Giovanni Schiaparelli lunar advert. Dating from around 1889, this advert (for Liebig's Meat Extract) shows the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835-1910) with an early artwork of the Earth as seen from the surface of the Moon. From 1862, Schiaparelli was Director of the Milan Observatory for forty years. In 1866 he showed that meteors follow cometary orbits. In 1877 Mars made one of its closest approaches to Earth enabling him to observe many dark lines criss-crossing the planet. He called these lines 'canali' (channels), which was mistranslated as 'canals'. He also made observations of Mercury, as well as other objects in the solar system.