The present writer can bear witness to the correctness of
Herschel's words. Feldhausen is truly an ideal secluded spot
for astronomical study. A small obelisk under the sheer cliff
of far-famed Table Mountain now marks the site of the great
reflecting telescope. Here Herschel carried on his scrutiny of the
Southern skies. He observed 1,202 double stars and 1,708 nebulæ
and clusters, of which only 439 were already known. He studied the
famous Magellanic clouds, and made the first careful drawings of
the "keyhole" nebula in the constellation Argo.
Very recent researches of the present royal astronomer at the Cape
have shown that changes of import have certainly taken place in
this nebula since Herschel's time, when a sudden blazing up of the
wonderful star Eta Argus was seen within the nebula. This object
has, perhaps, undergone more remarkable changes of light than
any other star in the heavens. It is as though there were some
vast conflagration at work, now blazing into incandescence, and
again sinking almost into invisibility. In 1843 Maclear estimated
the brilliancy of Eta to be about equal to that of Sirius, the
brightest star in the whole sky. Later it diminished in light,
and cannot be seen to-day with the naked eye, though the latest
telescopic observations indicate that it is again beginning to
brighten.
Such was Herschel's quiet study of his beloved science, in glaring
contrast to the supposed discoveries of the "Hoax." Here are a few
things alleged to have been seen on the moon. The first time the
instrument was turned upon our satellite "the field of view was
covered throughout its entire area with a beautifully distinct and
even vivid representation of basaltic rock." There were forests,
too, and water, "fairer shores never angels coasted on a tour
of pleasure. A beach of brilliant white sand, girt with wild
castellated rocks, apparently of green marble."
There was animal life as well; "we beheld continuous herds of
brown quadrupeds, having all the external characteristics of the
bison, but more diminutive than any species of the bos genus in our
natural history." There was a kind of beaver, that "carries its
young in its arms like a human being," and lives in huts. "From the
appearance of smoke in nearly all of them, there is no doubt of its
(the beaver's) being acquainted with the use of fire." Finally,
as was, of course, unavoidable, human creatures were discovered.
"Whilst gazing in a perspective of about half a mile, we were
thrilled with astonishment to perceive four successive flocks of
large-winged creatures, wholly unlike any kind of birds, descend
with a slow, even motion from the cliffs on the western side, and
alight upon the plain.... Certainly they were like human beings,
and their attitude in walking was both erect and dignified."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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