W. Tombaugh Papers
Source
Scan produced from physical item held by the NMSU Library Archives & Special Collections Department
NMSU Department of Astronomy: Clyde W. Tombaugh Papers
Digital Identifier
Ms0407pp047004_0010001.tif
Source
Scan produced from physical item held by the NMSU Library Archives & Special Collections Department
Type
Text
Format
image/tiff
Language
eng
OCR
NEWSSERVICE NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY LAS CRUCES. N. M.
BOX 3K-AC 505-646-3221 8S003
Karen Taylor Jones
Feb. 28, 1975
LAS CRUCES - It was no job for a city slicker. It was 1929, and
the astronomers at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., were looking
for some hardy soul to help in their search for the mysterious Planet
X.
When a youngster from a wheat farm in Kansas submitted his
drawings of Mars and Jupiter, made as he looked through a homemade
telescope, the Lowell staff was sufficiently impressed to invite him
to Flagstaff for a trial employment.
"I guess they thought if I was willing to freeze my fingers
making drawings through a telescope, I was right for their observer's
Job" Clyde Tombaugh, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico
State University, recalled recently.
The 69-year old astronomer observed the 45th anniversary of his
discovery of the planet Pluto this month.
He was a raw-boned farm boy who had cut thousands of acres of
wheat during his youth when he was invited to Lowell Observatory for
the Planet X project. Armed only with a high school degree, an impressive amount of self-taught knowledge of astronomy, and a fantastic
love of the skies and their secrets, Clyde Tombaugh never dreamed that
within a year he would go down in history as the discoverer of the
ninth planet in the solar system.
-more-
