The moon : $b a full description and map of its principal physical featuresElger, Thomas Gwyn
Science
The moon : $b a full description and map of its principal physical features
Elger, Thomas Gwyn
Moon
PICTET.--A walled-plain of irregular shape, about 30 miles across,
between Saussure and Tycho, with a border broken on the S. by a large
conspicuous ring-plain, which is at least 10 miles in diameter, and,
according to Schmidt, has a central mountain. Schmidt draws the S.E.
border of Pictet as broken by ridges extending on to the floor. He also
shows several craters and minor elevations thereon.
TYCHO.--As the centre from which the principal bright ray-system of the
moon radiates, and the most conspicuous object in the southern
hemisphere, this noble ring-plain may justly claim the pre-eminent title
of "the Metropolitan crater." It is more than 54 miles in diameter, and
its massive border, everywhere traversed by terraces and variegated by
depressions within and without, is surmounted by peaks rising both on the
E. and W. to a height of about 17,000 feet above the bright interior, on
which stands a magnificent central mountain at least 5000 feet in
altitude. Were it not somewhat foreshortened, Tycho would be seen to
deviate considerably from what is deemed to be the normal shape. On the
S. and W. especially, the wall approximates to the linear type, no signs
of curvature being apparent where these sections meet. The crest on the
S. and S.E. exhibits many breaks and irregularities; and it is through a
narrow gap on the S. that a rill-like valley, originating at a small
depression near the foot of the S.W. _glacis_, passes, and, descending
the inner slope of the S.E. wall obliquely, terminates near its foot.
There is a distinct crater on the summit ridge on the S.E., and another
below the crest on the outer S.W. slope. On the S. inner slope I have
often remarked a number of bright oval objects, which, for the lack of a
better word, may be termed "mounds" though they represent masses of
material many miles in length and breadth. The outer slope of Tycho,
exhibiting under a high light a grey nimbus encircling the wall,
includes--craters, crater-pits, shallow valleys, spurs and buttresses--in
short, almost every variety of lunar feature is represented. Excepting
the central mountain and a crater on the W. of it, I have not seen any
object on the floor, which, for some unexplained reason, is never very
distinct. Schmidt shows several low ridges on the N.E. side. In a paper
recently published in the _Astronomische Nachrichten_, Professor W.H.
Pickering, describing his observations of the Tycho streaks made at
Arequipa, Peru, with a 13 inch achromatic, asserts that they do not
radiate from the centre of Tycho, but from a multitude of minute craters
on its S.E. or N. rim. (See Introduction.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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