Astronomy with an Opera-glass: A Popular Introduction to the Study of the Starry Heavens with the Simplest of Optical InstrumentsServiss, Garrett Putman
Science
Astronomy with an Opera-glass: A Popular Introduction to the Study of the Starry Heavens with the Simplest of Optical Instruments
Serviss, Garrett Putman
Astronomy
The visibility of Aristarchus on the dark side of the moon leads us to a
brief consideration of the illumination by the earth of that portion of
the moon's surface which is not touched directly by sunlight at new and
old moon. This phenomenon is shown in the accompanying illustration. Not
only can the outlines of the dark part of the moon be seen under such
circumstances, but even the distinction in color between the dusky
"seas" and the more brilliant table-lands and mountain-regions can be
perceived, and with powerful telescopes many minor features come into
sight. A little consideration must convince any one, as it convinced
Galileo more than two hundred and seventy-five years ago, that the light
reflected from the earth upon the moon is sufficient to produce this
faint illumination of the lunar landscapes. We have only to recall the
splendors of a night that is lighted by a full moon, and then to
recollect that at new or old moon the earth is "full" as seen from our
satellite, and that a full earth must give some fourteen times as much
light as a full moon, in order to realize the brilliancy of an earth-lit
night upon the moon. As the moon waxes to us, the earth wanes to the
moon, and _vice versa_, and so the phenomenon of earth-shine on the
lunar surface must be looked for before the first quarter and after the
last quarter of the moon.
[Illustration: SUNRISE ON THE SEA OF SERENITY, AND THEOPHILUS AND OTHER
CRATERS.]
The reader will find it an attractive occupation to identify, by means
of the map, the various "seas," "lakes," and "marshes," for not only
are they interesting on account of the singularity of their names, but
they present many remarkable differences of appearance, which may be
perceived with the instrument he is supposed to be using. The oval form
of the Crisian Sea (A), which is the first of the "seas" to come into
sight at new moon, makes it a very striking object. With good
telescopes, and under favorable illumination, a decidedly green tint is
perceived in the Crisian Sea. It measures about two hundred and eighty
by three hundred and fifty-five miles in extent, and is, perhaps, the
deepest of all the old sea-beds visible on the moon. It is surrounded by
mountains, which can be readily seen when the sun strikes athwart them a
few days after new or full moon. On the southwestern border a stupendous
mountain-promontory, called Cape Agarum, projects into the Crisian Sea
fifty or sixty miles, the highest part rising precipitously eleven
thousand feet above the floor of the sea. I have seen Cape Agarum very
clearly defined with a field-glass. Near the eastern border is the
crater-mountain Proclus, which I have already mentioned as possessing
great brilliancy under a high sun, being in this respect second only to
Aristarchus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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