Needle in a Haystack How Clyde W. Tombaugh Found an Awesome New World

"Picking out a faint planet amid the myriad of star images would be literally like finding a needle in a haystack." — Clyde W. Tombaugh, 1980
Growing up on a Kansan farm gave Clyde W. Tombaugh plenty of sky to explore, plenty of time to learn all he could about astronomy. He and his father and uncle trained their homemade telescope on the planets. Clyde drew the surfaces of Mars and Jupiter and shared his drawings with Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Gadzooks! They hired him to help search for a new planet! After 300 days of scouring the sky with a photographic telescope, Clyde pinpointed Pluto's location on February 18, 1930. With tenacity and a passion for astronomy, he found the last planet in the solar system. The scientific community and the public were jubilant. Clyde's story is perfect for STEM students. The back matter provides a follow-up to the status of Pluto, now considered a dwarf planet, and the 2015 New Horizons Pluto flyby. There is also a bibliography, glossary and biography of Tombaugh's life of discovery.

Diane Phelps Budden spent over 30 years in corporate and academic marketing in Michigan before moving to Sedona, Arizona, where she fell in love— with ravens. She wrote about them in The Un-Common Raven: one smart bird cited as a children's Panelist Pick in the 2013 Southwest Books of the Year. Diane's Dear Hubby of Mine: Home Front Wives of World War II is a true story told with loving letters her parents exchanged during the war. Her latest children's book is Needle in a Haystack: How Clyde W. Tombaugh found an Awesome New World about the discovery of planet Pluto at Lowell Observatory. The author visits schools, libraries, and museums around Arizona to present book talks, story hours and workshops about self-publishing. Visit the author at www.dianephelpsbudden.com.