Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked RecordGreg, Percy
Science
Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record
Greg, Percy
Science fiction
Pole itself. The terminator, or boundary between light and shade, was
not, as in the Moon, pretty sharply defined, and broken only by the
mountainous masses, rings, and sea-beds, if such they are, so
characteristic of the latter. On the image of the Moon there
intervened between bright light and utter darkness but the narrow belt
to which only part of the Sun was as yet visible, and which,
therefore, received comparatively few rays. The twilight to north and
south extended on the image of the Earth deep into that part on which
as yet the Sun was below the horizon, and consequently daylight faded
into darkness all but imperceptibly, save between the tropics. We
watched long and intently as league by league new portions of Europe
and Africa, the Mediterranean, and even the Baltic, came into view;
and I was able to point out to Eveena lands in which I had travelled,
seas I had crossed, and even the isles of the Aegean, and bays in
which my vessel had lain at anchor. This personal introduction to each
part of the image, now presented to her for the first time, enabled
her to realise more forcibly than a lengthened experience of
astronomical observation might have done the likeness to her own world
of that which was passing under her eyes; and at once intensified her
wonder, heightened her pleasure, and sharpened her intellectual
apprehension of the scene. When we had satiated our eyes with this
spectacle, or rather when I remembered that we could spare no more
time to this, the most interesting exhibition of the evening, a turn
of the machinery brought Venus under view. Here, however, the cloud
envelope baffled us altogether, and her close approach to the horizon
soon obliged the director to turn his apparatus in another direction.
Two or three of the Asteroids were in view. Pallas especially
presented a very interesting spectacle. Not that the difference of
distance would have rendered the definition much more perfect than
from a Terrestrial standpoint, but that the marvellous perfection of
Martial instruments, and in some measure also the rarity of the
atmosphere at such a height, rendered possible the use of far higher
magnifying powers than our astronomers can employ. I am inclined to
agree, from what I saw on this occasion, with those who imagine the
Asteroids to be—if not fragments of a broken planet which once
existed as a whole—yet in another sense fragmentary spheres, less
perfect and with surfaces of much greater proportionate irregularity
than those of the larger planets. Next was presented to our view on a
somewhat smaller scale, because the area of the chamber employed would
not otherwise have given room for the system, the enormous disc and
the four satellites of Jupiter. The difference between 400 and 360
millions of miles' distance is, of course, wholly unimportant; but the
definition and enlargement were such that the image was perfect, and
the details minute and distinct, beyond anything that Earthly
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