Mapping the Mars canal mania: Cartographic projection and the creation of a popular icon

Imago Mundi

Volumn 58, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 198-211

  Lane, K Maria D ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

Author keywords

Astronomical cartography; Eug ne Antoniadi; Giovanni Schiaparelli; Mars; Martian canals; Nathaniel Green; Percival Lowell; Planetary photography; Science popularization

Indexed keywords

CANAL; CARTOGRAPHY; MAPPING METHOD; MARS;

EID: 33745298515     PISSN: 03085694     EISSN: 14797801     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03085690600687255     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. The reportedly geometrical appearance of the surface of Mars is now thought to have been an illusory effect of optical perception (Thomas A. Dobbins and William Sheehan, 'The canals of Mars revisited', Sky & Telescope 107:3 (2004): 114-17)
2. For a succinct overview of the turn-of-the-century Mars mania, see William Sheehan, The Planet Mars: A History of Observation and Discovery (Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1996).
3. See especially David Strauss, Percival Lowell: The Culture and Science of a Boston Brahmin (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2001), for a thorough contextualization of the work of Percival Lowell, who was the most influential advocate of the inhabited-Mars hypothesis.
4. For comprehensive treatments of the place of the Mars mania in intellectual history,see Steven J. Dick, The Biological Universe: The Twentieth-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996)
5. Michael J. Crowe, The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750-1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986)
6. and Karl S. Guthke, The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds, from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction (Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 1983).
7. For discussions of the popularization of Mars science, see William Sheehan, Planets and Perception (Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1988)
8. and William Graves Hoyt, Lowell and Mars (Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1976).
9. Regarding the fraught professionalization of astronomy, see Noriss S. Hetherington, 'Percival Lowell: Scientist or interloper?' Journal of the History of Ideas 42:1 (1981): 159-61
10. and Noriss S. Hetherington, 'Amateur versus professional: The British Astronomical Association and the controversy over canals on Mars', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 86 (1976): 303-8.
11. Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, 'Osservazioni astronomiche e fisiche sull'asse di rotazione e sulla topografia del pianeta Marte fatte nella reale specola di Brera in Milano coll'equatoreale di Merz durante l'opposizione del 1877: Memoria del socio G. V. Schiaparelli', Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei: Memorie della Classe di scienze fisiche, matematiche e naturali 3:2 (1877-1878): 3-136. Schiaparelli's term canali was widely translated in English as 'canals'.
12. Nathaniel E. Green, 'Observations of Mars, at Madeira, in August and September 1877', Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society 44 (1879): 123-40.
13. For a detailed discussion of the early Mars maps and their role in establishing the authority of individual astronomers, see K. Maria D. Lane, 'Geographers of Mars: Cartographic inscription and exploration narrative in late Victorian representations of the red planet', Isis 96 (2005): 477-506.
14. See the increasingly detailed maps in G. V. Schiaparelli, ' Osservazioni astronomiche e fisiche sull'asse di rotazione e sulla topografia del pianeta Marte fatte nella reale specola di Brera in Milano coll'equatoreale di Merz: Memoria seconda del socio G. V. Schiaparelli', Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei: Memorie della classe di scienze fisiche, matematiche e naturali 3 (1880-1881): 3-109
15. G. V. Schiaparelli, 'Osservazioni astronomiche e fisiche sull'asse di rotazione e sulla topografia del pianeta Marte fatte nella reale specola di Brera in Milano coll'equatoreale di Merz: Memoria terza del socio G. V. Schiaparelli (opposizione 1881-1882)', 16 ibid. 4 (1886): 281-373
16. G. V. Schiaparelli, 'Osservazioni astronomiche e fisiche sull'asse di rotazione e sulla topografia del pianeta Marte fatte nella reale specola di Brera in Milano coll'equatoreale di Merz: Memoria quarta del socio G. V. Schiaparelli (opposizione 1883-84)', ibid. 5 (1895-1896): 183-240.
