Happy Birthday, Clyde

from The Mott Hall School

We are writing to wish you a happy birthday! We, class 802, of the Mott Hall School, IS 223, in Manhattan, New York City, have been studying about our solar system. We have participated in the discussions of the Live From the Hubble Space Telescope project and voted first for Pluto as the planet we would like to study. After one of the members of the discussion group wrote about your birthday, we read about your struggle to find Professor Lowell's Planet X. We would sincerely like to congratulate you for two things; first for the discovery, with your colleagues, of Pluto. This marked a dramatic event in the old but also young era of exploration and investigation. Your efforts, along with countless other stargazers, over centuries of observations, have added to the understanding that the cosmos is a big place, detail by detail. But you had a special destiny to be one of a small group of people to make a big contribution to the quest for a better understanding of our world and the realms of the space beyond. From what we read, we found out that you were special because you never gave up, even after years of disappointment and hardly any money. So you are a role model for investigators who have come after you, including us young investigators. Someday we hope to reach our goals, just as you did.

We also want to congratulate you for your 90th birthday! At first, we thought that all the planets were discovered hundreds of years ago. Our class was extremely surprised to find out that someone in the history books still lives. Well, we were wrong!! We think you definitely deserve more attention. Therefore, we are here to tell you that we really adore you. Thank you for your dedication to the science of astronomy.

					Respectfully,

					The Students of Class 802

					and Mrs. Herzog, Our Teacher

					The Mott Hall School