Mars (Lowell)

by Percival Lowell

Plate I

MARS
SINUS TITANIUM
November, 1894

Lowell Observatory

Flagstaff, A.T. 1894

TO

PROFESSOR WILLIAM EDWARD STORY

SOMETIME AT FLAGSTAFF HIMSELF

THIS NEWS FROM A NEIGHBOR

IS INSCRIBED

PREFACE

This book is the result of a special study of the planet made during the last opposition, at an observatory put up for the purpose of getting as good air as practicable, at Flagstaff, Arizona. A steady atmosphere is essential to the study of planetary detail: size of instrument being a very secondary matter. A large instrument in poor air will not begin to show what a smaller one in good air will. When this is recognized, as it eventually will be, it will become the fashion to put up observatories where they may see rather than be seen.

Next to atmosphere comes systematic study. Of the extent to which this was realized at Flagstaff, I need only say that the planet was observed there from May 24, 1894, to April 3, 1895, during which time, to mention nothing else, 917 drawings and sketches were made of it. Prof. W. H. Pickering and Mr. A. E. Douglass were associated with me in the observations herein described.

Such as care to see the original data more technically and minutely treated will find them in the first volume of the Annals of this observatory.

Lowell Observatory,

November, 1895.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	General Characteristics	1
	⁠1. As a Star	1
	⁠2. Orbit	8
	⁠3. Size and Shape	14
II.	Atmosphere	31
	⁠1. Evidence of it	31
	⁠2. Clouds	60
III.	Water	76
	⁠1. The Polar Cap	76
	⁠2. Areography	92
	⁠3. Seas	107
IV.	Canals	129
	⁠1. First Appearances	129
	⁠2. Map and Catalogue	141
	⁠3. Artificiality	148
	⁠4. Development	154
V.	Oases	176
	⁠1. Spots in the Light Regions	176
	⁠2. Double Canals	188
	⁠3. Spots in the Dark Regions	197
VI.	Conclusion	201
Appendix		213
Index		223

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE			PAGE
I.	Mars, Sinus Titanum	Colored Frontispiece.
	⁠November, 1894.	(P. L.)
	Orbits of Mars and the Earth		11
	Huyghens' Drawing of the Syrtis Major		21
	⁠November 28, 1659.
	(From Flammarion’s “La Planète Mars.”)
	Terminator Effects		38
		(P. L.)
II.	Map of the South Pole of Mars		84
	⁠Showing the Polar Cap and its Changes in 1894.
		(P. L.)
III.	Mars, Longitude 0° on the Meridian		96
		(P. L.)
IV.	Mars, Longitude 30° on the Meridian		97
		(P. L.)
V.	Mars, Longitude 60° on the Meridian		99
		(P. L.)
VI.	Mars, Longitude 90° on the Meridian		100
		(P. L.)
VII.	Mars, Longitude 120° on the Meridian		101
		(P. L.)
VIII.	Mars, Longitude 150° on the Meridian		102
		(P. L.)
IX.	Mars, Longitude 180° on the Meridian		103
		(P. L.)
X.	Mars, Longitude 210° on the Meridian		104
		(P. L.)
XI.	Mars, Longitude 240° on the Meridian		105
		(P. L.)
XII.	Mars, Longitude 270° on the Meridian		105
		(P. L.)
XIII.	Mars, Longitude 300° on the Meridian		106
		(P. L.)
XIV.	Mars, Longitude 330° on the Meridian		107
		(P. L.)
XV.	Syrtis Major		111
	Showing Seasonal Change during 1894.	(P. L.)
XVI.	Hesperia		116
	Showing Seasonal Change during 1894.	(P. L.)
XVII.	Sea of the Sirens		122
	Showing Seasonal Change during 1894.	(P. L.)
XVIII.	Fastigium Aryn		138
	October, 1894.	(P. L.)
XIX.	Lacus Phoenicis		162
	November, 1894.	(P. L.)
XX.	Terminator Views		170
	August 24, 1894.	(W. H. P.)
XXI.	Drawings after Opposition (except one)		171
		(A. E. D.)
XXII.	Drawings after Opposition		173
		(A. E. D.)
XXIII.	Phison and Euphrates		194
	Both Double, November 18, 1894.	(P. L.)
XXIV.	Mars, on Mercator's Projection		218
		(P. L.)
XXV.	Drawings of the Planet in 1894		202
		(P. L.)
XXVI.	Drawings of the Planet in 1894		208
		(P. L.)