17. See, for example, C. E. Burton 'Notes on the aspects of Mars in 1882', Scientific Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society 1 (1883): 301-5. Burton regularly lamented the 'unfortunate climate' of the British Isles, which he felt prevented British and Irish astronomers from making meaningful contributions to the study of Mars.
18. The Belgian astronomer François Terby and the French astronomer Joseph Perrotin both reported seeing canals in 1886: 'The canals on Mars', Astronomical Register 24 (1886): 268, reported Terby's findings
19. J. Perrotin, 'Observation des canaux de Mars faite a l'Observatoire de Nice', Observatory 9 (1886): 364-65. The sketches by these astronomers, however, were less detailed than Schiaparelli's maps, which showed more and more canals with every iteration after 1877.
20. Simon Newcomb, director of the United States Nautical Almanac and a noted Lowell antagonist, wrote to Lowell in 1905 to request a map for an encyclopedia article he was then preparing: 'I would like a good map of Mars to accompany the article. For this I know no better source than the publication of your observatory' (Simon Newcomb to Percival Lowell, 30 October 1905, in Washington, D.C., Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Simon Newcomb Papers).
21. The editor of Popular Astronomy, W. W. Payne, likewise commented in 1904 that Lowell's maps were 'pieces of astronomical work that are now classical in astronomy ... because they were made by the very best means and methods now known to that science' (W. W. Payne, 'The "canals" of Mars', Popular Astronomy 12:6 (1904): 365-75).
22. In astronomical terms, 'seeing' is a measure of the stillness and clarity of Earth's atmosphere. Fred W. Price, 'The atmosphere and seeing', in The Planet Observer's Handbook, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000).
23. G. R. Agassiz, 'Mars as seen in the Lowell refractor', Popular Science Monthly 71 (1907): 275-82, reference on 281.
24. See, for example, Nathaniel E. Green, 'The northern hemisphere of Mars', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 46:8 (1886): 445-47
25. E. Walter Maunder, 'Section for the observation of Mars: Report of the Section, 1892', Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association 2 (1895): 157-98
26. Eugène M. Antoniadi, ' Section for the observation of Mars: Report of the Section, 1896', ibid. 6 (1898): 55-102.
27. Percival Lowell, Mars (Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin, 1895).
28. For a typical critique, see Edwin Holmes, 'Notes re Mars', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 1:5 (1891): 256-59.
29. Percival Lowell, 'Mars', Popular Astronomy 2:1 (1894): 1-8, reference on 8.
30. Percival Lowell, 'Mars: Oases', Popular Astronomy 2:8 (1895): 343-48, reference on 346, emphasis added.
31. William H. Pickering, 'The planet Mars', Technical World Magazine (1906): 459-71, reference on 469-70.
32. Strauss, Percival Lowell (see note 2), provides the most comprehensive analysis of the manoeuvring between Lowell and his opponents in the astronomical establishment.
33. 'Report of the meeting of the association, held on June 24 1903, at Sion College, Victoria Embankment', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 13:9 (1903): 331-40, reference on 338.
34. See, again, Strauss, Percival Lowell (note 2), for a detailed discussion of this effort.
35. See, for example, a series of letters which Simon Newcomb wrote to Percival Lowell in March 1903 (Simon Newcomb Papers (note 9)).
36. For a detailed discussion of how Lowell manoeuvred to validate this method and cultivate supporters, see Jennifer Tucker, 'Science Illustrated: Photographic Evidence and Social Practice in England, 1870-1920' (doctoral dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 1996).
37. 'Report of the meeting of the association, held on June 20, 1906, at Sion College, Victoria Embankment', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 16:9 (1906): 333.
38. Simon Newcomb, 'The optical and psychological principles involved in the interpretation of the so-called canals of Mars', Astrophysical Journal 26:1 (1907): 1-17.
39. For his animated rebuttals, see especially Lowell's personal correspondence with Simon Newcomb and Walter Maunder, for example, letter from Lowell to Simon Newcomb, 15 March 1903
40. Lowell to Newcomb, 15 May 1907 (Simon Newcomb Papers (note 9)). See also Lowell to E. Walter Maunder, 28 November 1903 (Percival Lowell Correspondence, Lowell Observatory Archive, Flagstaff, Arizona).
