Some dates produce connections almost automatically.
13 March is one of those.
Three astronomical milestones line up neatly on the same day.
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1781 — William Herschel discovers Uranus in Bath.
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1855 — Birth of Percival Lowell.
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1930 — Discovery of Pluto is announced from Lowell Observatory in Arizona.
Astronomers deliberately chose 13 March for the announcement of Pluto’s discovery.
The date honoured both Lowell’s birthday and the anniversary of Herschel discovering Uranus.
So the chain becomes:
Bath → Uranus → Lowell → Pluto.
A ready-made link loop across 150 years of astronomy.
Lowell himself came from a prominent Boston family and spent years searching for the mysterious “Planet X.” He never found it, but his observatory in Flagstaff eventually did.
A Playful Illustration
Today’s image imagines that moment with a bit of humour.
A cheerful long-eared dog — who may or may not remind viewers of a certain famous cartoon character — leaps into the night sky as if the planets Uranus and Pluto were balls to play with.
Behind him sits the dome of Lowell Observatory, perched on the hills above Flagstaff.
The setting matters. Flagstaff lies in the high desert of northern Arizona, not far from the Grand Canyon, where dark skies and high elevation make it ideal for astronomy.
Above the desert, the two distant worlds glow side by side.
One large and turquoise.
One small and icy.
And somewhere down below, a dog is convinced they’re toys.