File talk:Percival Lowell observing Venus from the Lowell Observatory in 1914.jpg

Image renaming

This image has been renamed following a discussion on the English Wikipedia. The image is often described as being an image of Percival Lowell observing Mars, which he is perhaps most famous for. However, early sources indicate that he was in fact observing Venus during the daytime. nagualdesign (talk) 23:47, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

The date of October 17th 1914 suggested as a date that Lowell was observing Venus in the daytime must be incorrect. On that date, and from that observatory, Venus' maximum altitude in the sky was 29 degrees. The image shows the telescope pointing much higher than that. The image also shows the background within the observatory to appear to be illuminated by daylight, and as Mars cannot be viewed in daylight, he can't have been observing Mars either. The conclusion must therefore be that this is a posed photograph or that he was in fact observing Venus but on a completely different date. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnofyork (talk • contribs) 23:10, 02 July 2016 (UTC)