A Text-Book of AstronomyComstock, George C. (George Cary)
Science
A Text-Book of Astronomy
Comstock, George C. (George Cary)
Astronomy
_h_ (miles) = s^{2} / 2163,
or _h_ (feet) = 2.44 s^{2}.
The distance _s_ must be expressed in miles in all of these equations.
In Fig. 55 the distance from the terminator to the first detached peak
of the Caucasus mountains is 1.7 millimeters = 52 miles, from which we
find the height of the mountain to be 1.25 miles, or 6,600 feet.
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--Occultations and the moon's atmosphere.]
[Illustration: FIG. 62.--Determining the height of a lunar mountain.]
Two things, however, need to be borne in mind in this connection. On the
earth we measure the heights of mountains _above sea level_, while on
the moon there is no sea, and our 6,600 feet is simply the height of the
mountain top above the level of that particular point in the terminator,
from which we measure its distance. So too it is evident from the
appearance of things, that the sunlight, instead of just touching the
top of the particular mountain whose height we have measured, really
extends some little distance down from its summit, and the 6,600 feet is
therefore the elevation of the lowest point on the mountains to which
the sunlight reaches. The peak itself may be several hundred feet
higher, and our photograph must be taken at the exact moment when this
peak appears in the lunar morning or disappears in the evening if we are
to measure the altitude of the mountain's summit. Measure the height of
the most northern visible mountain of the Caucasus range. This is one of
the outlying spurs of the great mountain Calippus, whose principal peak,
19,000 feet high, is shown in Fig. 55 as the brightest part of the
Caucasus range.
The highest peak of the lunar Apennines, Huyghens, has an altitude of
18,000 feet, and the Leibnitz and Doerfel Mountains, near the south pole
of the moon, reach an altitude 50 per cent greater than this, and are
probably the highest peaks on the moon. This falls very little short of
the highest mountain on the earth, although the moon is much smaller
than the earth, and these mountains are considerably higher than
anything on the western continent of the earth.
The vagueness of outline of the terminator makes it difficult to measure
from it with precision, and somewhat more accurate determinations of the
heights of lunar mountains can be obtained by measuring the length of
the shadows which they cast, and the depths of craters may also be
measured by means of the shadows which fall into them.
105. CRATERS.--Fig. 63 shows a typical lunar crater, and conveys a good
idea of the ruggedness of the lunar landscape. Compare the appearance of
this crater with the following generalizations, which are based upon the
accurate measurement of many such:
A. A crater is a real depression in the surface of the moon, surrounded
usually by an elevated ring which rises above the general level of the
region outside, while the bottom of the crater is about an equal
distance below that level.
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