The Moon: A Popular TreatiseServiss, Garrett Putman
Science
The Moon: A Popular Treatise
Serviss, Garrett Putman
Moon
“That element will not be diminished by what I am about to point out.
Look far over near the eastern border of the _Oceanus Procellarum_,
directly east of Aristarchus. There you will distinguish the outlines of
two or three vast submerged ring plains, which we may regard as relics
of that earlier lunar world, which preceded the outgush of lava that Mr.
Elger thinks covered the sea bottoms. Observe also the singular light
streak that runs from Kepler, now barely visible at the edge of night,
to a dark little crater, beyond which lies a bright point off the coast
of the ‘ocean.’ South of this there are other submerged ring plains, one
of which, named Letronne, has a high western wall, which forms in the
picture a sort of promontory projecting from the southern border of the
_Oceanus Procellarum_, almost directly north of Gassendi. The latter is
very clearly shown at the lower end of the _Mare Humorum_, the western
side of which is in shadow, while its whole surface has turned very
dark. On the southern horn of the crescent the ring plains, Schickard
and Schiller, are still prominent, and the northern and eastern edges of
the _Mare Humorum_ appear more ragged with mountains and crater rings
than before.”
“And have all these mountains and craters names?”
“Not all of them, but many more, perhaps, than you suppose. On the whole
visible surface of the moon about 500 objects, not including the ‘seas,’
have received names. It may surprise you to learn that the position of
the most important of these objects has been ascertained with an
accuracy which is still lacking in our determination of positions on the
earth. In other words our charts of the moon are more exact than those
of our own planet.”
“That does indeed surprise me. I should have thought that, living on the
earth, we could make very correct maps of it, while, as for the moon,
two or three hundred thousand miles away, it seems to me not so easy to
do that.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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