"Victorian Views of Mars" Topic

"The advances in science during the Victorian age helped to feed the imaginations of Joules Verne and other creative writers. Among these advances were ever larger and more powerful telescopes. This allowed the astronomers of the time to see with ever finer detail the natures of other worlds. Mars was observed to have a year of 687 Earth days and that the Martian day was 24.65 hours. This was, of course, very suggestive that Mars might be very much like Earth. As photography was still in its infancy, Astronomers relied on their direct observation and sketch what they saw.

I hope to present a series of images of the Victorian's view of Mars and our current view as comparison. A few points need to be kept in mind. The image in a refracting telescope are inverted, this was of course well known to the Victorians, but since this was the view seen by all observers, the image as it appears in the telescope is the orientation excepted as correct by convention. This can cause some confusion when comparing current images with those of the past. I have adjusted the following to the Victorian convention and aliened then to the prime meridian centered…"

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Amicalement
Armand

I am always shocked when my old web site turns up.

Sorry about all the spelling errors.