Fergie's Tech Blog

13 March 1855: Happy Birthday, Percival Lowell

Via Wikipedia.

Percival Lowell (March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was a wealthy amateur astronomer who was convinced that there were canals on Mars, and was the founder of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Percival Lowell came from the distinguished Boston Lowell family. In addition to his own accomplishments, his younger brother Abbott was president of Harvard University, and his sister Amy Lowell was a well-known Imagist poet and critic.

Percival Lowell graduated from Harvard University in 1876 with distinction in mathematics, and traveled extensively through the Far East before deciding to study Mars and astronomy as a full-time career. He was particularly interested in the supposed canals of Mars, as drawn by Giovanni Schiaparelli, who was director of the Milan Observatory and an esteemed Italian astronomer.

In 1894 he moved to Flagh, Arizona. At an altitude of over 7000 feet, and with few cloudy nights, it was an excellent site for astronomical observations. For the next fifteen years he studied Mars extensively, and made intricate drawings of the surface markings as he perceived them. Lowell published his views in three books: Mars (1895), Mars and Its Canals (1906), and Mars As the Abode of Life (1908). He thereby instigated the long-held belief that Mars had once sustained intelligent life forms.

More here.

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posted by Fergie @ 3/12/2006 10:01:00 PM