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BONUS 44 Vol. Protecting America’s last dark skies p. 54 ONLINE • Issue 6 Issue Camille Flammarion’s amazing universe p. 44 CONTENT CODE p. 4 Confessions of an eagle-eyed observer p. 50 Historical astronomy

Through detailed astronomical texts and fanciful accounts, this French adventurer walked the line between science and science fiction. by Fred Nadis

ith his dark beard, Inhabitants of the Other World. In 1864, he handsome looks, added Worlds Imaginary and Real, in which exploits as a balloonist, he reviewed the history of ideas about extra- and daring pronounce- terrestrial life. Clearly, he was certain it was ments, French astrono- out there — and in this, he was then (and merW Camille Flammarion (1842–1925) would be now) in the scientific mainstream. could have sprung from the pages of a Jules Verne novel or a current steampunk Life on other worlds adventure. In his writings, Flammarion For centuries, leading thinkers reasoned provided up-to-date astronomical infor- that with planets orbiting innumerable mation, but he also speculated about stars, the “purpose” of these other planets, time travel, commented on the biology like our own, was to harbor life. Newton, of extraterrestrial species, and riffed on Leibniz, Kant, Voltaire, Franklin, Halley, curious themes, such as Earth’s end or the and the Herschels were among the sup- universe as viewed from a comet. porters of pluralism, the belief that many He was both a scientist and mystic. inhabited worlds exist. Seventeenth- While doing painstaking astronomical century French philosopher Bernard de research, Flammarion also was announc- la Fontenelle advanced this case in his ing that life almost surely existed on Mars Conversation on the Plurality of Worlds and, further, that people reincarnated on (1686). Fontanelle hinted that inhabitants other planets. His evenings might be spent of other planets might be equipped with at an observatory or hosting séances, with “20 or 30 senses … [while] other species, guests sitting in chairs representing signs even more perfect, have senses to infinity.” of the zodiac under a ceiling painted with Relying on advancing scientific knowl- clouds on blue. edge and a vivid imagination, Flammarion Flammarion was an ideal figurehead added flesh to such speculations. In one for 19th-century science, and reporters of his catalogs of non-earthly beings, flocked daily to his Paris apartment to Flammarion imagined a world orbiting gather quotes on matters small and large. Delta (δ) Andromedae with an atmosphere He didn’t disappoint his audience (which heavier than our air but lighter than water. included Verne). It also had rose-colored, floating citizens Flammarion came to prominence in with overworked lungs on the verge of col- 1862 when, at age 20, he published the tract lapse who survive by breathing the world’s The Plurality of Inhabited Worlds, hitting a nutritious air. nerve with his argument for the likelihood He also offered, on the planet Orion of life on other planets. He soon followed with its seven suns, plantlike men who this with a volume on psychic research, move on starfish-shaped feet, and another organism resembling a chandelier, which Fred Nadis is the author of The Man from breaks into pieces and vanishes, only to Mars: Ray Palmer’s Amazing Pulp Journey. reassemble later. Flammarion insisted that Camille Flammarion’s

44 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2016 This image, which is the one for which Flammarion is best known, appeared in the first edition (1888) of L’Atmosphere: météorologie populaire (The Atmosphere: Popular Meteorology). The original artist is not known. amazing universe ALL IMAGES: RAYMOND SHUBINSKI

WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 45 otherworldly organisms might have eyes but he continued to study at night. After Balloon voyages sensitive to ultraviolet or infrared radia- Flammarion fell ill one evening, a physi- Flammarion did another stint as a “com- tion, an “electric” sense, and spectroscopic cian visited him and discovered the teen- puter” with the Bureau des Longitudes, and abilities. He offered such wonders in a tone ager had written two books, A Visionary he began to pen articles about astronomy that mixed matter-of-fact detail with Journey to the Regions of the Moon and a and meteorology and to lecture through- poetry, and readers loved it. 500-page manuscript, Cosmologie out Europe. His interest in meteorology Born in 1842 in a small French village, Universelle (later published as The World led him to ballooning. He joined the Flammarion developed a taste for stargaz- Before the Creation of Humankind). French Aerostatic Society in 1867 and soon ing early on. He recalled borrowing opera Impressed, the physician recommended became its president. glasses at age 11 and seeing “Mountains in Flammarion to the Paris Observatory For Flammarion, ballooning had an the Moon, as on the Earth! And seas! And where, at age 16, he took a position as a effect that was like that of astronomy. He countries! Perchance also inhabitants!” pupil-astronomer. He longed to join the noted, “To the contentment of finding one- The following year, he studied a comet astronomers but instead worked all day at self floating high above the miseries of that “soared above the sunset like an airy mind-numbing calculations, surrounded mankind, is added the feeling of a strange feather” and regarded it as “a note of inter- by people who treated science not as a and absolute calmness, such as is never rogation poised in the infinite.” He entered grand adventure but “in the same manner experienced upon the Earth.” the seminary and asked teachers about the as if they had to make a piece of furniture He made numerous balloon ascensions workings of the solar system, but their or a pair of shoes.” Several years later, the and wrote two books, Voyages in a Balloon answers made him realize he would have to publication of The Plurality of Inhabited (1871), and L’Atmosphere (1888), which study on his own. Worlds and Flammarion’s inflated creden- combined rapturous descriptions with sci- Poverty drove his family to Paris in tials therein irked the observatory’s direc- entific observation — including various 1856 and ended his religious education. tor, Urbain Le Verrier (famous for mentions of butterflies accompanying the (He took up spiritualism instead.) He predicting Neptune’s position, leading to balloon basket to heights over 3,000 feet, became an apprentice to a metal engraver, its discovery), who fired him. scenes of villagers greeting him and the

