Did you see Uranus?

After the Grand Canyon, Michele and I spent a couple days in Flagstaff; ever since she was little, Michele had always wanted to see the Lowell Observatory. We took the Pluto Tour. First stop for us was the Clark Telescope Dome, where Percival Lowell seached for Planet X. Here is the 24-inch Alvan Clark telescope that Lowell used.

The dome is constructed with wooden beams. It originally turned on a system of iron wheels and rails developed by two bicycle repairmen. In the mid 1950s pickup tires, complete with shiny hubcaps, replaced the worn-out wheels. Occasionally a tire will blow out or have a flat, and the observatory must order special reproductions.

Percival Lowell's chair sits on a special platform so he could comfortably use the telescope.

Lowell's mausoleum is right next to the Clark dome.

Here is the blink comparator that Clyde Tombaugh used to find Planet X, which was afterwards named Pluto. The blink comparator is a microscope that optically superimposes two photographic plates, "blinking" between them so rapidly that the two plates look like one. This device allowed Tombaugh to compare the plates and look for any discrepancies between them. It is way cool.

Here's what Tombaugh saw.

This is an early computing machine.

Tombaugh used photographic plates exposed for three hours. He'd make two photographs taken a couple days apart, then compare the images on the blink comparator. You can also see the clock drive that keeps the star or planet from drifting out of the field of view.

The roof of this little observatory slides onto the framework in the foreground. To the left is another small observatory used mostly for observing Titan, one of the moons of Saturn.

You should go. The Lowell Observatory is awesome!