Lawrence Lowell Telescope

The Pluto Discovery Telescope Dome has a name which says everything. It is an observatory which has the telescope which was used to discover the dwarf planet. I don’t think I have ever seen a large telescope before so this was a very exciting experience for me. The second level of the observatory has the Pluto Discovery Telescope also known as the Lawrence Lowell Telescope. Technically, it is called an astrograph, basically a telescope which is used to take photos. When the hunt for Planet X was on, it was known that whatever that planet is, it would be exceedingly far and thus be very small even for telescopes. How do you go planet hunting like this?

To find planets that are very far away, you take photos of a the same patch of sky several days apart. If you are lucky, you might see a bright spot which would seemingly changes places. That would be something worth investigating. Back then, an astrograph was used to do take the photo. These days, computers automate much of the work even if the basic idea remains the same. The Lawrence Lowell Telescope was finally refurbished and it looks good as new. It seems that it is still used for observations which is incredible considering how old it is. As for the name? Lawrence Lowell is the brother of Percival Lowell, who provided funding for the dome and the telescope itself. Looking at the photo, one might wonder what is that thing that looks like a boxing glove. It actually is a boxing glove. They put it there so people won’t get hurt when they ever get hit by it. It is red so people can see it better.

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