Atmospherics, Meteors, and Magnetic Field

Abstract

Even early seventeenth century telescopic observers suspected that Mars has an atmosphere – but then again, the same observers thought that such a commodity was possessed by the Moon, even though there was little evidence to support the idea. During the late eighteenth century William Herschel (1738–1822) – a great proponent of an intelligently inhabited Mars – observed the planet’s changing seasons, discerned seasonal variation in the extent of the Martian polar caps and noted apparent variations in the planet’s markings which to him suggested occasional cloud cover. In order to get a good view of Mars’ surface features terrestrial observers require the weather to be good on the Earth, as well as on Mars!