Ralph then took his bearings, after he had verified, by means of the polarized wave transmitter that Fernand's flyer was still headed towards Venus. He then locked the steering disc and the space flyer continued its journey in a straight line of pursuit toward the machine of Fernand.
This done, Ralph flashed a radiogram asking the Planet Governor's indulgence for disobeying the law. Then he took his first look at the earth, which, since he was traveling at the rate of 80,000 miles an hour, had shrunk to the dimensions of a medium-sized orange. As he was flying toward the sun, Earth, being directly behind him was fully illuminated and appeared like a full moon. The continents and oceans were visible except where temporarily obscured by mist or clouds.
The general aspect of the Earth as seen from Ralph's flyer was that of a delicate faint blue green ball with white caps at each of the poles. The ball was surrounded by a pinkish ring near the circumference. This was the earth's atmosphere, the white caps being snow and ice around the north and south poles.
The brilliantly lighted earth was silhouetted against the inky black sky in sharp contrast.[8] The moon, hidden behind the earth, was not in evidence, when Ralph first looked earthward.
The stars shone with a brilliancy never seen from Earth; distant constellations which ordinarily cannot be seen, except, with a telescope, were plainly visible to him, in outer space.
The sun shone with a dazzling brilliancy in a pitch-black sky, and had he looked directly into its rays he would have been stricken blind.
The heat of the sun in the outside space when striking objects was tremendous. Had he held his hand against the glass window of the space flyer where the sun could strike it full, his hand would have been burned in a few seconds.
There was of course no night in the outer space (within the bounds of the planetary system). The sun shone uninterruptedly.
Time was an unknown quantity. Had it not been for the chronometer, reeling off seconds and minutes according to man's standard, time would cease to exist in a space flyer.
To a man who had never left the Earth, the phenomena encountered inside of a space flyer in the outer space was still more amazing.