Page 14 University Daily Kansan, October 17, 1980
$1 Pitchers during all World Series games at the HARBOUR LITES. A First-Class Dive Free Popcorn During Game!
Steak $299 Dinner
Get a Special Sirloin Steak Dinner for $2.99 at Sirloin Stockade this week-end only! This big meal includes:
All-You-Can-Eat Soup & Salad Bar Sirloin Steak Choice of Baked Potato or French Fries Stockade Toast
Come in Before or After the Game!
Special Sirloin Steak Dinner
All-You-Can-Eat Soup & Salad Bar Sirtoin Steak
$299
Choice of Baked Potato or French Fries
Must Present Coupon
One Coupon per person
Lunch & Dinner Served:
Fri & Sat 11-10
Sun 11-9
10.15 lowa
Offer Good Through Sun., Oct. 19.
1015 Iowa
South of Hillcrest Shopping Ctr.
Pluto's discoverer recalls tedium, joy
By DALE WETZEL Staff Reporter
Clyde M. Tombaugh, KU alumnus and the discoverer of Pluto, last night recounted his experiences in finding the solar system's ninth planet in an Astronomy Week lecture in the Kansas Union.
Tornbaugh, an emeritus professor of astronomy at New Mexico State University and a former Kansan, used slides and liberal doses of dry humor to entertain more than 200 listeners, who held a standing ovation after his talk.
Earlier in the day, the KU Observatory at Lindley Hall was renamed in Tombaugh's honor. A commemorative plaque was unveiled by J.P. Davidson, chairman of the department of physics and astronomy.
Tombaugh, from Burdett in western Kansas, won a scholarship from the University of Kansas after he achieved prominence by discovering Pluto in 1930.
He earned a bachelor's degree in astronomy at KU in 1936 and got a master's degree three years later. In 1968 he received the University's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Citation.
THE MORAL TO his story, Tombaugh said, was to "make a great discovery while you're young, so you
Tombaugh was 24 years old when he discovered Pluto Feb. 18, 1930.
can live long enough to celebrate the 50th anniversary."
Tombaugh discovered the planet while working at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. He was one of the observatory because of the detail in drawn figures and Jupiter while looking through a Binchcope he had built himself.
When he joined the observatory, Tombaugh had only a high school education, and was mostly a self-taught astronomer. His task was to locate the ninth planet whose existence had only been predicted by astronomers.
Searching for the planet was a "brutally tedious job," Tornbaugh said at a press conference yesterday af-
fternoon. He reported long, strenuous hours and low pay.
in his search, Tombaugh spent countless hours photographing specific areas of the sky and then observing the negatives through a "blink comparator."
THE PROCEDURE INVOLved looking at two identical photographs of the sky, and then blinking the image rapidly back and forth trying to detect the movement of a selected spot of light on the plates.
Tombaugh illustrated the Herculesian enormity of his task by projecting two
identical slides on a screen for his audience.
"See all those stars?" Tombaugh asked matter-of-factly as the stark black-and-white slide, with literally hundreds of them, flashed onto the screen.
"Pluto's in there somewhere. See if you can detect it." he said.
Tornbaugh, using a pointer, finally picked out the elusive planet, a tiny pinprick of light barely visible among the many stars.
The slide represented an area of sky roughly as big as the moon, he said.
Although Tombaugh expected a big reaction to his discovery, the release of the news March 13, 1930, prompted an "avalanche" that took him by surprise.
When Tombaugh realized that he had indeed discovered a new planet, "it was a very, very intense thrill—I actually shook."
them to cool off by splurge.
"The country went wild—even the astronomers," Tombaugh said.
Tombaugh recalled that he tried to enroll in introductory astronomy his freshman year, an act akin to Einstein attempting to enroll in Physics 211.
Dinsmore Alter, then the director of KU's astronomy program, laughingly barred Tombaugh from enrolling in the class, saying he wouldn't hear of a planet-discoverer taking introductory astronomy.
"And I thought I had five hours of easy credit, "Tornbaugh chuckled.
JOIN THE JAYHAWK FIGHT FOR LIFE GIVE BLOOD
October 20, 21, 22 RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVE
11:30-5:00
KANSAS UNION BALLROOM
Sponsored by Interfraternity Council &
Panhellenic Assoc., Scholarship Halls & AURH
the richness of harris tweed, english flannel and cotton corduroy . in shades that complement autumn in lawrence . from Mister Guy, lawrence's only contemporary traditionalist for men and women
free beer on K.U home game days
MISTER GUY
920 Massachusetts
open Mon-Sat 10-6
Thursday 10-9
Sunday 1-5
Julian Bond
4th Annual Black Student/Alumni
Sponsored by
Dr. Curtis McClinton
KU Black Alumni
Career Conference The University of Kansas
October 17-18
October 17-18
Kansas Union
For more information call
913-864-4760
B
at L
Billy focus week autha Geek 6:30 or !