In the fall of 1659, Christiaan Huygens observed the opposition of Mars, drawing what he saw. The result was the first drawings of the recognizable surface features of the Red Planet – an achievement that wouldn’t have been possible without the advances in telescope manufacturing that Huygens himself had undertaken. One drawing of Syrtis Major that Huygens produced on Nov. 28, 1659, was referred to by Percival Lowell in his book Mars as “the first drawing of the planet worthy of the name, for on it is the first identifiable feature ever made out by man on the surface of Mars.” Additionally, by tracking Syrtis Major over a period of weeks, Huygens was able to calculate Mars’ day – slightly longer than Earth’s – and the planet’s rotation around a north-south axis.
