Astronomy with an Opera-glass

ad made with his telescope, "to behold the body of the moon, which is distant from us nearly sixty

oon assuredly does not possess a smooth and polished surface, but one rough and uneven, and, just like

for him than his lunar observations. Certainly there was nothing which he has described with greater enthusiasm and eloquence. And this could hardly have been otherwise, for the moon was the first celestial object to which Galileo turned his telescope, and the

er wandering

lene name, an

ities has, and

moon was a smooth body, polished like a mirror, and presenting in its light and dark spots reflections of the continents and oceans of the earth. He also demons

ass for optical purposes not being contrived until nearly a hundred years after his death, and so his telescope did not possess quite as decided a superiority over a modern field-glass as the difference in magnifying power would imply. In fact, if the reader will view the moon with a first-rate field-glass, he will perceive that the true nature of the surface of the lunar g

sunshine poured perpendicularly upon the face of our satellite conceals its rugged features as effectually as if a veil had been drawn over them. Begin your observations with the appearance of the narrowest crescent of the new moon, and follow it as it gradually fills, and then you will see how beautifully the advancing line of lunar sunrise reveals the mountains, over whose slopes and peaks it is climbing, by its ragged and sinuous outline. The observer must keep in mind the fact that he is looking straight down upon the tops of the lunar mountains. It is like a view from a balloon, only at a vastly greater height than any balloon has

the bottoms of ancient seas that have now dried up, but these cover only about two fifths of the surface visible to us, and most of the remaining three fifths are exceedingly rugged and mountainous. Many of the mountains of the moon are, foot for foot, as lofty as the highest mountains on the earth, while all of them, in proportion to the size of the moon's globe, are much larger than the earth's mountains. It is obvious, then, that the sunshine, as it creeps over these Alpine landscapes in the moon,

f the moon, and to their presence are due the popular notions that have prevailed in all quarters of the world about the "Man in the Moon," the "Woman in the Moon," "Jacob in the Moon," the "Hare in the Moon," the "Toad in the Moon," and so

ps of every person who sees this phenomenon for the first time-"It looks like a peeled orange." The bright point, which is the great crater-mountain Tycho, looks exactly like the pip of the orange, and the light-streaks radiating from it in all directions bear

ls indicate craters, or ring-plains, and mountain-ranges. The following key-list will enable the reader to identify all the objects that ar

f the

lfs, and

Crisi

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Lake of

Lake of

Marsh o

a of Tran

Sea of

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Sea of

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n. Who would not wish to see the "Bay of Rainbows," or the "Lake of Dreams," or the "Sea of Tranquillity," if for no other reason than a curiosity to know what could have induced men to give to these regions in the

ordance with the direction of their illumination. Some great mountain-masses and ring-plains, or craters, which present scenes of magnificence when the sun is rising or setting upon them, disappear under a perpendicular light, such as they receive at full moon. The great crater-plain, known as Maginus, numbered 10 in our map, is one of these. The broken mountain-wall surrounding this vast depressed plain rises in some places to a height of over fourteen thousand feet above the valley within, and the spectacle of

o dazzlingly bright under a high sun, that the eye is partly blinded in gazing at it. It consists of a mountain-ring surrounding a circular valley, about twenty-eight miles in diameter. The flanks of these mountains, especially on their inner slopes, and the floor of the valley within, are very bright, while a peak in the center of the valley, about as high as Storm-King Mountain on the Hudson, shines with piercing brilliancy. Sir William Herschel mistook it for a volcano in action. It certainly is not an active volcano, but just what makes it so dazzling no one knows. The mater

ant table-lands and mountain-regions can be perceived, and with powerful telescopes many minor features come into sight. A little consideration must convince any one, as it convinced Galileo more than two hundred and seventy-five years ago, that the light reflected from the earth upon the moon is sufficient to produce this faint illumination of the lunar landscapes. We have only to recall the splendors of a night that is lighted by a full moon, and

Serenity, and Theoph

t a very striking object. With good telescopes, and under favorable illumination, a decidedly green tint is perceived in the Crisian Sea. It measures about two hundred and eighty by three hundred and fifty-five miles in extent, and is, perhaps, the deepest of all the old sea-beds visible on the moon. It is surrounded by mountains, which can be readily seen when the sun strikes athwart them a few days after new or full moon. On the southwestern

lden-brown," which has been applied to it, perhaps describes its hue well enough. With a telescope it is a most

and he will be interested in the mottled aspect which it presents in certain regions, caused by ridges

irregular surface, and the long, crooked bays

e from their names that there must be some connection between them), while between it and the Sea of Fertility r

hown by soundings and the existence of small islands in the deep sea, like the Bermudas, the Azores and St. Helena. The Sea of Serenity is divided nearly through the center by a narrow, bright streak, apparently starting from the crater-mountain Menelaus (36 in the map), but really taking its rise at Tycho far in the south. This curious streak can be readily detected even with a small opera-glass. Just what it is no one is prepared to say, and so the author of the "Moon Hoax" was fairly entitled to take advantage of the romancer's license, and declare that "its edge throughout its whole length of three hundred and forty miles is an acu

extends into the Sea of Showers, the eastern one being called Cape Heraclides, and the western Cape Laplace. They are both crowned by high peaks. Along the whole shore of the bay runs a chain of gigantic mountains, forming the southern border of a wild and lofty plateau, called the Sinus Iridum Highlands. Of course, a telescope is required to see the details of this "most magnificent of all lunar landscapes," and yet much can be done with a good field-glass. With such an instrument I have seen the capes at the ends of the bay projecting boldly into the dark, level expanse surrounding them, and the high ligh

omparatively small, is one of the most easily seen of all the lunar plains. To the naked eye it looks like a dark, oval patch on the moon. With a telescope it is seen, under favorable conditions, to possess a decided green tint. Humboldt Sea (B) and the South Sea (Z) belong principally

