Did you know Pluto was discovered in Arizona? Yeah, we take it a little bit personally that poor Pluto has been demoted to dwarf planet.

Beyond the glowing light pollution of Phoenix, the mountain town of Flagstaff, Arizona has the perfect dark-sky environment for stargazing…and planet discovering.

Back in the early 1900s, when Great State 48 was still known as Arizona Territory and the Wild West was still in living memory, astronomer Percival Lowell built an observatory on a hilltop in Flagstaff. He spent the remainder of his life here, searching for the next great space discovery. First, he looked for canals on Mars that might prove the existence of water and life. When he didn’t find that, he searched instead for “Planet X,” a new planet he was sure existed at the edge of the solar system.

But it wasn’t until after Lowell’s death that Pluto made its dramatic debut into the world of astronomy. A Midwest farm boy and amateur space enthusiast named Clyde Tombaugh ended up discovering the planet after many cold nights of taking images on photo plates through the observatory’s cutting-edge telescope.

You can read more about Pluto’s discovery here.

Visitors can still walk through the observatory to view the famous decades-old telescopes and the beautiful library of Percival Lowell. Recently, the museum has also added some fantastic displays and a children’s area to play and learn about astronomy.

We recently visited with friends, and everyone (ages 2, 4, 6, 12, 13, and two grown-ups) had an awesome time! If you’re ever passing through Flagstaff, be sure to take some time to stop and learn something new about space and Arizona history.