European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 24, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Planet Hunter from Kansas Pluto discoverer Tombaugh at 81 by Hoseflt h. Johnson associated Pressi n a Wooi n dome on a Rozyn Mesa in Arizona. Shot Rig Hiiri Choc a nil shivering in fur ? in null Fin Jofs  a in Piscope by Lent Irr to dark the Young Larmor irom Kansas discovered the Mulh Planel Julo thai was in 1930 now shoulders hunched Wilh age. He climbs an aluminium ladder wired to the plan orm of a homemade Lela scope in his Yard to gaze through i he desert night a i his first and most constant love the heavens in the years beige in. He has taught Navy and Marine officer candidates in world War ii developed optical tracking systems Tor army missiles surveyed pains to the Moon for Nasa and snarled the astronomy detail Mont at new Mexico state University in Las Cruces he is Clydew Tombaugh who Laughl Himsel id be an astronomer and became the first one since the 19lh Century to discover a planet. At 81, head i Hist Forward Pale Blue eyes aglow he dashes across town in firs while pick up lunches wih colleagues Darls up and Down stairs holds court among stacks of papers in his 8-by-12 University office talks about the mysteries of the universe plans for the future. The discovery of Pluto was cwt of the top 10 news stories of 1930, and it Bro Trofi Hornbaugh a continuing array of honors. But irom the first some astronomers picked on Pluto s status As a planet. Only last february Frank Cooper director of Surke Baker planetarium in Houston wrote that it seems Likely hat Pluto will he demoted to asteroid a minor planet. Bui in May scientists at the National aeronautics and space administration s Jet propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Call. Announced thai satellite observe sons show Pluto has a subs Lancial atmosphere. Planets and most Moons have gaseous atmospheres asteroids do not have atmospheres or Moons. Now Pluto had Bolh a Moon Charon discovered in 1976, and an atmosphere. This latest discovery greatly enhances the stature o  the announcement said. Mixing lost mess and humor Tombaugh issued a statement thai if Pluto looks like a planet Levels like a planet and smells like a planet it must be a planet. In a recent interview he was More Blunt. Yeah there s a fellow Down in Houston who i think he wanted o make a noise Lor himself suggested thai we should demote Pluto. Well that just blew the stack you know. And there was tremendous opposition o the Febrow. Bui that s got cleared up it Gol cleared up when Cooper backed off alter the Nasa discovery saying that if astronomers want to Cali it a planet Lino i did t intend   he also said Many schoolchildren had written thai they did t want Pluto demoted. Cooper resigned from Ino planetarium in june Tombaugh Bogon studying inc stars with Matt order Teles pos As a farm boy in Illinois and Kansas when he Imi shed High school in Burdett kan., in 1925, there was no Money Lor College he had to stay Home and work on the wheat farm. But he was eager Lor a More powerful Telescope he made one from directions in a sunday school newspaper but the curve of the Mirror was Askew. Clyde read that mirrors should be ground and tested in a cellar where the temperature would be constant. So with pick and shovel he dug one 24 eel Long by Al eel wide by 7 feel deep while his dad Muron Tombaugh hired out As a Carpenter to pay Tor Concrete to finish it. Out of that cellar came his first Triumph a 9-Inch selector that would magnify 400 limes in diameter or 160,000 times in showing detail. By now Tombaugh knew he had to get Olf the Arm Wilh his new Telescope he made drawings of Jupiter and Mars and sent hem to the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff Ariz me was hired in 1929, sight unseen As an Amateur to operate a new photographic Telescope and try to find a planet x predicted by Percival Lowell who had founded the Observatory on a 7.250-foot Mesa just West of Flagstaff. Lowell and others had seen perturbations or wobbles in Nifte or urls of uranus and Neptune Asil they were being tugged by the Gravity of another piano in 1915, Lowell predicted a location for planet x. Lowell died in 1916, but the search for planet x went on. Tombaugh s Job called Lor Turnace stoking As Well As stargazing. He had to shove Pine logs the size of Railroad lies into Law Furnace thai heated the main building of the Observatory. The dome. 300 Yards away where he scanned the skies could no be heated because the inside temperature had to Malch the outside or the Telescope mirrors would fog. Tombaugh started working the photographic Telescope at flags Lall on april 6. 1929. He spotted Pluto of feb. 18, 1930. Erma Bombeck look at me. I have a summer cold that s still Here in october. I m Loo sick to answer the door or go to the doctor i m too Well to slay in my Nightgown All Day or not prepare dinner i m ugly. My hair is smashed to one Side and my cow cats zip coding my eyes Are Dull and lifeless and my nose could Stop freeway Frallic i look like someone i be seen Belo e i can t remember who every time i turn on to. That fool of a woman is saying Don l blame to for being Beautiful and Ihen towels and teases 15 pounds of hair she is getting on my nerves. I do eel Ihnn probably dropped 10 pounds or so i should i Haven t eaten in three weeks. Maybe i ii get on the scale no l be named two pounds would t you think in a world where a woman can make a Carver oui of Selong vowels the could make an an biotic if Al is Tow in caiorics1 it would i Hurt Somr of the people i work Wilh to Al Page in the stars and stripes least Cail. I can t believe that i called in yesterday and the operator asked me to spell my name. I d like to cough on their bagels and Cream cheese that s what i d like to do. I just remember Cal who i look Iske my passport picture Allol this is Rny fault i was the one who lusted Lor a Little time of Horn the lout me i did t want some big map malady Jii ii i Little  thing thai might buy me a few Days in my Bat Hioba in front of the to set with a tray and a Little sympathy irom people instead. I gel some common Lille unimpressive thing that everyone in the country Nas people who go through the Betl y Ford a Ciuc get More respect in Altio what s the Mailer Oprah in t Lee weeks of coughing sneezing blowing sweating and chilling dramatic enough Lor you i m coid again wow to s whoa than Madu who am i kidding7 the kids will use in Tor a dog bed or wrap then saturday october 24. 19fl7 car Jack in it to keep i hair trunk from gelling dirty. I be always known that Wimin 2a hours after i m gone my treasures will be Oll Rcd at a colossal garage Sale Tor a Pil Lance you want this mile Glass Turtle Sluben More catch1" thirty live cents for this Hermes Scarf it s yours and i la throw in this Lea sol that belonged to my Feal grandmother " at Toast i be Learned a lot irom this experience i be Learned to be compassionate the next time someone says. My nose is a Lully my eyes Kel like round spinning razor Blades when i blink my breathing is Laboured my head aches and my body is wracked Wilh  i will never again a. Cleat the table and you la forget it s there " these Are my last Rijs on Edilh and i m watching a Teizun of Lave we pull my cooking Oil All our Shirley s tidy what an end to a promising career