ALS, one page, 8.5 x 11, New Mexico State University letterhead, June 4, 1980. Letter of response regarding his discovery of Pluto. In part: “I don’t know whether Walt Disney’s character ‘Pluto’ was named after the planet I discovered or not. I discovered the 9th planet, Pluto, on a pair of planet search plates…This particular pair of plates contained 160,000 star images each. All of these star images had to be checked for a small planetary shift…Pluto shifted 1/8 inch in the 6-day interval. Over a period of 14 years I searched thru 338 pairs of these large plates…for a total of 7000 hours.” In fine condition.
Astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh was 74 years old when he offered a Pennsylvania resident this amazing handwritten reply in which he details the mind-numbing steps he took - including seeing 90 million individual star images - in the discovery of Pluto. For many people, however, the name “Pluto” more readily calls to mind not a planet but Mickey Mouse’s faithful pooch. In 1930, Walt Disney felt that Mickey (who was constantly surrounded by barnyard animals) should get a dog. Then Disney read of an amateur astronomer who had discovered a ninth planet in our solar system, and Walt cashed in on the resulting publicity by giving Mickey's pet a new name.
It’s one thing to read about the discovery of new planet in a textbook but quite another to read, firsthand, of the steps taken by the man himself! RRAuction COA.
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