You’re going to hear a lot about Mars in the coming months as the planet progresses towards opposition on July 27, its closest approach to Earth in 15 years. In this first of many articles about the Red Planet this year at Cosmic Pursuits, I recount the intriguing work of the astronomer Percival Lowell, the man who first fired the popular imagination about Mars more than a century ago, and in the process left an important legacy for astronomy.