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Much of the information I presented regarding the history of Mars observation came from William Sheehan’s The Planet Mars, which is now .available on the web.

I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s a great resource, detailing the history of what we have learned about Mars over the past five centuries. One of the more appealing sections of the book concerns — of course — Percival Lowell and the canals. While trying to explain this phenomenon to the students, it occurred to me that it is largely the same phenomenon behind the “Mars face” flap of a few years back — they eye sees a jumble of shapes and colors and the brain attempts to impose order on it. I know that I’ve read an explanation along these lines at one time or another, but I never really “got it” until I had to explain it to someone else.