Page:Percival Lowell - an afterglow.djvu/53



It will readily be understood that the question of site is of fundamental importance to an astronomer who wishes to solve the mysteries of the heavens. Dr. Lowell spared neither time nor money to meet this need, and he travelled far and wide in search of what he termed: "the best procurable air." In Japan; in the Maritime-Alps, Algeria, Mexico, California and Arizona, he diligently searched. Finally he found a plateau at Flagstaff, Arizona, at an altitude of about 7000 ft., which he discovered to be the best for his purpose. In this rarefied atmosphere his superb 24-inch refractor proved to be, according to the Hartmann test, the greatest space-penetrating telescope in existence. Under such favoring conditions he and his staff could observe and photograph stars fainter than any ever before brought into mortal ken.

Always with marvellous accuracy did he transcribe the wonders that he saw. As if by magic they appeared on paper from his pencil and brush, replicas of the planets themselves;—he was an artist as well as an artisan.

His big telescope was worked day and night; and while he often made important discoveries by daylight observation, sentimentally as well as astronomically he was fonder of those gained at night. He liked to recall the fitting words of his friend and colleague M. Camille Flammarion: 39