I have mixed views on Pluto. I grew up with it being the 9th planet and like many others felt a bit robbed when it was downgraded. At the same time though I find it really quite funny that it’s mainly Americans that are all het up over it because it was the only planet discovered by an American, Clyde Tombaugh. Which I learnt all about from the excellent BackStory podcast ‘Starry-Eyed - A History Of The Heavens’.
Clyde Tombaugh and his telescope!
It’s pretty hard to celebrate something so untangable and far away but I figured I could at least figure out where it was in the sky on Pluto day! I downloaded Sky Map on my phone and set about finding it. I spun about for a bit before I realised it might not actually be up in the sky for me. I found the Gallery built into the app and they had this pretty image of the ‘dwarf’ planet. I then used the ‘Find in Sky’ button and it spun me round to here:
It was pretty much directly under my feet! I spent a bit of time checking out some other planets and stars before I got too cold and headed in. I realised I could use it indoors too which for some reason hadn’t occurred but it seemed less fun so I gave up pretty quickly.
Pluto day...6/10. Interesting and I learnt way more about it than I knew before but not the most exciting day I’ve celebrated.