The Moon: A Popular TreatiseServiss, Garrett Putman
Science
The Moon: A Popular Treatise
Serviss, Garrett Putman
Moon
“I should have told you that,” I replied. “Yes, it does represent the
moon at a time when more of its surface, visible to us, is illuminated
by the sun. In fact, we may regard it as a picture of the moon made
about a day later than the other. But I must now tell you that these
photographs were not all taken in regular succession, a day apart, or
even two days apart. That was impracticable for reasons that I need not
explain. Some of them were made at one season of the year and some at
another. Yet taken together they form a sufficiently continuous series
to enable us, with their aid, to follow the changing aspects of the moon
during more than three weeks, or all that part of a lunation in which
the moon is a conspicuous object in the sky.”[2]
Footnote 2:
In addition to what is said in the text concerning the photographs the
reader should be informed that, in consequence of her “librations,”
the moon does not, all the time, present _exactly_ the same surface
toward the earth. If she did we should never see more than one half of
her surface. In fact, however, at one time or another, we see, in all
(but never at the same time), about fifty-nine per cent of her
surface, leaving forty-one per cent which is forever invisible because
never turned in our direction. The librations, or “balancings,” of the
moon, which bring now one and now another portion of the usually
invisible hemisphere into view, are of three kinds: First, the
libration in latitude, arising from the combined effects of the
inclination of the moon’s orbit to the plane of the earth’s orbit, and
the inclination of her axis of rotation to the plane of her own orbit.
When added together these two inclinations make the axis of the moon
lean one way or the other with respect to the earth about 6½°. But,
since the inclination of the moon’s orbit to that of the earth is
continually varying to a small extent, the amount of this libration is
also variable. Its effect is to cause now the North and now the South
Pole of the moon to incline slightly toward the observer on the earth,
so that he can see alternately a little way round the northern and the
southern edges of the moon’s disk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account