Born in 1906 in Streator, Illinois, Clyde became interested
in astronomy through his uncle. In 1928, armed with a home made 9-inch f/9
reflector of superb optical quality, he made sketches of the planets, particularly
Jupiter and Saturn. He sent copies of these sketches to Lowell Observatory,
just to get their comments. In reply, V.M. Slipher, then Lowell's director,
offered him a position at the observatory with the new 13-inch f/5 photographic
camera. His mission: to take photographs of the sky in search
of Percival Lowell's elusive planet X. A few months after he arrived, Slipher
also assigned him the task of scanning the plates with a blink comparator.
During the summer of 1929, Clyde recast the program for more efficient searching.
On February 18 at 4 pm, Clyde was scanning a pair of plates centered on
Delta Geminorum, when he noticed a 17tj magnitude speck of light shifting
from plate to plate exactly as a trans-Neptunian planet should. On March 13, 1930, Lowell Observatory announced the
discovery of the planet that would eventually be named Pluto to the world.
But far from the ending, the discovery was only a beginning for Clyde. He
continued the search for another 15 years, discovering a comet, 5 open clusters,
a globular cluster, a supercluster of galaxies stretching from Andromeda
to Perseus. In 1932 he discovered a nova in Corvus that had exploded
a year earlier. While writing his biography, I uncovered the existence of
the long forgotten discovery in his plate log. A subsequent check of more
than 350 patrol plates at Harvard, which I did in the summer of 1989m, revealed
that this star had gone into outburst an additional 9 times between 1931
and 1980, and on March 23, 1990, 59 years to the day after its first recorded
outburst, I made the first visual observation of the star, now called TV
Corvi, in outburst. After Clyde took a leave of absence for war-related
navigation teaching, he was dismissed from Lowell in 1945, ostensibly for
financial reasons. He began work in 1946 at White Sands Proving Grounds
to develop the optical tracking telescopes for the fledgling space program.
Some ten years later he founded the Astronomy program at New Mexico State
University. After retiring in 1973, Clyde maintained a very active profile,
giving lectures frequently. Between 1985 and 1990 he crisscrossed the continent,
giving lectures to raise funds for the Tombaugh Scholars program at New
Mexico State. So much for Clyde's accomplishments. Until the end,
Clyde was an incredibly interesting person to be around. Famous for his
puns, his command of the intricacies of the English language was astonishing.
On January 17, 1997, astronomy lost one of its most colorful figures. If
planet Pluto were sentient, it would take note of the loss of the man who
unveiled its existence to our world almost 67 years ago. David Levy
Related sites:
Photo by Vic Winter Clyde Tombaugh talked to members of the Astronomical
Society of Kansas City during a special meeting in June of 1988.
•Clyde W. Tombaugh:
The astronomer and his discovery
• The struggle
to find the ninth planet
•
The Clyde W. Tombaugh Observatory at the University of Kansas
• A great page with more
information and links about Clyde &
Pluto.
Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of the planet Pluto, died on Friday, January
17. He had suffered from congestive heart failure and was on oxygen for
the last several years. Memorial services are scheduled for Thursday, January
23, at 3:30 in the Music Hall on the campus of New Mexico State University
in Las Cruces. Below is a brief biography of Tombaugh provided by his close
friend and fellow sky-searcher, David Levy.
Thanks to Alan Harris, on behalf of the DPS Committee for this information.
