New 3D images of Mars from the travelling exhibit, A New Perspective on Mars, can be seen at Lowell Observatory from Oct. 25 until Dec. 3.

Created by the German Space Agency (DRL), the 3-D pictures are based on images captured by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft.

Kevin Schindler, the outreach manager at Lowell, said the exhibit centered around taking something traditionally old and giving it a new, fresher look.

“There are so many exhibits about Mars,” Schindler said, “but making it 3-D is really cool. I mean you put those glasses on and you really get a different experience by seeing it in 3-D.”

Mary Kay Smith, from St. Paul, Minn., views the Mars exhibit Thursday afternoon at the Lowell Observatory. The exhibit featured three-dimensional photographs of the surface of Mars and invited viewers to use 3-D glasses. - Jim Truncali/ The Lumberjack

Schindler said the exhibit came on short notice to Lowell through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). A staff member of USGS knew the history of observatory founder Percival Lowell’s research on Mars and asked if Lowell would host the exhibit.

“This really ties in with Lowell Observatory’s heritage of Mars research,” Schindler said. “So it’s perfect.”

The exhibit is now a part of Lowell’s hourly tour that starts at the Steele Visitor Center, continues to the Clark Telescope and finishes in the Rotunda Museum where A New Perspective on Mars is held.

The telescope was built by Alvan Clark & Sons in 1896 for $20,000, which is an estimated $500,000 in today’s currency.

Percival Lowell was determined to study Mars because an 1877 astronomer, Giovanni Schiaparelli, said there were “Canali” on Mars.

While walking through the tour, Jon Ford, a tour guide at Lowell Observatory, explained how Percival mistakenly thought there was life on Mars.

“‘Canali’ in Italian simply means channels,” Ford said. “Channels are naturally accruing features that were made by forced water. When translated into English, Percival thinks Schiaparelli literally meant canals, which are man-made. That’s what started him off in his interest in starting the observatory.”

The telescope, which is able to pivot 360 degrees, gave Percival a chance to study Mars every night, if the weather was clear. Before electric motors were introduced to the Lowell Observatory in 1901, the dome surrounding the telescope had to be moved manually by several men.

While the Clark telescope has not been used professionally since 1958, visitors can take a look through the telescope when they go through the night tour.

“It  is used for public viewing,” Ford said. “Not only do we bring people in the daytime on tours and to learn about the history, we also like to bring people in the night time and let them look at the night sky, giving it’s a clear night and we have calm winds.”

Ford went on to talk about the Rotuda building. Rotuda was built in 1916 as a library for astronomers working at Lowell. Since the 1970s, the building has been used as a museum.

After finishing the tour, Eugene and Erin Crooks from Montgomery, Ala. said they were glad that they were finally able to visit the Lowell Observatory.

“I thought it was amazing,” Erin said about the Clark telescope. “I find it so hard to believe that in the 1800’s they could develop something that massive, that technical and that accurate. It amazed me.”

“It’s fantastic,” Eugene said about the new 3-D photographs. “The information on Mars is just amazing to me and the 3-D made it much more realistic, instead of just looking at photographs.”

The large scale, black and white pictures include some of the channels that run across the surface and Olympus Mons, the highest known volcano in the solar system.

After A New Perspective on Mars, which has visited cities like New York and Amsterdam, leaves Lowell Observatory, Schindler said he would like to have the exhibit visit Flagstaff again.

Lowell Observatory is open daily through November from noon until 5 p.m. Night tours are given on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. 

Tickets can be purchased for $6 for adults, $5 for students and free for children under the age of 5. For more information about Lowell or the new exhibit, call (928) 774-3358.