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Lowell Observatory, Slipher Building, 1400 West Mars Road, Flagstaff, Coconino County, AZ

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Lowell Observatory, Slipher Building, 1400 West Mars Road, Flagstaff, Coconino County, AZ

description

Summary

Picryl description: Public domain image of an architectural element, dome, cathedral, classical architecture, free to use, no copyright restrictions.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was believed that there were canals on Mars. These were a network of long straight lines in the equatorial regions from 60° N. to 60° S. Lat. on the planet Mars observed by astronomers using early telescopes. They were first described by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli during the opposition of 1877, and confirmed by later observers. Schiaparelli called these canali, which was translated into English as "canals". The Irish astronomer Charles E. Burton made sketches of the lines, the American Percival Lowell, who founded the Lowell Observatory in 1894, made the most committed speculations on the subject. Lowell almost single-handedly popularized the notion of the canals as proof that the planet once sustained intelligent life. His drawings of the canals look like Italian Futurist masterworks or the spacey doodles of Joan Miró.

date_range

Date

1980
person

Contributors

Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
Balachowski, transmitter
Jacobsen, Rebecca, historian
place

Location

Flagstaff (Ariz.)35.20234, -111.66402
Google Map of 35.2023415, -111.6640231
create

Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html

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