Lowell’s map of Mercury (1902)

Published: 2016.02.02.

Source: P. Lowell: New observations of the planet Mercury.

Cambridge, J. Wilson and son, 1902. In Memoirs of the American academy of arts and sciences, n.8., v.12, no.4

The book also includes tens of drawings of Mercury.

According to the author, the planet is “covered with long narrow markings best explained as the result of cooling”, and Mercury “is a world as dead as the Moon, but differently brought to that condition”. The map shows an elliptical view because Lowell thought that Mercury is “an ellipsoid”.

lowell-mercury lowell-mercury-index

Column name	Column description
Catalog ID (M)	N/A
Title	Title of map
Author	Name of mapper(s), or author, PI, map editor, illustrator, etc. with roles
Nationality	Nationality of author
Start date	Year when mapping began / or year or observation
Date of publication	Year of publication or completion of manusctipt (empty if not published yet)
Body	Target name (planetary body)
Online	Online references about the map
Projection	Projection of map. 2-hemisphere is shown here.
Scale	N/A
Orientation	Orientation of map [north up, south up] – only for historic maps (north: cartographic tradition, south: astronomical tradition)
Publication type	The type of work that contains the map. [standalone, journal, conference, atlas, book figure, book supplement, book plate, encyclopedia, multisheet, digital]
Type, purpose	Type of map purpose [generic, outreach, science, citizen, surface operation (pre mission), landing site (post mission), observer, opposition, index, reference, eclipse/transit/occultation] generic: not defined, outreach: maps for the general public made b
Primary Nomenclature	Laguage(s) of nomenclature displayed on the map [Latin, English etc., IAU, informal]. Latin for Latin nomenclature prior to IAU.
Ref (map)	Full reference of map publication or publication that contains the map
DOI	DOI number of map
ID (publication)	ID of map publication or figure number
Origin type	If this map is not original, the following codes are used: [L: language variant, N: new print, U: updated edition, C: copied / modified from another map, R: renovation map (digital version of paper map with slight changes), F facsimile. RP: republished in
Origin ID	Any maps that this map is based on or copied from. Database ID of original map.
Based on map	Name of mapper
Base (spacecraft, telescope)	Name of spacecraft / instrument
Original title	Title of map in original langage (if not English)
Publisher	Name of Publisher; manuscript or self-published. For journals and conferences, the name of the journal or conference.
Coverage	Coverage of map [global, hemispheric, regional, local, landing site, landing ellipse, traverse]
Target location	IAU name of target feature (if named) or near side, far side etc. (If nothing noted, it is global)
Country	Country of Publisher (original/translation)
Type, content	Type of map [photo, map, sketch map, drawing, globe, tactile, data]. Data for raster datasets. For vector data, see Feature DB. Drawing: no grid, scale, projection etc.
Image base	Base theme of the map [shaded relief, photomosaic, photo, none]
Theme	Theme of map [visual, albedo, radar, low sun, topography, elevation, geology, geomorphology, art, nomenclature reference, feature, landing site reference, opposition map, event (eclipse etc) etc.]. Low sun is optical photo with shadows and no albedo. Vis
Technique	Cartographic technique [imagemap, datamap, cartographic map, unit map, airbrush, pencil, line drawing/outline, contour lines, DEM, DIM, shaded relief / hillshading, raster data etc.]
Style	Details on style
Method	Method how the data was obtained
Mapping scale	Scale of mapping
Resolution	Raster dataset resoltion [m/pixel]
Short Reference	Short form of reference to the map publication
GIS / data	URL where GIS or original spatial data is
Data provider	N/A
Profession	Profession of author (for historic maps)
Designator	Sheet designator terms following Greeley and Batson (1990) Planetary Mapping. Cambridge University Press. – only if displayed on the map. First letter: target body, 5M: scale, 90/0 etc: center coordinates, OM – orthophotomosaic , T – Topographic data (nom
Control	Controlled, semi-controlled, uncontrolled
Note on control	Base of control
Series title	Title of map series
Number of maps (in work)	N/A
Number of quads	N/A
Quad ID	Quad ID (or quads IDs) contained on the map
Map Diameter	N/A
Map width cm	N/A
Map height cm	N/A
Map width px	N/A
Map height px	N/A
Base type	Type of instrument of observation of base data [naked eye, telescope, spacecraft, space telescope, lander]
Location of copy	Library or archive where manuscript or rare copy is kept
Ref (literature)	Reference – literature about the map, may be the source of data if the map is not available. Separated with # symbols.
Status (2017)	Status of mapping [complete, in progress, in review] (mostly for USGS maps)
Aim	Original aim of mapping, if available
Notes	Any comments, remarks [Long text, may be multiple paragraphs]
Secondary nomenclature	Other languages of the nomenclature
Nomenclature Notes	Remarks on nomenclature
Photo note	N/A
Reference frame	ID from RefFrames
web2	Online references about the map
web3	Online references about the map
web4	Online references about the map
ocentric/ographic	Map coordinate [planetographic, planetocentric]
N	N/A
S	N/A
W 360E	N/A
E 360E	N/A
W 180	N/A
E 180	N/A
W 360W	N/A
R 360W	N/A
fig1	N/A
fig1 caption	N/A
fig2	N/A
fig2 caption	N/A
fig3	N/A
fig3 caption	N/A
fig4	N/A
fig4 caption	N/A
fig5	N/A
fig5 caption	N/A
STATUS	N/A
Sum	$180

Column name

Column description

Catalog ID (M)

N/A

Title

Title of map

Author

Name of mapper(s), or author, PI, map editor, illustrator, etc. with roles

Nationality

Nationality of author

Start date

Year when mapping began / or year or observation

Date of publication

Year of publication or completion of manusctipt (empty if not published yet)

Body

Target name (planetary body)

Online

Online references about the map

Projection

Projection of map. 2-hemisphere is shown here.

