Manned space flight -- Fiction; Moon -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space flight to the moon -- Fiction; Space ships -- Fiction
After Beer and Maedler, we should allude to Julius Schmitt's (of Athens)
excellent selenographic reliefs: to Doctor Draper's, and to Father
Secchi's successful application of photography to lunar representation;
to De La Rue's (of London) magnificent stereographs of the Moon, to be
had at every optician's; to the clear and correct map prepared by
Lecouturier and Chapuis in 1860; to the many beautiful pictures of the
Moon in various phases of illumination obtained by the Messrs. Bond of
Harvard University; to Rutherford's (of New York) unparalleled lunar
photographs; and finally to Nasmyth and Carpenter's wonderful work on
the Moon, illustrated by photographs of her surface in detail, prepared
from models at which they had been laboring for more than a quarter of
the century.
Of all these maps, pictures, and projections, Barbican had provided
himself with only two--Beer and Maedler's in German, and Lecouturier and
Chapuis' in French. These he considered quite sufficient for all
purposes, and certainly they considerably simplified his labors as an
observer.
His best optical instruments were several excellent marine telescopes,
manufactured especially under his direction. Magnifying the object a
hundred times, on the surface of the Earth they would have brought the
Moon to within a distance of somewhat less than 2400 miles. But at the
point to which our travellers had arrived towards three o'clock in the
morning, and which could hardly be more than 12 or 1300 miles from the
Moon, these telescopes, ranging through a medium disturbed by no
atmosphere, easily brought the lunar surface to within less than 13
miles' distance from the eyes of our adventurers.
Therefore they should now see objects in the Moon as clearly as people
can see the opposite bank of a river that is about 12 miles wide.
[Footnote A: In our Map of the Moon, prepared expressly for this work,
we have so far improved on Beer and Maedler as to give her surface as it
appears to the naked eye: that is, the north is in the north; only we
must always remember that the west is and must be on the _right hand_.]
[Footnote B: In our Map the _Mappa Selenographica_ is copied as closely
and as fully as is necessary for understanding the details of the story.
For further information the reader is referred to Nasmyth's late
magnificent work: the MOON.]
CHAPTER XI.
FACT AND FANCY.
"Have you ever seen the Moon?" said a teacher ironically one day in
class to one of his pupils.
"No, sir;" was the pert reply; "but I think I can safely say I've heard
it spoken about."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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