An Amazing Artifact Is For Sale



You know who Clyde Tombaugh was? The discoverer of Pluto, back in 1930? Offered for sale:

This 16-inch telescope was Clyde Tombaugh's biggest effort. Although the mirror was completed around 1944, heavy work on the metal superstructure did not begin in earnest until about 1957 and the telescope finally saw first light in Las Cruces around 1960. Its primary system is a 16-inch f/10 mirror hand-ground, figured, and completed by the discoverer of Pluto himself. The mirror is outstanding; during the early 1980s, Tombaugh and David Levy used an 8mm eyepiece (which gives a magnification of 524) to observe the spokes in Saturn's rings with it.

What makes this sale especially poignant is who is offering it:

Patsy Tombaugh c/o David Levy