Scale

N/A

Orientation

Orientation of map [north up, south up] – only for historic maps (north: cartographic tradition, south: astronomical tradition)

Publication type

The type of work that contains the map. [standalone, journal, conference, atlas, book figure, book supplement, book plate, encyclopedia, multisheet, digital]

Type, purpose

Type of map purpose [generic, outreach, science, citizen, surface operation (pre mission), landing site (post mission), observer, opposition, index, reference, eclipse/transit/occultation] generic: not defined, outreach: maps for the general public made b

Primary Nomenclature

Laguage(s) of nomenclature displayed on the map [Latin, English etc., IAU, informal]. Latin for Latin nomenclature prior to IAU.

Ref (map)

Full reference of map publication or publication that contains the map

DOI

DOI number of map

ID (publication)

ID of map publication or figure number

Origin type

If this map is not original, the following codes are used: [L: language variant, N: new print, U: updated edition, C: copied / modified from another map, R: renovation map (digital version of paper map with slight changes), F facsimile. RP: republished in

Origin ID

Any maps that this map is based on or copied from. Database ID of original map.

Based on map

Name of mapper

Base (spacecraft, telescope)

Name of spacecraft / instrument

Original title

Title of map in original langage (if not English)

Publisher

Name of Publisher; manuscript or self-published. For journals and conferences, the name of the journal or conference.

Coverage

Coverage of map [global, hemispheric, regional, local, landing site, landing ellipse, traverse]

Target location

IAU name of target feature (if named) or near side, far side etc. (If nothing noted, it is global)

Country

Country of Publisher (original/translation)

Type, content

Type of map [photo, map, sketch map, drawing, globe, tactile, data]. Data for raster datasets. For vector data, see Feature DB. Drawing: no grid, scale, projection etc.

Image base

Base theme of the map [shaded relief, photomosaic, photo, none]

Theme

Theme of map [visual, albedo, radar, low sun, topography, elevation, geology, geomorphology, art, nomenclature reference, feature, landing site reference, opposition map, event (eclipse etc) etc.]. Low sun is optical photo with shadows and no albedo. Vis

Technique

Cartographic technique [imagemap, datamap, cartographic map, unit map, airbrush, pencil, line drawing/outline, contour lines, DEM, DIM, shaded relief / hillshading, raster data etc.]

Style

Details on style

Method

Method how the data was obtained

Mapping scale

Scale of mapping

Resolution

Raster dataset resoltion [m/pixel]

Short Reference

Short form of reference to the map publication

GIS / data

URL where GIS or original spatial data is

Data provider

N/A

Profession

Profession of author (for historic maps)

Designator

Sheet designator terms following Greeley and Batson (1990) Planetary Mapping. Cambridge University Press. – only if displayed on the map. First letter: target body, 5M: scale, 90/0 etc: center coordinates, OM – orthophotomosaic , T – Topographic data (nom

Control

Controlled, semi-controlled, uncontrolled

Note on control

Base of control

Series title

Title of map series

Number of maps (in work)

N/A

Number of quads

N/A

Quad ID

Quad ID (or quads IDs) contained on the map

Map Diameter

N/A

Map width cm

N/A

Map height cm

N/A

Map width px

N/A

Map height px

N/A

Base type

Type of instrument of observation of base data [naked eye, telescope, spacecraft, space telescope, lander]

Location of copy

Library or archive where manuscript or rare copy is kept

Ref (literature)

Reference – literature about the map, may be the source of data if the map is not available. Separated with # symbols.

Status (2017)

Status of mapping [complete, in progress, in review] (mostly for USGS maps)

Aim

Original aim of mapping, if available

Notes

Any comments, remarks [Long text, may be multiple paragraphs]

Secondary nomenclature

Other languages of the nomenclature

Nomenclature Notes

Remarks on nomenclature

Photo note

N/A

Reference frame

ID from RefFrames

web2

Online references about the map

web3

Online references about the map

web4

Online references about the map

ocentric/ographic

Map coordinate [planetographic, planetocentric]

N/A

W 360E

N/A

E 360E

N/A

W 180

N/A

E 180

N/A

W 360W

N/A

R 360W

N/A

fig1

N/A

fig1 caption

N/A

fig2

N/A

fig2 caption

N/A

fig3

N/A

fig3 caption

N/A

fig4

N/A

fig4 caption

N/A

fig5

N/A

fig5 caption

N/A

STATUS

N/A

Sum

$180

Lowell’s map of Mercury (1902)

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