The Tricky Art of Martian Globe Making #ArtTuesday

Planetenkugel-Manufaktur shared this video on Vimeo

Earth globes? Those are so 1492. Here is our handcrafted mars globe showing the famous “Mars Canal” map by astronomer Percival Lowell (1905). This lovely film gives a glimpse into my world as a globemaker.

Core77 has elaborated on Dr. Michael Plichta’s Martian globe making here!

Maps and globes have been valuable commodities since we figured out how to make them, but not all maps get the full globe treatment. Spacey places like Mars have been long mapped from afar, but there are nearly zero globe makers offering these historical maps in globe form.

Dr. Michael Plichta is one of the few who does. His Mannheim, German company, Planetenkugel Manufaktur, specializes in traditional handcrafted globes with extra faraway subject matters.

Plichta’s first design, titled “Mars and its Canals,” is based on the observations and map made in 1906 by astronomer, Percival Lowell. Lowell was a vocal believer in intelligent Martian life and thought the patterns he interpreted as canals were proof. Unfortunately for him, closer photos taken just a few decades later debunked not just the presence of Martians, but their canals too.

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