Percival Lowell detail in mid-1896 soon after the Alvan Clark & Sons refracting telescope was installed at his new Flagstaff, Arizona observatory. Lowell observed the planet high in the daytime sky with the telescope's lens stopped down to 3 inches in diameter to reduce the effect of the turbulent daytime atmosphere. Lowell observed spoke-like surface features including a central dark spot, contrary to what was suspected then (and known now): that Venus has no surface features visible from Earth, being covered in an atmosphere that is opaque. It has been noted in a 2003 "Journal for the History of Astronomy" paper and
John Lowell hero Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.. Likewise Dorothy [Quincy] Jackson was descended from Judge Edmund Quincy II [1681-1737/38] who was a brother of Colonel John Quincy [1689-1767] the great-grandfather of US President John Quincy Adams. Other notable children of the daughters and granddaughters of John Lowell include mathematician Julian Lowell Coolidge, and writer and biographer Ferris Lowell Greenslet. After establishing his law practice in Newburyport in 1763, Lowell served as a town Selectman in 1771–1772, 1774 and 1776. In the spring of 1774 he signed addresses complimenting royal governors Thomas Hutchinson and Thomas Gage, but made a public apology for doing