THE MOON ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: COPERNICUS AND THE CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ +THE MOON+ +A POPULAR TREATISE+ _By_ GARRETT P. SERVISS [Illustration] +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK+ 1907 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY _Published October, 1907_ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE THE reader familiar with astronomical literature will doubtless remark a certain resemblance between the plan on which this book is written and that of Fontenelle’s “Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds,” a French classic of the eighteenth century. The author freely acknowledges that it was the recollection of the pleasure which the reading of Fontenelle’s book gave him, years ago, that led to the adoption of a somewhat similar plan for this description of the moon. But, except that in both cases the conversational method is employed, no great likeness will be found between what is here presented and the work of the witty Frenchman. Having been invited by the Messrs. Appleton & Co. to prepare a small volume, to be based on a series of lunar photographs representing the moon as it appears on successive evenings during an entire lunation, the author felt that the work should be made as entertaining as possible. He has, therefore, avoided technicalities, while endeavoring to present all the most essential facts known about our satellite. What he has written is intended for the general reader, who desires to learn the results of the great advances in astronomy without being too much troubled with the scientific methods by whose aid those results have been reached. This is the first time, as far as the author is aware, that a series of lunar photographs, showing our satellite in its varying aspects from New to Old Moon, has been presented in a book, accompanied with a description of the mountains, plains, volcanoes, and other formations shown in each successive photograph. The reader is enabled to place himself, as it were, in an observatory of the first rank, provided with the most powerful apparatus of the astronomer, and, during an entire month, view the moon in her changing phases.