Blink comparator
Microscopio de parpadeo
- Date
- 1904 · confidence high
- Place
- Jena, Germany
- Credited to
- Carl Pulfrich
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
An instrument that rapidly alternates the view between two photographs of the same star field taken at different dates, making objects that have moved or changed brightness appear to jump. Clyde Tombaugh used it to discover Pluto in 1930.
Invented in 1904 by physicist Carl Pulfrich at Carl Zeiss AG; also known as a blink microscope.
What it led to
- the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930
- systematic detection of asteroids, comets and variable stars
- a standard sky-survey method before digital astronomy