The Trouvelot astronomical drawings manualTrouvelot, E. L. (Etienne Leopold)
Science
The Trouvelot astronomical drawings manual
Trouvelot, E. L. (Etienne Leopold)
Astronomy -- Pictorial works
A view of one of the lunar plains, or so-called _seas_ (_Maria_), with
an encircling mountainous wall consisting of volcano-like craters in
various stages of subsidence and dislocation. The sun-light coming from
the west casts strong shadows from all the elevations eastward, and is
just rising on the _terminator_, where the rugged structure of the
Moon's surface is best seen. The lighter portions are the more elevated
mountainous tracts and crater summits. The detailed description of this
Plate given in the body of the Manual is repeated here for convenience
of reference: The Mare Humorum, or sea of moisture, as it is called, is
one of the smaller gray lunar plains. Its diameter, which is very nearly
the same in all directions, is about 270 miles, the total area of this
plain being about 50,000 square miles. It is one of the most distinct
plains of the Moon, and is easily seen with the naked eye on the
left-hand side of the disk. The floor of the plain is, like that of the
other gray plains, traversed by several systems of very extended but low
hills and ridges, while small craters are disseminated upon its surface.
The color of this formation is of a dusky greenish gray along the
border, while in the interior it is of a lighter shade, and is of
brownish olivaceous tint. This plain, which is surrounded by high clefts
and rifts, well illustrates the phenomena of dislocation and subsidence.
The double-ringed crater Vitello, whose walls rise from 4,000 to 5,000
feet in height, is seen in the upper left-hand corner of the gray plain.
Close to Vitello at the east is the large broken ring-plain Lee, and
farther east, and a little below, is a similarly broken crater called
Doppelmayer. Both of these open craters have mountainous masses and
peaks on their door, which is on a level with that of the Mare Humorum.
A little below, and to the left of these objects, is dimly seen a deeply
imbedded oval crater, whose walls barely rise above the level of the
plain. On the right-hand side of the great plain is a long _fault_, with
a system of fracture running along its border. On this right-hand side
may be seen a part of the line of the terminator, which separates the
light from the darkness. Towards the lower right-hand corner is the
great ring-plain Gassendi, 55 miles in diameter, with its system of
fractures and its central mountains, which rise from 3,000 to 4,000 feet
above its floor. This crater slopes towards the plain, showing the
subsidence to which it has been submitted. While the northern portion of
the wall of this crater rises to 10,000 feet, that on the plain is only
500 feet high, and is even wholly demolished at one place where the
floor of the crater is in direct communication with the plain. In the
lower part of the sea, and a little to the west of the middle line, is
found the crater Agatharchides, which shows below its north wall the
marks of rills impressed by a flood of lava, which once issued from the
side of the crater.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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