[Grovenet] Pluto demoted

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

You are right. Pluto wasn't actually seen until 1930, although its existence
was inferred from the behavior of Neptune well back into the 1800's. The
problem was that the "big guns" of astronomy thought it would be much
bigger. Percival Lovell searched for it fruitlessly for years and years
through the turn of the century. 

It fell to an amateur astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, to finally document it
photographically in 1930.

Still, that's a lot of children born and raised over the past 76 years. 

Ron D'Eau Claire 


-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Phoenixacm at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 10:55 AM
To: grovenet at rdrop.com
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Pluto demoted



If I recall correctly, Pluto was not discovered until well into the 20th 
century, so there haven't been that many generations who grew up with 9
planets.   
Also Ceres (now considered an asteroid) was considered a planet in the 
1800's.   As for the astrologers, they love this stuff.   The actions of
astronomers 
are considered to reflect the consciousness of society.   Very interesting 
that Pluto, the god of the underworld, should be demoted at particular point
in 
history.

Jane B-P