[Friends_of_SSASTROS] Ahh, so that's who...

[Mike McCabe]

...and now it all makes sense. 
Some of you may remember that back at the beginning of summer we 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.



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;
Clyde Tombaugh’s 9” Newtonian at Lowell Observatory - Classic Telescopes - Cloudy Nights

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Keep Looking Up!
Mike M.
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