by Grania

Jerry sent all these on to me using his phone. God only knows what his bill is going to look like when he gets home.

Anyway, yesterday was the day when New Horizons swung by Pluto on its historic voyage to the Kuiper Belt. Jerry and friends of the website Kelly Houle and Ben Goren went to visit the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona which is of course, where Pluto was actually discovered.

As always, you can click through on each photograph twice to view in full size.

This is the building that houses the photographic telescope (no viewing by eye possible) that first detected Pluto.

Kelly Houle, Ben Goren, and Jerry at At Lowell Observatory on closest approach day.

The discovery of Pluto is from this document – the logbook of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto.

Wikipedia notes:

Tombaugh used the observatory’s 13-inch astrograph to take photographs of the same section of sky several nights apart. He then used a blink comparator to compare the different images. When he shifted between the two images, a moving object, such as a planet, would appear to jump from one position to another, while the more distant objects such as stars would appear stationary. Tombaugh noticed such a moving object in his search, near the place predicted by Lowell, and subsequent observations showed it to have an orbit beyond that of Neptune. This ruled out classification as an asteroid, and they decided this was the ninth planet that Lowell had predicted.

Instrument used by Slipher to show universe was expanding!!!

Camera scope that detected Pluto.

and a little more detail… (you can read about it here)

from the site:

Built in 1928-1929 expressly for the purpose of completing the search for “Planet X” – the name for the hypothetical ninth planet in the solar system that Percival Lowell thought must exist – the Pluto Discovery Telescope, like the Clark, is one of the most famous telescopes in the history of American astronomical research.

Some information on the Dome.

and the discovery.

And finally The Clark Refractor which was apparently used, amongst other things, by Percival Lowell to further his legendary theories about intelligent life on Mars. I suppose it was worth a shot.

And one of our intrepid peregrinator himself.

H/t: Kenneth Howard