Clyde Tombaugh (1906-1997)

Clyde Tombaugh (1906-1997). American Astronomer and WSMR Optical Tracking Pioneer. Clyde Tombaugh was an amateur astronomer living in rural Kansas when his home-built optics and skills earned him a position at Lowell Observatory in Arizona in 1929, despite lacking a college degree at the time. Tombaugh made his most notable discovery in 1930, that of Pluto, while working at Lowell. In 1943 at 37 years old, with world war two in progress and still at Lowell, Tombaugh was exempted from the draft by becoming an instructor, teaching navigation to Navy pilots from 1943-44. After the war Tombaugh taught briefly at UCLA as a visiting professor., In the summer of 1946, Tombaugh had just accepted a teaching position at the University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque when he was invited by Dr. James Edson to observe a V-2 rocket firing firsthand at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR). Edson, a physicist and fellow planetary astronomer from Lowell and Tombaugh's brother-in-law, was testing a new optical instrument called a "tracking telescope" to film the V-2 and document its flame at high altitudes. Edson needed Tombaugh's expertise in optics to make the system fully functional. Tombaugh was so impressed by the opportunity before him that he convinced UNM to release him from his contract. He spent the next nine years at WSMR, applying his knowledge of astronomy and photography redefining the role optics played in the nascent days of rocketry., Tombaugh served as Chief of the Optical Measurements Section at WSMR under the Army's Ballistic Research Lab Headquarters in Aberdeen, Maryland. In 1951 he became Director of the Flight Determination Lab. Tombaugh's significant contributions include creation of the tracking telescope program at WSMR; choosing instrument placement locations across the Range to produce the best, most useful data; and optimizing the technology to improve focal lengths and film exposures., The 16-inch Type IV, or T-4 tracking telescope displayed here is one of the initial five models whose designs incorporated Tombaugh's recommendations. The Intercept Ground Optical Recorder (IGOR), also displayed, was the most successful and widely used tracking telescope at WSMR in the early 1960s., Tombaugh resigned from WSMR in the fall of 1955 to continue work on a project begun with the Army in 1953 titled "Search for Small Earth Satellites". Tombaugh moved the project from WSMR to the Physical Science Laboratory, New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now New Mexico State University) for logistical purposes. Tombaugh's project showed near-earth space was free of damaging debris, leading the way for planned satellite launches. Tombaugh subsequently became a full-time professor, established the University's astronomy program and cofounded the Las Cruces Astronomical Society. He retired from teaching in 1973 and remained a Las Cruces resident until his death in 1997., Captions , Above left: 22-year-old Clyde Tombaugh poses next to a telescope he built at his family's farm in Kansas. Above right: Tombaugh inspects images from a film reel ca. 1950s. Above: Tombaugh controlling the T-2 tracking telescope, the first of the tracking telescope designs to incorporate Tombaugh's direct input on optics., Courtesy of WSMR Cultural Resources Program