Two years after completing a renovation of its most well-known telescope, Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff is rehabbing an instrument whose history is just as notable.
The observatory announced this month that it's starting a renovation of the telescope Clyde Tombaugh used to discover Pluto in 1930. That scope, known as the Pluto Telescope, has a 13-inch lens and dates to the 1920s. It's technically known as an astrograph, meaning that it's specifically designed for making photos of objects in space.
Pluto, of course, is Lowell's primary claim to fame. Originally considered the ninth planet of the solar system, it's since been downgraded to a "dwarf planet," though a debate continues among visitors to the observatory, which bills itself as the "Home of Pluto."
The $155,000 restoration project — which is being funded through crowdsourcing, private donations and a grant — will involve cleaning, repainting and replacing telescope parts; repairing the instrument's dome by replacing rotted areas and weatherproofing the structure; and adding educational exhibits to the dome.
In 2015, the observatory completed a nearly $300,000 renovation of its 24-inch Clark telescope, which dates to the 1890s and now is used for public viewing. That process was documented in a July 2015 Arizona Highways story.
Lowell also announced this month that it has received $1.4 million in grants from the Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation of Phoenix. That money will go toward research on the facility's Discovery Channel Telescope, along with facility upgrades and long-range planning efforts.