The Pluto Discovery Telescope is an honorary member of an exclusive club of telescopes used to discover planets, since at that time Pluto was considered a planet. But until not too long ago, a single person with a single telescope could discover a whole new planet… or a dwarf planet. These days, many of those observations and discoveries are made possible by teams of scientists with access to large collections of instruments. Though we still have a long way to go, over time and with careful observation, many once-mysterious phenomena have been observed and understood. Past Anderson Mesa, on the peak of Happy Jack, Lowell Observatory built the 4.28-meter (169-inch) Lowell Discovery Telescope in partnership with Discovery Communications, Inc.The universe is vast and full of mysteries. The Observatory also operates smaller research telescopes at its historic site on Mars Hill and in Australia and Chile. Lowell is a partner with the United States Naval Observatory and Naval Research Laboratory in the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer (NPOI) also located at that site. Lowell Observatory currently operates four research telescopes at its Anderson Mesa dark-sky site, located 20 km (12 mi) southeast of Flagstaff, including the 180-centimeter (72-inch) Perkins Telescope (in partnership with Boston University) and the 110-centimeter (42-inch) John S. The observatory does contain areas that are closed to the public view, although there are multiple places that tourists are welcome to visit. This observatory included many rooms with tools that were useful to observers including a library for research, a room for processing photographic glass plates, multiple antique instruments used by previous astronomers, and many artifacts. In 2014, the 8,000 square feet (740 m 2 ) Putnam Center was opened. Also located on the Mars Hill campus is the 33-centimeter (13-inch) Pluto Discovery Telescope, used by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 to discover the dwarf planet Pluto. The telescope, built in 1896 for $20,000, was assembled in Boston by Alvan Clark & Sons and then shipped by train to Flagstaff. The main facility, located on Mars Hill just west of downtown Flagstaff, houses the original 61-centimeter (24-inch) Clark Refracting Telescope, which is now used for public education, with 85,000 annual visitors. The observatory operates several telescopes at three locations in the Flagstaff area. Multiple astronauts attended the Lowell Observatory in 1963 while the moon was being mapped for the Apollo Program. Percival's nephew Roger Putnam served from 1927 to 1967, followed by Roger's son Michael (1967–1987), Michael's brother William Lowell Putnam III (1987–2013), and current trustee W. The first trustee was Lowell's third cousin Guy Lowell (1916–1927). The observatory was founded by astronomer Percival Lowell of Boston's Lowell family and is overseen by a sole trustee, a position historically handed down through the family. Six-aperture astronomical interferometer with baselines up to 437 m (1,434 ft) (located at Anderson Mesa, operated in partnership with the USNO (through NOFS) and the NRL) Lowell Astrograph (Pluto Discovery Telescope) 4.28 m (169 in) telescope (located at Happy Jack, Arizona)ġ80 cm (72 in) cassegrain telescope (located at Anderson Mesa)ġ10 cm (42 in) Ritchey-Chretien telescope (located at Anderson Mesa)ħ9 cm (31 in) reflecting telescope (located at Anderson Mesa)Ħ4 cm (25 in) catadioptric (located at Anderson Mesa)Ĥ1 cm (16 in) Boller and Chivens cassegrain telescopeĪbbot L.
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