River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1899-07-06
MARS AT CLOSE RANGE.
IL Is Easy to Study His Face When
Only Thirty-Five Million
Miles Away.

1
| All the monster glasses with which
the late rapid advance has been made in
knowledge of our celestial neip hbors
have come into being since the civil
war. Until then, in this country, the
Harvard telescope of Is inches was the
largest. About 1860 one of eighteen and
half inches was ordered for the Uni
versity of Mississippi; but with the
breaking out of the war telescopes had
to wait, and these lenses are now at
the Northwestern university, in Evan
ston, Ill. IL is only since 1870 that real
| ly huge instruments have multiplied
and are nightly turned upon the starry
skies to ask the questions which seem
| to our Impotence so slowly answered.
| But many answers have come, after
all, and some things are clear which be-
fore could only be surmised. For in
stance, we feel quite sure now that
Mars has an atmosphere, though not
more than half as dense as our own;
| but far better than none, as we can tell
by looking at our bright though dead
and desolated moon, from which air
and water has long since disappeared.
| And if Mars has air, the polar caps
alone would seem to show that he has
also ice and snow; and there appears
| to be, as well, areas of water and marsh,
though less in extent than the land.
The northern hemisphere looks bright
err through the telescope, even showing
tints of red and yellow, which astrono-
mers are inclined to think are chiefly
dry land, probably desert; while the
/ southern is dark, the seas brown or
dull gray, quite as water might appear.
! These spots were first called seas like
/ the smooth regions of the moon, and the
name continues in both, whatever they
may be.
In 1877 Mars was at his nearest point
to us; near, that is, from an astrono-
mer's point of view, though really at
the enormous distance of 35,000,000
miles. Yet great deal was learned
about this neighbor in the sky-among
other things, that he is attended by
two tiny satellites, or moons, never seen
before. And the same year an Italian
astronomer, Signor Schiaparelli (pro-
nounced Skeea-pa-rel-ly) made careful
| anu VI thC
markings on Mars, completing with the
fine telescope at Milan, series of elab-
crate sketches afterward combined
into an accurate detail map.
Again, in 1892 and 1894, the earth and
Mars came near each other in their
fight through space, though somewhat
fartherthan during the year 1877. And
within the last few months we have
been once more in a good position to
observe each other. But we are favor
ably placed, because only under these
conditions can we see the north pole OF
Mars, and so much more is known
about his south pole that there is, of
course, strong attraction in the mys-
terious north regions. Only at this
great distance is the north pole gra-
ciously tilted toward us, so he has been
constantly watched this spring; and so
he will be again in little over two
years. Eight years, however, will pass
before the Marian south pole can
again be studied to good advantage;
in September of 1909, too, all observa-
tories will be on the eager lookout for
news from this fascinating planet
Mrs. Mabel Loomis Todd, in ST. Nicho-