Does anyone know of any good history of how they were received?

My understanding is that canals were far from universally accepted even in the days of Schiaparelli and Lowell and their "observations" of canals. Some of their Mars-observing colleagues, like Antoniadi, never saw them, and some astronomers experimented with having schoolboys draw simulated planets.

And that most astronomers had become very skeptical about the canals by the mid-20th-cy. -- were there any remaining supporters of canals on Mars by then?

I'm interested in what may be called pre-spacecraft views on the subject, since Mars-visiting spacecraft have sent back large numbers of pictures without any Schiaparelli-Lowell canals being evident.

I think "canals" was a mis-interpretation of the "channels" that Shiaparelli observed thru his scope. I know people will correct me if I'm wrong .. it's the BABB culture 8)

They weren't well recieved at first at all. Noone else could see them, even when using the same telescopes at the same sort of time. When he started seeing identical patterns on Venus, people were even more incredulous.

It turned out that he'd accidentally reproduced the thing you get in an eye exam where a light is shined into your eye and you can see the veins on your own retina. The "canals" were an optical illusion created by him looking into his own eye.

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No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?

Archer17 is correct. Schiaparelli had used the word canali, which may be translated "channels". But someone translated it as "canals", implying artificiality.

DOH! #-o

Can you imagine having to explain that to your peers?

"Well you know those chanels on mars I was banging on about for years? Well...... you're never going to believe this......"

From The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight


Canali can mean both "channels" and "canals". See below:

http://www.aromatic.com/itaeng/ (Under canale, the singular noun.)

http://physics.syr.edu/courses/CCD_N.../previous.html

http://www.phy.bg.ac.yu/web_projects...g/marsdisc.htm

Except that Lowell DID mean artificial structures. He even wrote a book about it which included elaborate speculation on the martian civilization.

The thing about the canalli is that were generally seen only visually. Photographs taken even over a few minutes were too blurred to reoslve such fine features - even if they were real.

The interesting thing is that is very high resolution photos taken from earth you can see faint linear albedo features that correspond to canalli. For example in the magnificent series taken by the UKIRT on August 17 last year (http://www.aao.gov.au/local/www/jab/...rs_images.html).

It is not surprsing that observers gradually interpreted these faint lines as real features rather than subtle variations in albedo.

Jon

Which images specifically?

When the Martians found out that our telescopes could see their canals they covered them up.

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A common classic experiment is to place a picture of Mars in front of a class of school children and asked to draw what they see. The children in the front row almost never draw lines or "canals", the ones in the back row almost always do.

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milli360 wrote:

"Which images specifically?"

Look at the annotated image http://www.aao.gov.au/local/www/jab/..._annotated.jpg

Using the classical where possible nomenclature and trying to see the image as someone would in (say) 1920):

1) A faint linear feature running from the south polar cap towards Mare Cimmerium, almost in the centre of the image. This may correspond to the Scamander canal

2) A curvilinear feature running eastward from Sytris Major twards Thoth

3) Two stubby linear features running north from Mare Cimmerium towards Elysium on either side of Aeolis

4) A linear feature on the north side of Elysium

5) Three radial linear features along the northerm rim of Hellas, one seems to be traceable discontinously across Mare Tyrrhenium to Lybia (south of Isidus).

Having worked with people looking for linements in various forms of imagery, it may be worth noting that people's abilities to see linear features seems to vary considerably.

Jon

With respect to the original question, a very useful summary of the history of Mars observation an be found at http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlin...s/contents.htm, with particular reference to chapter 4-10 inclusive.

Jon

If noone else could see them, the why sweat it? Let the "Smart and Gifted one figure it out".

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...

Your statements in the opening post of this thread are quite correct as far as I've read. There was also a PBS program (possibly NOVA) about this some years ago.

The webpage linked below contains a bunch of early objections, and if you scroll further down on that page, you'll find some shorter one-line objections to Lowell's views.
http://eee.uci.edu/clients/bjbecker/...s/week10b.html