Hello sciencefags.
Can you help a smoothbrain out?
Way back in the late 1800s a bunch of astronomers saw what they perceived as "canals" on Mars.
Schiaparelli, Young, Lowell et.al. all made similar observations over some 15 years, seemiling supporting the prescence of the canals.
Then out of the blue, to a non-scholar like myself, they just plain suddenly stopped being there from approx. 1900AD and onwards.

So my question is, how could the earlier dudes get things so wrong and what the fuck were they actually seeing?
It seems improbable that so many top astronomers of the day all suffered from cracks in their telescope lenses or some shit.
Or am I being /x/-levels of retarded?