In Uranie (translated as Urania), the title character, who is the muse of astronomy, takes the author on a journey through the cosmos.

46 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2016 pilot as if visitors from other realms, and a time when gendarmes on horseback raced below the craft, demanding passports. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870– 71), when Paris was under siege, balloons were regularly launched to send messages, and Flammarion and other astronomers manned an observatory to spy with telescopes on Prussian artillery. In 1873, Flammarion’s interest in double stars once again persuaded Le Verrier to give him access to the Paris Observatory and its 15-inch telescope. Flammarion organized previous data along with fresh observations of the 11,000 groupings of multiple stars then known, and five years later he published his most important scientific work, Catalog of Double and Multiple Stars, followed by a lavish book, Popular Astronomy, that sold more than 100,000 copies. In this guide for amateurs, Flammarion, who was never shy about speculating, included his belief that there likely was life not only on Mars, but also the Moon. In the following decade, he founded the French Society of Astronomy and The Monthly Review of Astronomy, assuring his place among the savants of Paris. When delegations of astronomers traveled from France to Spain, newspapermen referred to them as “Los Flammarions.” Mystic and scientific The man moved in stylish circles. His friends included Gustave Eiffel, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Dom Pedro II, the emperor of Brazil. Flammarion’s hon- eymoon — in late August 1874 with his bride, Sylvie Petiaux, a grandniece of Camille Flammarion was a man of many Victor Hugo — was a 24-hour balloon trip talents — astronomer, balloonist, and from the gasworks at La Villette in Paris to visit other planets.) He indulged his taste author of both science and science the town of Spa. He asked, “What is more for mysticism while also displaying a sci- fiction books. natural than for an astronomer and his entific turn of mind. As a young man, he wife to fly away like birds?” (His brother, embraced the spiritualist ideas of philoso- Ernest, and pilot Jules Godard also were pher Jean Reynaud, who insisted that do not exist independently, or that if one aboard.) A newspaper reported, “Mme. humans are reincarnated on new planets could travel faster than light, and so outrace Flammarion’s delight was inexpressible in life after life, slowly gaining greater it, one could see events from history. when sunset gave place to moonlight enlightenment. In Uranie (1889), the narrator also and they sailed by the moon’s soft light Flammarion’s best science fiction effort engages in astral travel throughout the uni- through the star studded firmament.” is Lumen (1872). In it, a cosmic spirit guides verse with the muse of astronomy. They In his imaginative books, Flammarion the narrator through the universe. In addi- visit Mars, where he meets his friend Spero, avoided standard novelistic narrative for tion to describing the inhabitants of other who had died in a ballooning accident. the more didactic forms of the dialogue planets, the book also proposes “thought Flammarion’s learning, pursuit of the and dream journey. (Lacking spaceships, experiments” like those of Albert Einstein, sublime, and asides on humanity’s cosmic his heroes engaged in astral projection to suggesting, for example, that time and space insignificance (“We are but atoms”)

WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 47 In Lumen, the author creates a character named Lumen who teaches another fictional character, named Quaerens, about the universe. Lumen also was one of the first books to deal with travel near and beyond the speed of light, a quarter- Flammarion occasionally pictured fanciful century before Einstein scenes with earthly elements. This illustration discussed it in his theory of shows dragonflies flitting about on a world relativity. with three suns (two of which are pictured). attracted admirers. In 1882, a French patterns. He noted the channels, mapped desiccated, dying planet, and he insisted countess, hopelessly in love with him but them, and left them for others to explain. that any position but his was folly, which dying of consumption, instructed her doc- Flammarion noted that the canals made his establishment rivals furious. tor to remove skin from her shoulders and might well be natural furrows, yet “the With his instinct toward pluralism, back and send it to him after her death to hypothesis of an intelligent origin for the Flammarion supported Schiaparelli and bind a copy of one of his latest volumes. canal system appeals to our spirit.” He gen- Lowell. In 1894, Flammarion submitted a The physician and Flammarion complied. erally preferred poetic solutions to mun- paper he claimed was written by a citizen That same year, a wealthy amateur astron- dane, leading him to reject the idea that of Mars, found inside a meteorite that for- omer gave Flammarion a huge estate in Mars’ red and yellow plains were simply tuitously crashed through the roof of the Juvisy, north of Paris, and Flammarion sterile and sandy, and propose instead that French astronomical society. converted the chateau into an observatory martian vegetation was reddish yellow. Written from the point of view of a inaugurated in 1887, with Dom Pedro II After reading Flammarion’s book, martian scientist, the paper was titled, and other luminaries attending. Percival Lowell, a Harvard graduate wan- “Can Organic Life Exist in the Solar At Juvisy, Flammarion focused on Mars dering about Japan at the time, decided to System Anywhere but on the Planet Mars?” and set out to determine if it harbored life. prove there was life on Mars. Wealthy, Weighing all the scientific evidence for life His 1892 book, La Planète Mars et ses con- ambitious, and a capable mathematician, on Earth, the writer concludes that condi- ditions d’habitabilité (Mars and Its Habit- he established Lowell Observatory in tions, sadly, made the case for life on plan- ability), heightened interest in life on the Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1894. ets other than Mars impossible. Red Planet and controversy over its canals. The following year he published Mars, By 1909, Lowell and his defenders, who That controversy originated in Milan, Italy, the first of his three books about the Red had continued to add canals to their maps in 1877, when astronomer Giovanni Planet. Lowell delivered gripping public of Mars, lost the scientific debate when Schiaparelli observed the planet is criss- lectures that described the heroic engineer- more powerful telescopes revealed the crossed with deep grooves of geometric ing works of a doomed civilization on the canals were optical illusions. Eugène

48 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2016 Antoniadi, who had This chart of atmospheric worked as an assis- pressure as it relates to tant to Flammarion altitude is one of many at Juvisy from 1893 examples where Flammarion included scientific data in to 1902, made the his writings. critical observations. Sci-fi inspiration Nevertheless, Lowell’s and Flammarion’s visions of Mars had sparked imaginations. H. G. Wells relied on the model of Mars as a dying planet of advanced engineers in describing his conquering octopus-men in The War of the Worlds (1898). Following Flammarion, Edgar Rice Burroughs had his hero John Carter astrally transport to Mars — or Barsoom, as the locals called it — in A Princess of Mars (1912). Burroughs’ novels and the pulp science Flammarion’s imagination was too wide fiction that followed inspired many bud- roaming to fixate on one planet. Two years ding scientists. Carl Sagan, a big fan of later, he followed his study of Mars with Burroughs, had “Barsoom” vanity license another best-seller, Omega: The Last Days Although this illustration from plates. And Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the World (1894). In it, he described our L’Atmosphere: météorologie populaire may of a recent Mars science fiction trilogy, has planet 500 years in the future when look like a fanciful concept of life beyond Earth, it actually shows a Brocken spectre, his human settlers of Mars create the previ- Chicago is the world’s commercial capital, the magnified shadow of an observer cast ously imagined grand canals in tribute to electric airship travel is common, women upon clouds of mist or fog and usually seen these motivating myths. have prominent roles in science and poli- from high elevation or from an aircraft. tics, wealthy households have their own observatories as well as trained monkeys as servants, and humans are in contact with France, and later at Juvisy, where he split inhabitants of Mars and Venus via radio. his time between astronomical observa- Learning that a comet is about to strike tions and séances. Focused on mortality, Earth, scientists gather in Paris to discuss his last books were Death and Its Mystery outcomes and then move on to detail sce- (1920) and Haunted Houses: On the Margin narios of the likely end of life on the planet of Death and Its Mystery (1924). millions of years in the future. Some pro- Flammarion died in 1925. Although his pose rising oceans will make the planet scientific work and popular science efforts uninhabitable. Others insist the end will have faded (an updated edition of Popular come via continued drying of the planet or Astronomy last appeared in 1964), he falling temperatures. Prefiguring Wells’ inspired many to consider themselves “citi- The Time Machine and Olaf Stapledon’s zens of the skies.” Last and First Men, the book then depicts Current conditions would delight him. the ongoing evolution of humanity, Masked in the language of probability, plu- epochal changes to Earth and species, and, ralism is flourishing along with renewed in a touch unique to Flammarion, the fascination with Mars. The Curiosity rover physical transmigration of humanity from samples geology and atmosphere on Mars, Earth to Jupiter and then on to new worlds. while governments and private corpora- World War I — with its machine guns, tions plan manned missions. tanks, poison gas, and widespread destruc- One way or another, there will be life tion — dampened naïve optimism in sci- on the Red Planet. And Camille Even when Flammarion was touring the universe with fantastic guides, he made ence and technology, and also marked the Flammarion is waiting. While canals sure the pictures he used were the best decline of the elderly Flammarion. While no longer figure on the map of Mars, available. For example, this realistic Paris coped with bombing raids from Flammarion does. A 108-mile-wide (174 illustration of a lunar day appeared in Urania. German zeppelins and a flood of refugees, kilometers) crater that bears his name hon- Flammarion took shelter in southern ors the Frenchman’s legacy.