Using the “Parallel Lives” approach of the Greek biographer Plutarch by setting the lives and research careers of the two famous and colorful astronomers, Percival Lowell and Edward Emerson Barnard, in contrast against each other, the author creates a uniquely dynamic work that will delight and inform anyone interested in the history of Mars observations and in nineteenth and twentieth century American astronomy in general.
This book dives deep into the contrasting lives of Percival Lowell and Edward Emerson Barnard through archives containing their work, as well as never before published astronomical observational data. It provides a fresh take on these observers—and is appropriate and timely as there is great interest in Lowell with Perseverance now roving about Mars looking for samples to bring back to Earth in the quest for Martian life and in Barnard whose excellent qualities as an observer are being appreciated again on the 100th anniversary of his death.
This book sets the lives and research careers of these two famous and colorful astronomers in contrast against each other. The result is a uniquely dynamic work that will delight and inform anyone interested in the history of Mars observations and in nineteenth and twentieth century American astronomy.