113
This can be translated into English as:
‘…the planet at that point is yellow, and the rest of the surface is red and speckled with
brighter red dots. (Visibility [seeing] is excellent)’.
Secchi mapped the north and south hemispheres in the form of polar projections
but did not produce a Mercator map with which to facilitate comparison with Beer
and Mädler. However, as Flammarion noted in 1892, there was evidence of obvious change:
‘La comparaison de nos dessins avec ceux obtenues par Mädler, de 1830 à 1837, semble
prouver de changements très notables’.
6.4 Publication, and Later Mars Work
Secchi published his drawings in a paper in a Memoir penned in the Italian language
(Secchi 1859b). Flammarion had seen the original drawings on a visit to Rome in
1872 and wrote two decades later that the illustrations – reproduced from copper
plates – were not particularly faithful, nor were the chromolithographs that appeared
in several later popular books (see, for example, the versions published by
George F. Chambers [1841–1915] [Chambers 1889] in Fig. 6.4). Flammarion, however, thought highly of the quality of Secchi’s original work, as did François
Terby (1846–1911) (Terby 1874). But the fundamental importance of the Rome
observations was clear. We take the opportunity of publishing the complete extant
set of drawings, direct from the originals, for the first time (Fig. 6.1a, b).
As for Secchi’s inferences from his 1858 observations, the following, as presented in his paper and as summarized by Flammarion in 1892, are among the most
important.
Regarding the polar caps, Secchi believed that the only possible explanation for
their observed variations was the melting of snow or the disappearance of clouds
covering these regions. If that were so, then liquid water and seas must exist on
Mars. The reddish regions, like the bluish ones, seemed permanent. ‘It is probable’,
he wrote, ‘that the former are solid, the latter liquid. The tone of the former is not
uniform, but markedly screziato, as though filled with fine detail, about the nature
of which we have no information’.
Comparing his observations of 1858 with Beer and Mädler’s, Secchi thought that
changes were likely, though not yet proved. However, at least in some cases he
believed the changes to be genuinely Martian, and as described above, many of
them certainly were and can now be explained in terms of windblown movement of
surface dust.
All in all, Secchi maintained the admirably cautious approach of the scientist and
did not over interpret his observations. At the conclusion of his studies of 1858, he
would not go farther than to write: ‘Whether the dark regions represent water and
the reddish areas continents and the white areas clouds – is … difficult to answer;
6 Planetary Observations by Angelo Secchi
This can be translated into English as:
‘…the planet at that point is yellow, and the rest of the surface is red and speckled with
brighter red dots. (Visibility [seeing] is excellent)’.
Secchi mapped the north and south hemispheres in the form of polar projections
but did not produce a Mercator map with which to facilitate comparison with Beer
and Mädler. However, as Flammarion noted in 1892, there was evidence of obvious change:
‘La comparaison de nos dessins avec ceux obtenues par Mädler, de 1830 à 1837, semble
prouver de changements très notables’.
6.4 Publication, and Later Mars Work
Secchi published his drawings in a paper in a Memoir penned in the Italian language
(Secchi 1859b). Flammarion had seen the original drawings on a visit to Rome in
1872 and wrote two decades later that the illustrations – reproduced from copper
plates – were not particularly faithful, nor were the chromolithographs that appeared
in several later popular books (see, for example, the versions published by
George F. Chambers [1841–1915] [Chambers 1889] in Fig. 6.4). Flammarion, however, thought highly of the quality of Secchi’s original work, as did François
Terby (1846–1911) (Terby 1874). But the fundamental importance of the Rome
observations was clear. We take the opportunity of publishing the complete extant
set of drawings, direct from the originals, for the first time (Fig. 6.1a, b).
As for Secchi’s inferences from his 1858 observations, the following, as presented in his paper and as summarized by Flammarion in 1892, are among the most
important.
Regarding the polar caps, Secchi believed that the only possible explanation for
their observed variations was the melting of snow or the disappearance of clouds
covering these regions. If that were so, then liquid water and seas must exist on
Mars. The reddish regions, like the bluish ones, seemed permanent. ‘It is probable’,
he wrote, ‘that the former are solid, the latter liquid. The tone of the former is not
uniform, but markedly screziato, as though filled with fine detail, about the nature
of which we have no information’.
Comparing his observations of 1858 with Beer and Mädler’s, Secchi thought that
changes were likely, though not yet proved. However, at least in some cases he
believed the changes to be genuinely Martian, and as described above, many of
them certainly were and can now be explained in terms of windblown movement of
surface dust.
All in all, Secchi maintained the admirably cautious approach of the scientist and
did not over interpret his observations. At the conclusion of his studies of 1858, he
would not go farther than to write: ‘Whether the dark regions represent water and
the reddish areas continents and the white areas clouds – is … difficult to answer;
6 Planetary Observations by Angelo Secchi