In my research this week, I serendipitously came across the story of a man named Clyde Tombaugh. I hope you know who he is, but I have a feeling that, like me before a few days ago, you don’t.
I will tell you what he’s known for, I promise. But first I want to tell you why I think it’s important.
According to Wikepedia and several other corroborated sources, Mr. Tombaugh moved to Kansas from Illinois with his family in 1922 and had dreams to go to college. He wanted – needed! – to study space and stars and celestial subjects. So much so that when his hopes of going to college were dashed by a hailstorm that destroyed his family’s crops, he was determined to continue his studies.
He taught himself geometry and trigonometry. Before YouTube, I might add.
At age 20, using the specifications published in the 1925 issue of Popular Astronomy, he built his own telescope – complete with mirrors and lenses he ground himself.
For the mount on his telescope he used a crankshaft from a 1910 Buick and the discarded parts of a cream separator from the family’s farm.
He dug a 24 foot by 8 foot by 7 foot trench – alone – with a pick and a shovel just to better study his telescope mirrors in a place free from air current and with a constant temperature.
He used his telescope to draw pictures of Jupiter and Mars. And he sent those amatuer drawings to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, hoping to get advice about his work.
Clyde could have made a thousand excuses for not following the arrow that directed his heart and mind to think of nothing but the sky.
He didn’t.
He followed that arrow – right into history.
Courtney Ackerman says that “The best description of a self-determined individual is someone who:
- Believes she is in control of her own life.
- Takes responsibility for her own behavior (taking blame AND credit – when either is warranted).
- Is self-motivated instead of driven by others’ standards or external sources.
- Determines her actions based on her own internal values and goals.”
Clyde – against many odds – believed he was in control of his life.
He took responsibility for his own behavior.
He was self-motivated and internally driven.
He determined his actions based on what was happening inside of his own heart and mind.
And where did that lead him?
Well, those folks that received those ‘amatuer’ drawings at the Lowell Observatory offered the self-educated 23-year-old Clyde much more than advice. They offered him a job – and he took it.
The Library of Congress records that “Tombaugh’s task [at the observatory] was to systematically image the night sky in pairs of photographs taken two weeks apart, then examine each pair and determine whether any objects had shifted position. Using a machine called a blink comparator, he rapidly shifted back and forth between views of each of the plates to create the illusion of movement of any objects that had changed position or appearance between photographs.”
Day in and day out, this was Clyde’s task for over a year.
And on February 18, 1930, the self-trained eye of Clyde Tombaugh made a discovery on those plates.
That discovery? Pluto.
His self-determination literally changed the way we view the Solar System.
Several years later, he would go on to go to college, yes.
And Brittanica says that “upon graduating, he returned to the observatory and continued his patrol of the skies, cataloging more than 30,000 celestial objects before he left in 1946.”
And that was just the beginning for Clyde.
I can’t wait to hear about what your heart and mind are Determined to Do. What arrows are you following – despite your own personal hailstorms? If you need help making sense of it all, I’d love to help.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
