Ahh, so that's who...

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Apollo XX
MSSF Coordinator
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Joined: Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:11 pm

Ahh, so that's who...

Unread post by Apollo XX »

...and now it all makes sense.

Back at the beginning of summer some of the folks over at the SSAS group started following the auction of Clyde Tombaugh's personal telescope, which in and of itself wasn't especially significant except for the fact that it had ties to the man who discovered Pluto. Clyde ground the mirror, then constructed the telescope out of bits and pieces found laying around the farm that he lived on. To the best of our knowledge there were no significant discoveries actually made with the telescope itself, so we wondered what the old relic would command on the market. I'll admit that I didn't think anyone would even go near the starting bid of a little over 60k.

CT Scope.png
CT Scope.png (308.9 KiB) Viewed 1545 times
To say that it was a surprise to see that it finally went for over 106k would be an understatement, but then again there's a lot of people out there with a lot of money these days, and we're constantly seeing things going for what many of us would consider insanely high prices.

So just who would pay that kind of money for that old scope? Curious minds wanted to know, but the auction house kept the buyer's identity hidden. It did, however, offer a suggested new bid of almost 160k if you were to be interested in possibly acquiring the article from the first successful bidder.

Knowing what I know now, I'd say that they wouldn't take it;

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/8460 ... ry12216107

If you don't have a Cloudy Nights account, make one. It's free and it only takes an email address, a username, and a password. In return it will give you access to what might be the single most comprehensive resource out there for the amateur astronomy community.

Keep Looking Up!

Mike M.
"The purpose of life is the investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the heavens." - Anaxagoras
daedalus1
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Re: Ahh, so that's who...

Unread post by daedalus1 »

What a great story!
Tony T.

Evostar 150mm ED refractor, F1200mm

And a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke!
---Rudyard Kipling, THE BETROTHED
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mrgizmo65
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Re: Ahh, so that's who...

Unread post by mrgizmo65 »

I agree with Tony there are some great stories when you browse through the countless bits and tips. I n fact last week there was an article about Paul McCartney sold his scope. I believe it was a mead sct. The nice thing about cloudy nights is it doesn't t cost you anything. Also you can learn a lot from people who share their experiences with all of us.Thank you for those members who share their experiences with us. Jerry
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