41. An 'opposition' occurs when two planets pass one another in their respective orbits, forming a line as seen from the sun. During such an event (which occurs every 26 months in the case of Earth and Mars), the planets are not only relatively closer to one another than at any other time, but the disk of the outer planet (in this case, Mars) is also fully illuminated by the sun, as seen from the inner planet.
42. See Tucker, 'Science Illustrated' (note 22), for a discussion of the media's coverage of the expedition.
43. Lowell asked an associate in New York, George R. Agassiz, to intercede with Century's editor, R.U. Johnson, on his behalf. Letter from R. U. Johnson to Lowell, 24 September 1907, from George R. Agassiz to Lowell, 27 September 1907, and from George R. Agassiz to Lowell, 14 October 1907 (Percival Lowell Correspondence (see note 25)).
44. Letter from R. U. Johnson to Lowell, 8 October 1907 (Percival Lowell Correspondence (see note 25)).
45. See Tucker, 'Science Illustrated' (note 22), for a detailed treatment of this episode.
46. A. C. D. Crommelin, 'Martian photography', The Observatory 30:387 (1907): 365.
47. E. M. Antoniadi, 'Mars Section interim report on the Australian observations, 1907', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 18:10 (1908): 398-401, reference on 401.
48. Percival Lowell, 'New photographs of Mars: Taken by the astronomical expedition to the Andes and now first published', Century Magazine 75 (1907): 303-11, reference on 309-10, emphasis added.
49. Letter from Hugh Chisholm to Simon Newcomb, 5 February 1907 (Simon Newcomb Papers (see note 9), emphasis in original).
50. See Richard McKim, 'The life and times of E. M. Antoniadi, 1870-1944. Part 1: An astronomer in the making', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 103:4 (1993): 164-70
51. Richard McKim, 'The life and times of E. M. Antoniadi, 1870-1944. Part 2: The Meudon years', ibid., 103:5 (1993): 219-27, for a detailed discussion of Antoniadi's long involvement in the Mars debate.
52. E. M. Antoniadi, 'Mars Section third interim report for 1909, dealing with the nature of the so-called "canals" of Mars', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 20:1 (1909): 25-28, reference on 28.
53. Letter from Lowell to E. M. Antoniadi, 26 September 1909 (Percival Lowell Correspondence (see note 25)).
54. Letter from E. M. Antoniadi to Lowell, 9 October 1909 (Percival Lowell Correspondence (see note 25), emphasis in original).
55. Percival Lowell, 'Schiaparelli', Popular Astronomy 18:8 (1910): 456-67.
56. E. M. Antoniadi, 'On the possibility of explaining on a geomorphic basis the phenomena presented by the planet Mars', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 20:2 (1909): 89-94, reference on 93.
57. E. M. Antoniadi, 'Mars Section fourth interim report for the apparition of 1909, dealing with the appearance of the planet Mars between September 20 and October 23 in the great refractor of the Meudon Observatory', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 20:2 (1909): 78-81, reference on 79.
58. E. M. Antoniadi, 'Mars Section fifth interim report for 1909, dealing with the fact revealed by observation that Prof. Schiaparelli's "canal" network is the optical product of the irregular minor details diversifying the Martian surface', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 20:3 (1909-1910): 136-41, reference on 141, emphasis in original.
59. The staff of the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, using the world's largest telescope (with a 60-inch refractor), had taken a series of photographs in 1909 that far exceeded Lowell's 1907 images in clarity and detail. Once again, however, the celebrated photographs failed to show any of the hard-edged features that commonly appeared in Lowell's drawings and maps. 'Report of the meeting of the association, held on Wednesday, December 29, 1909, at Sion College, Victoria Embankment, E.C.', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 20:3 (1909-1910): 119-28.
60. See, for example, Eugéne Antoniadi, 'Mars Section, second interim report for 1898-99', Journal of the British Astronomical Association 9:8 (1899): 367-71.
61. E. M. Antoniadi, 'Note on some photographic images of Mars taken in 1907 by Professor Lowell', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 69:2 (1908): 110-14, references on 110 and 112.
62. Antoniadi, 'Mars Section fifth interim report for 1909' (see note 42), 141.
63. 'Report of the meeting of the association, held on Wednesday, December 29, 1909' (see note 43), 123.