WHAT IS IT LIKE?—MOON SUPERSTITIONS—DESCRIPTION OF THE MOON—PHASES—TIDES—ECLIPSES.
From the early days of childhood every man and woman has been familiar with the moon. This satellite of earth has been domesticated, so to speak, amongst us; and while the sun and other stars have been glorified in poetic and prose effusions, the moon has been always more tenderly addressed. The soft (reflected) light of our attendant moon is much more attractive than the brilliancy of the greater light “that rules the day.” The moon is regarded as our particular property, and has awakened an interest in our minds since the time that we could, as we fancied, see the “Man in the Moon.”
Fig. 559.—The earth as seen from the moon.
In ancient times the moon was supposed to possess some light of her own, and to be inhabited by immense creatures; and various theories continued to be promulgated respecting her, until the telescope came into use, and then astronomers began to find out many new things concerning Luna. Now, what has the telescope told us regarding our moon?—It shows us that there are mountains and craters, and numerous traces of volcanic action. At one time it was supposed that the dark masses apparent in the surface of the moon, and which can easily be distinguished by the naked eye, were seas, and maps of the moon were made, marking continents and craters.
If it were possible to reach the moon, as M. Jules Verne’s travellers did, we should find a very irregular and corrugated surface—plains and mountains without water. We should be able to see the stars in the daytime, because there is no atmosphere around the moon, and there is a silence that “might be felt.” The appearance of our earth from the moon, and the beauty of the stars in the unclouded and waterless space around the satellite, must be very grand, and has been, in a measure, depicted in the illustration (fig. 559) on the opposite page.
Fig. 560.—The Moon: the ring plain Copernicus.
In this illustration (fig. 560) we have some idea what the moon is like. We see the rugged and cratered appearance of the disc; it is a desert waste, so far as we can ascertain, without inhabitants, and, in all probability, without vegetation. For there being no moisture amongst the plains and craters and mountains of our satellite, we must conclude that the moon is dead. It is a very interesting,—nay, a fascinating study. When we take up our telescope and look from the window at the heavens the most beautiful object within our small telescopic vision is the moon shining like a silver plate, and we wonder what is up there. With a small telescope even we can discern many interesting features in the moon at the full, which will assist us in verifying the diagrams in books and their explanations.
As the moon is only a few miles away, comparatively speaking, and as the large telescopes now in use bring us within a measurable distance of the surface, we are enabled to speak more positively about our changeable satellite than of any of the planets. When we look steadily at the full moon we perceive upon its surface dark and light tracts called “seas,” though they are dried up now. Thus we hear of the “Sea of Serenity,” the “Sea of Storms,” and the “Sea of Tranquillity”; and in the map upon a subsequent page you may see the names of the seas, mountains, and the general formations of the surface of the moon. Maps of the moon are now to be procured, though no personal visits can be made to the satellite. It is very interesting to observe or to read about the structure of the moon, for we may thus learn how similar the earth and her attendant are in formation; but one important agency—that of water—has made a considerable difference in the appearance of the formations. In the moon we have mountains, plains, and rugged craters; the surface is not level, because the sunlight is visible sooner at some points than others. The chief mountain chain is the Apennines, and has a great elevation; many traces of volcanic agency are discoverable amid the great desolation, and awful silence reigns throughout.