TOAST: Clyde Tombaugh
Bob-the-Cop
To the greatest astronomer of the 20th century-
CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bob :{(
Bill Gawne
Bob-the-Cop:
Bill reads the subject line and hears Bob's toast with shock. Clyde? Dead?
Then checking the wire services, he finds:
= Astronomer who discovered planet Pluto dies
= LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who
= discovered the planet Pluto before he even had a college degree, is
= dead at the age of 90. Tombaugh, who was an astronomy professor at
= New Mexico State University and founder of the school's research
= astronomy department, died Friday. [...] Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930
= when he had just turned 24, a Kansas farm boy who didn't yet have a
= college degree.
Well damn.
"I personally think Edwin Hubble gets the 'Greatest Astronomer of The
Twentieth Century' award in my - and most professional astronomers - book.
But Clyde was certainly up there with the best of 'em."
Bill recalls being out in the cold this morning before dawn, scanning
the eastern sky for Comet Hale-Bopp. That was Clyde Tombaugh's kind of
astronomy... out under the dark sky, with eye to lens, looking at the
familiar and ever changing heavens.
Bill gets a cup of coffee and waxes reminiscent...
"We were just talking about Clyde in the Science Ops Center this weekend..."
"I talked with Clyde in the summer of 87 when I was in Las Cruces. He
joked a bit about how he had almost frozen to death the past winter, out
in his back yard, looking at Jupiter through his homemade 16 inch reflector.
I think he fell asleep in the cold, and only his wife bringing him a cup
of coffee prevented disaster.
"He was old then, stooped and getting feeble. But even at 80 there was
still the boyish enthusiasm so many others have mentioned seeing in Clyde.
He was a geek from a time when geeks ground their own mirrors and made
single crystal radios. The world is a poorer place without him."
The coffee now gone from the cup, Bill steps to the chalk line. He thinks
of Clyde Tombaugh, and of other amateur astronomers who somehow managed to
find a way to make a profession out of their hobby. Milton Hummason and
Charlie Kowal come to mind, and Bill is sure that as the day goes by he
will think of many more. Those still with us, and those gone on. The
ghosts in the old observatories...
"G'bye Clyde..." Bill whispers, tossing the cup into the fireplace, where it
breaks apart with a
CCCRRRUUUNNNCCCHHHH.
(It's a pretty comet folks. Ought to look real nice in another month or so.
I'm glad Clyde got to see it...)
--
Bill Gawne - in Callahan's as in real life. <ga...@rosserv.gsfc.nasa.gov>
On the Web: http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/SOF/bios/bgawne.html
Senior Spacecraft Analyst, RXTE | Disclaimer: Nothing I post in
Science Operations Facility; and retired | alt.callahans represents an official
Master Sergeant, US Marine Corps Reserve.| position of any organization.
Jim M. Pierce
from sci.space.news:
'Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered the ninth planet Pluto,
died last Friday in his home in Mesilla Park, New Mexico, at the
age of 90. He is survived by his wife, Patsy, two children, and
several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.'
DJ remembers the thrill when his grandfather took him out in the
backyard and showed him the Big Dipper. DJ was 5 years old. And DJ
remembers his first look at the Moon through binoculars. And
DJ remembers his first telescope.
A telescope is placed next to the plaque.
>>>>>Crash !!!!!<<<<< DJ, Linda the Starship, and Robbie the
Robot.
--
Jim Pierce jmpi...@medea.gp.usm.edu Disclaimer: Standard.
Tom A Baker
Tom has come to think that death _does_ come in threes. Sagan, Tsongas ...
"Dr. Clyde Tombaugh is dead. He discovered the planet Pluto for us.
"When I was a teenager, I read a biography of him. I was mightily
impressed with one story...
"We had just gotten, that Christmas, a 3 inch reflector telescope,
along with a Barlow lens that made everything 3X magnified. Neat
stuff, I sure appreciated it.
"Well, it wasn't that easy way back in the early years of the
century. When Clyde Tombaugh was a teen and wanted a telescope, he
had to build it himself. Okay, he arranged for most of the stuff, the
frame the mount ...
"The most expensive part would be the mirror. So he had to grind that
himself, since he couldn't afford to just plain buy one ...
"Okay he arranged to get the glass blank, and the grinding tools, had
a place to mirror it for him, after the grinding was done....
"But he needed a 'constant climate' kind of place to do the grinding.
After all, no sense of doing 1 or 2 or 3 delicate wipes to take off,
oh a few more aangstroms, if the whole thing was going to expand and
contract like crazy when the sun came up and beat down on everything.
and then go behind a cloud and let everything change temperatures
again ...
"Here is what I found so impressive when I read about it, as a
teenager --- Clyde Tombaugh went and dug himself a cave. Out in his
back yard, just dug and dug and dug, for weeks and weeks. Till the
hole was big enough and deep enough, real enormous. Then he built a
concrete room, covered it over. He had an underground lens grinding
lab.
"And *then* could grind the lens, get it silvered, and build the
telescope ... and finally look at the sky.
"Awesome."
Tom shuts up and throws.
*CRASH*
A Better Humanity
... through Insanity!
-----
O O "Time wasted with friends is not wasted."
Tom I am what I am. (Problem with that?
"It is later than you think." Email me at tomb...@world.std.com)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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purposes of sending unsolicited bulk email. Please delete my email
addresses from any databases you already hold."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim M.
The Tin Woodman (who has lenses built in to his suit at strategic
places, on the off chance he can escape city lights for a few minutes)
remembers standing out on frigid winter nights for hours, peering
through a telescope that trembled because his hands trembled with the
cold... and remembers the intense pleasure it brought him.
"To Clyde!"
************** C R A S H ! ! ! ***************
- Jim Mullins O-
--
http://www.bway.net/~nyjtm
St. Bart's Players (NYC)- http://www.panix.com/~dalroth5
Kevin D. Knerr, Sr.
Bill Gawne wrote:
>
> Bob-the-Cop:
> > To the greatest astronomer of the 20th century-
>
> Bill reads the subject line and hears Bob's toast with shock. Clyde? Dead?
>
> Then checking the wire services, he finds:
>
> = Astronomer who discovered planet Pluto dies
>
> = LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who
> = discovered the planet Pluto before he even had a college degree, is
> = dead at the age of 90. Tombaugh, who was an astronomy professor at
> = New Mexico State University and founder of the school's research
> = astronomy department, died Friday. [...] Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930
> = when he had just turned 24, a Kansas farm boy who didn't yet have a
> = college degree.
8<snip>8
Barthel visibly pales.
"Clyde was one of my boyhood heroes. It was his story that started me
sketching the moon and other objects like Comet West, even though
amateur astrophotography was all the rage. For me, his story was a true
"rags-to-riches" adventure.
"Rest in peace, gentle astronomer. Now you can visit in person what you
once saw only on plates of glass."
< < < < C R A S H ! ! ! > > >
Barthel
--------------------------------------------------------------
kkne...@ptdprolog.net *or* Ld.Ba...@juno.com
http://home.ptd.net/~kknerrsr
Where would you like Bill Gates to go today?
Gerry Pelzer
Kevin D. Knerr, Sr. wrote:
>
> http://home.ptd.net/~kknerrsr
I'm out of line, I know but if only Bill Gates could see where Clyde
Tombaugh saw.... or maybe the mead tells too well & there should be
penalties for driving a terminal "under the influence"?!?
Jim M. Pierce
Gerry Pelzer wrote:
[] > Where would you like Bill Gates to go today?
to the penalty box for the next 50 years...
DJ.
--
Jim jmpi...@medea.gp.usm.edu Disclaimer: Standard.
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