Schiaparelli Mars Map, 1877-78 #1
by Science Source
Title
Schiaparelli Mars Map, 1877-78 #1
Artist
Science Source
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Schiaparelli's Mappa Aerographica of Mars, Mercator projection, 1877-78. Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835-1910) was an Italian astronomer and science historian. In 1888, Schiaparelli announced the discovery of a network of narrow lines on Mars, which he described as "canali," an Italian word that means "channels." In Italian, the word can mean a natural channel like a river valley. The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection presented by the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It became the standard map projection for nautical purposes because of its ability to represent lines of constant course, known as rhumb lines or loxodromes, as straight segments which conserve the angles with the meridians. While the linear scale is equal in all directions around any point, thus preserving the angles and the shapes of small objects (which makes the projection conformal), the Mercator projection distorts the size and shape of large objects, as the scale increases from the Equator to the poles, where it becomes infinite.
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July 7th, 2014
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