Great Astronomers - Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli ..

This sheetlet of 9 stamps features images of Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Giovanni Schiaparelli's canals, the Martian planet in profile, the Mariner 4 spacecraft & the Mars II & III Landers

Hi ! 2009 is celebrated as International Year of Astronomy and Astrornomy is also the theme of Europa 2009. 14 March 2009 is 174th birth anniversary of great astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli whose contribution to astronomy specially in the study of Mars is remarkable. Schiaparelli was one of the greatest scholars of his century of the history of classical astronomy. He was the first to realize that the concentric spheres of Eudoxus of Cnidus and Callippus, unlike those used by many astronomers of later times, were not designed as a sphere material, but only as part of an algorithm similar to the modern Fourier series. Ingeniously, he also proposes the reconstruction of Callippus's planetary system, which is still the basis of studies on this topic.Here are some souvenir sheets from Sierra Leone related with the work of Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli .This special Post is dedicated to the great astronmer of the world whose contribution to the field of astrnomy will remain a milestone ! We salute Schiaparelli's pioneering spirit, his drive to explore, and his desire to understand the universe. His observations impacted the way humans viewed Mars for nearly a century and started a revolution in Astronomy. Come join the Martian Revolution ! This is all for Today ! .......Till Next Post ....Have a Nice Time !

This set of stamps--4 sheetlets of 9 stamps each and 1 souvenir sheet--was issued in 1990 by the African country of Sierra Leone. This set of stamps is famous, for being sold at prices of several thousand dollars on the Internet. The image above features the 'famous' stamp

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli
Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (March 14, 1835 – July 4, 1910) was an Italian astronomer and science historian. He studied at the University of Turin and Berlin Observatory and worked for over forty years at Brera Observatory.He was also a senator of the Kingdom of Italy, a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino and the Regio Istituto Lombardo, and is particularly known for his studies of Mars.

This sheetlet of 9 stamps features images of the Mariner 9 Spacecraft, The Mariner 9 w/phobos in background, The Cydonia region, The South Polar Cap, a Profile of Mars, A Polar Cap in Profile, Nix Olmpica, Valles Marineris & the North Pole

Mars
Among Schiaparelli's contributions are his telescopic observations of Mars. In his initial observations, he named the"seas" and "continents" of Mars. During Italy's "Great Opposition" of 1877, he observed a dense network of linear structures on the surface of Mars which he called "canali" in Italian, meaning "channels" but mistranslated as "canals". While the latter term indicates an artificial construction, the former indicates the connotation that it can also be a natural configuration of the land. From this incorrect translation, various assumptions about life on Mars derived, as the "canals" of Mars soon became famous, giving rise to waves of hypotheses, speculation and folklore about the possibility of life on Mars. Among the most fervent supporters of the artificial canals was the famous American astronomer Percival Lowell who spent much of his life trying to prove the existence of intelligent life on the red planet. Later, however, with notable thanks to the observations of Italian astronomer Vicenzo Cerulli, scientists ascertained that the famous channels were actually mere optical illusions.

This sheetlet of 9 stamps features images of Olmpus Mons, The Viking 1 Spacecraft, The Viking 2 Spacecraft, A Lander Entering Martian Atmoshpere, A Parachute Deployment, The Final Descent, Lander On Martian Surface, Soil Sampling, A Martian Panorama.

In his book Life on Mars, Schiaparelli writes: "Rather than true channels in a form familiar to us, we must imagine depressions in the soil that are not very deep, extended in a straight direction for thousands of miles, over a width of 100, 200 kilometers and maybe more. I have already pointed out that, in the absence of rain on Mars, these channels are probably the main mechanism by which the water (and with it organic life) can spread on the dry surface of the planet.

This sheetlet of 9 stamps features images of Martian Dusk, Project Deimos, A Martian Survey, A Martian Launch, Rocket to Mars(X2), Spacecraft in Orbit, Crew Activities, Space Station.