![]() Here, too, are some of his logbooks, opened to pages filled with countless sketches of Mars' surface, with slight variations in each. One of the oak display cabinets contains a photo of Lowell peering through one of his giant telescopes, wearing a three-piece suit and hat to ward off the cold in the unheated building (The image has been art-converted into the Observatory's logo). The Observatory provides modern equipment for visitors to study Flagstaff's night skies. Visitors can see the original telegram suggesting the name Pluto, and images from a peaceful demonstration in protest of Pluto's downgrade. Displayed here are memorabilia cataloging Pluto's life from the hypothetical Planet X to its 21st century degradation. One of the Observatory's original buildings contains Percival's study, now the "Rotunda Museum." Its circular shape was designed as a tribute to Lowell's wife Constance's favorite planet, which was not Mars or Pluto, but Saturn (The room's chandelier sports the planet's familiar rings). It hosts an annual "I Heart Pluto" festival, and the gift shop sells t-shirts emblazoned Still a Planet to Me and I Miss Pluto - references to Pluto's 2006 demotion from planet to dwarf planet. The Observatory - still overseen by the Lowell family - is proud of its role in Pluto's discovery. This puts Pluto at the top of the celestial totem. This is not Lowell's attempt at a Martian Alphabet it is the planet names in scientific shorthand, stacked in their order from the sun. Today the short road leading from Route 66 up to Mars Hill (a name safely assumed to have been bestowed by Lowell) is flanked by two stone pillars, one inscribed "Lowell Observatory," the other with hieroglyphic lettering. Lowell had unknowingly photographed Pluto in 1915, but did not notice it among the thousands of other specks of light in the sky. Ironically, Pluto was discovered at Lowell Observatory - but by another astronomer, 14 years after Lowell had died. ![]() Astronomy lore has it that Lowell worked himself to death in his hunt for Planet X, partly to reestablish his reputation after his Mars canal flop (Although, to be fair, his hypothesis was not definitively debunked until 1965, when Mariner 4 sent the first close-up canal-free photos of Mars). Frustrated, he redirected his energies toward finding what he called "Planet X" - what we know today as Pluto. That's because, despite years of effort, Lowell never found any. You have to look hard to find any mention of extraterrestrial canals. But in its historical displays, Lowell's Martian concepts are kept to shallow summaries. Lowell began his work in 1896 - and Lowell Observatory is still there, still making astronomical observations, and welcoming visitors. ![]() Staffer holds photo of Observatory's favorite planet: not Mars, but Pluto. A hilltop on the outskirts of Flagstaff - pre-Route-66 and its neon signs - proved ideal. To prove this theory Lowell needed a better view of Mars, and for that he needed a place with clear air and dark night skies. Lowell believed that there was intelligent life on the Angry Red Planet, a popular position at the turn of the 20th century, based on the findings of an an Italian astronomer who saw fuzzy canali (channels, but mistranslated into English as "canals") on the Martian surface. Rotunda Museum displays artifacts beneath a Saturn chandelier.īut once a railroad connected the coasts, people of means began trickling in, seeking a climate to cure their tuberculosis, or grand landscapes to photograph and paint.Īnd if you were Percival Lowell (1855-1916), scion of a prominent Boston family, sick of running a cotton mill and of taking clerical postings in Asia, you came west looking for Martians.
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