The Story of the HeavensBall, Robert S. (Robert Stawell)
History
The Story of the Heavens
Ball, Robert S. (Robert Stawell)
Astronomy
It is important to have the means of testing the chronometers during the
progress of the voyage; and it would be a great convenience if every
captain, when he wished, could actually consult some infallible standard
of Greenwich time. We want, in fact, a Greenwich clock which may be
visible over the whole globe. There is such a clock; and, like any other
clock, it has a face on which certain marks are made, and a hand which
travels round that face. The great clock at Westminster shrinks into
insignificance when compared with the mighty clock which the captain
uses for setting his chronometer. The face of this stupendous dial is
the face of the heavens. The numbers engraved on the face of a clock are
replaced by the twinkling stars; while the hand which moves over the
dial is the beautiful moon herself. When the captain desires to test
his chronometer, he measures the distance of the moon from a
neighbouring star. For example, he may see that the moon is three
degrees from the star Regulus. In the Nautical Almanac he finds the
Greenwich time at which the moon was three degrees from Regulus.
Comparing this with the indications of the chronometer, he finds the
required correction.
There is one widely-credited myth about the moon which must be regarded
as devoid of foundation. The idea that our satellite and the weather
bear some relation has no doubt been entertained by high authority, and
appears to be an article in the belief of many an excellent mariner.
Careful comparison between the state of the weather and the phases of
the moon has, however, quite discredited the notion that any connection
of the kind does really exist.
We often notice large blank spaces on maps of Africa and of Australia
which indicate our ignorance of parts of the interior of those great
continents. We can find no such blank spaces in the map of the moon.
Astronomers know the surface of the moon better than geographers know
the interior of Africa. Every spot on the face of the moon which is as
large as an English parish has been mapped, and all the more important
objects have been named.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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