Part 16 (2/2)

In volume, the Moon is fifty tiht is only 1/81 that of the terrestrial globe Its density = 0615, relatively to that of the Earth, _ie_, a little ht at its surface is very little: 0174 A kilograraer distance of 384,000 kilometers (238,000 miles) that separates us from it (about thirty times the diameter of the Earth), the Moon is a suburb of our terrestrial habitation What does this small distance araphic et there in one and a half second; a projectile fired froht days, five hours; an express-train would be due in eight months, twenty-two days It is only the 1/388 part of the distance that separates us from the Sun, and only the 100/1,000,000 part of the distance of the stars nearest to us Many men have trae of thirty terrestrial globes would suffice to unite the torlds

Owing to this great proximity, the Moon is the best known of all the celestial spheres Its geographical (or raphical, _Selene_, o, at first in a vague sketch, and afterith more details, until to-day it is as precise and accurate as any of our terrestrial raphy

Before the invention of the telescope, from antiquity to the seventeenth century, people lost thee lunar figure It was held to be a mysterious world, the more extraordinary in that it always presented the same face to us Soe of the Earth

Others pictured it as a silver star, an enchanted abode where all ealth and happiness Forday it was the fashi+on to think, quite irrationally, that the inhabitants of the Moon were fifteen tier than ourselves

The invention of telescopes, however, brought a little order and a grain of truth into these fantastic assumptions The first observations of Galileo revolutionized science, and his discoveries filled the best-ordered minds with enthusiasm Thenceforward, the Moon became our property, a terrestrial suburb, where the whole world would gladly have installed itself, had the ination It beca descriptions of the charms of our fair sister, and no one scrupled to do so Soon, it was observed that the Moon closely reseical features; its surface bristles with sharp ht up in so side, dark and shaded parts indicate the plains; ray patches that were supposed to be seas because they reflect the solar light less perfectly than the adjacent countries At that epoch hardly anything was known of the physical constitution of the Moon, and it was figured as enveloped with an atous to that at the bottom of which we carry on our respiration

To-day we know that these ”seas” are destitute of water, and that if the lunar globe possesses an atht

The Moon became the favorite object of astronomers, and the numerous observationsselenographic charts In order to find one's way a the seas, plains, and mountains that make up the lunar territory, it was necessary to name them The seas were the first to be baptized, in accordance with their reputed astrological influences Accordingly, we find on the Moon, the Sea of Fecundity, the Lake of Death, the Sea of Humors, the Ocean of Tempests, the Sea of Tranquillity, the Marsh of Mists, the Lake of Dreams, the Sea of Putrefaction, the Peninsula of Reverie, the Sea of Rains, etc

With regard to the luminous parts and the mountains, it was at first proposed to call theiving offense acted as a check on Hevelius and Riccioli, authors of the first lunar ed it more prudent to transfer the names of the terrestrial mountains to the Moon

The Alps, the Apennines, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, are all to be found up there; then, as the vocabulary of the mountains was not adequate, the scientists reasserted their rights, and we meet in the Moon, Aristotle, Plato, Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, as well as other more modern and even contemporaneous celebrities

We have not space to reproduce the general chart of the Moon (that published by the author measures not less than a ives a summary sufficient for the limits of this little book Here are the names of the principal lunarto them upon the map

[Illustration: FIG 71--Map of the Moon

(From Fowler's ”Telescopic Astronorenus 4 Macrobius 5 Cleomedes 6 Endymion 7 Altas 8 Hercules 9 Romer 10 Posidonius 11 Fracastorius 12 Theophilus 13 Piccolonius 15 Hipparchus 16 Manilius 17 Eudoxus 18 Aristotle 19 Cassini 20 Aristillus 21 Plato 22 Archimedes 23 Eratosthenes 24 Copernicus 25 Ptolemy 26 Alphonsus 27 Arzachel 28 Walter 29 Clavius 30 Tycho 31 Bullialdus 32 Schiller 33 Schickard 34 Gassendi 35 Kepler 36 Grimaldi 37 Aristarchus

A Mare Crisum B Mare Fercunditatis C Mare Nectaris D Mare Tranquilitatis E Mare Serenitatis F Mare Imbrium G Sinus Iridum H Oceanus Procellarum I Mare Humorum K Mare Nubium V Altai Mountains W Mare Vaporum X Apennine Mountains Y Caucasus Mountains Z Alps]

The constantly growing progress of optics leads to perpetual new discoveries in science, and at the present tiraphy of the Moon as well as, and even better than, that of our own planet The heights of all the mountains of the Moon are measured to within a few feet (One cannot say as hest are over 7,000 meters (nearly 25,000 feet)

Relatively to its proportions, the satellite is iants are much more numerous there than here If we have peaks, like the Gaorisankar, the highest of the Himalayas and of the whole Earth, whose elevation of 8,840 meters (29,000 feet) is equivalent to 1/1140 the dialobe, there are peaks on the Moon of 7,700 _, those of Doerfel and Leibniz, the height of which is equivalent to 1/470 the lunar diameter

Tycho's Mountain is one of the finest upon our satellite It is visible with the naked eye (and perfectly with opera-glasses) as a white point shi+ning like a kind of star upon the lower portion of the disk At the ti rays frolobe So, too, Mount Copernicus, whose brilliant whiteness sparkles in space But the strangest thing about these lunar mountains is that they are all hollow, and can be ht A type of e to us as are the seas without water! In effect, these mountains of the moon are ancient volcanic craters, with no suhest peaks, there is a large circular depression, prolonged into the heart of theplains, and as these craters often ed, if one does not want to go all round the the mountain, to descend almost perpendicularly into the depths and cross there, to reascend the opposite side, and return to the plain These alpine excursions incontestably deserve the naive us any notion of the state of the lunar soil: never was ground so torlobe so profoundly shattered to its very bowels The mountains are accumulations of enormous rocks tumbled one upon the other, and round the awful labyrinth of craters one sees nothing but dismantled ramparts, or colu from the chaos

As we said, there is no atmosphere, or at least so little at the botto, no rain nor snow The sky is an eternally black space, vaultless, jeweled with stars by day as by night

Let us suppose that we arrive ae steppes at daybreak: the lunar day is fifteen tier than our own, because the Sun takes a month to illuminate the entire circuit of the Moon; there are no less than 354 hours fro of the Sun If we arrive before the sunrise, there is no aurora to herald it, for in the absence of atht Of a sudden on the dark horizon co the summits of the mountains, while the plains and valleys are still in darkness

The light spreads slowly, for while on the Earth in central latitudes the Sun takes only two minutes and a quarter to rise, on the Moon it takes nearly an hour, and in consequence the light it sends out is very weak for some minutes, and increases excessively slowly It is a kind of aurora, but lasts a very short time, for when at the end of half an hour, the solar disk has half risen, the light appears as intense to the eye as when it is entirely above the horizon; the radiant orb is seen with its protuberances and its burning atmosphere It rises slowly, like a luminous God, in the depths of the black sky, a profound and formless sky in which the stars shi+ne all day, since they are not hidden by any atht

[Illustration: FIG 72--The Lunar Apennines]

The absence of sensible atmosphere must produce an effect on the teous to that perceived on the high lobe, where the rarefaction of the air does not permit the solar heat to concentrate itself upon the surface of the soil, as it does below the at-house: the Sun's heat is not kept in by anything, and incessantly radiates out toward space

In all probability the cold is extrehts, which are fifteen ti days of sunshi+ne