-glasses of London smoke-glass, to take off the glare of the moon, should be used in looking for it.[F] It is simply a plain, containing some fourteen thousand square miles, remarkable for its dark color, and surrounded by mountain

some of the most stupendous mountain-masses across which they lie. They clearly consist of different material from that of which the most of the moon's surface is composed-a material possessing a higher reflective power. In this respect they resemble Aristarchus and other lunar craters that are remarkable for their brilliancy under a high illumination. Tycho itself, the center or hub, from which these streaks radiate like spokes, is very brilliant in the full moon. But immediately around Tycho there is a dark rim some twenty-five miles broad. Beyond this rim the surface becomes bright, and the bright region extends about ninety miles farther. Out of it spring the great rays or streaks, which vary from ten to twenty miles in width, and many of which are several hundred miles long-one, which we have already mentioned as extending across the Sea of Serenity,

bove a red heat. Having a much larger surface in proportion to her bulk than the earth, the oxidation of the moon has, he thinks, extended much deeper than that of the earth, and her atmosphere and oceans have been exhausted in the process. Both the earth and the moon, he maintain

lavius, Tych

icture of the half-moon, being the lowest and largest of the ring-like forms seen at the inner edge of the illuminated half of the disk; the rays of the rising sun touching the summits of some of the peaks in its interior have brought them into sight as a point of light, and at the same time, reaching across the gulf within, have lighted up the higher slopes of the great mountain-wall on the farther

e floor of Clavius. Far in the east then dimly appear a few scarcely perceptible points, rapidly widening into a thin bright line, the crest of the great southeastern wall of Clavius, the end being still lost far within the night-side of the moon. By the period the extreme summit of the lofty wall of Clavius on the east becomes distinct, fine streaks of light begin to extend across the dark mass of shadow on the interior of Clavius, from the light breaking through some of the passes on the west wall and illuminating the interior; and these streaks widen near the center and form illuminated spots on the floor, when both east and west it still lies deeply immersed in shadow, str

w Clavius, in our illustration. I have just spoken of these great lunar formations as chasms. The word describes very well the appearance which some of them present when the line separating day and night on the moon falls across them, but the reader should not be led by it into an erroneous idea of their real character.

about first quarter, and passing out of sight about third quarter. At such times, with a field-glass, some of them look like enormous round holes in the inner edge of the illuminated half of the moon. Theophilus (23), Cyrillus (24), and Catharina (25), are three of the finest walled plains on the moon-Theophilus, in particul

s, extending some four hundred and sixty miles in length, and containing one peak twenty-one thousand feet high, and many varying from twelve thousand to nearly twenty thousand. It will thus be seen that the Apennines of the earth sink into insignificance in comparison with their gigantic namesakes on the moon. As this range runs at a considerable angle to the line of sunrise, its high peaks are seen tipped with su

ng and apparently changeable phenomena which have given rise to much speculation, but which, of course, lie far beyond the reac

hat was lost from the earth, including lost wits; and where the redoubtable knight Astolpho, having been sent in search of the missing wit of the great Orlando, was astonished to find what he sou

te so deep. It has a cluster of peaks in the center, whose tops may be detected with a field-glass, as a speck of light when the rays of the morning sun, slanting across the val

table and interesting people, with whom one would be glad to have a closer acquaintance. But, alas! as the powers of the telescope increased, the vision of a moon crowded with life faded, until at last the cold fact struck home that the moon is, in all probability, a frozen and dried-up globe, a mere planetary skeleton, which could no more support life than the Humboldt glacier could grow roses. And yet this opinion may go too far. There is reason for thinking that the moon is not absolutely airless, and, while it has no visible bodies of water, its soil may, after all, not be entirely arid and desiccated. There are observations which hint at visible changes in certain spots that could possibly be caused by vegetation, and there are other observations which suggest the display of electric luminosity in a rarefied atmosphere covering the moon. To declare that no possible form of life can exist under the conditions prevailing upon the lunar surface would be saying too much, for human intelligence

e enormous changes of temperature, from burning heat under a cloudless sun to the freezing cold of space at night with no atmospheric blanket to retain heat (which has generally been assumed to be the condition of thing

his side, in full view of the scene of their evil deeds. The visible side of the moon-with its tremendous craters, its yawning chasms, its frightful contrasts of burning sunshine and Cimmerian darkness, its airless and arid plains and dried-up sea-bottoms exposed to the pitiless cold of open space, and heated, if heated at all, by scorching sunbeams as fierce as naked fl

large planet and that of the stars will at once strike the observer. Mercury, which, on account of its nearness to the sun and its rapid changes of place, comparatively few persons ever see, can perhaps hardly be called an interesting object for an opera-glass, and yet the beauty of the planet i

rdened atmosphere. While these clouds render the planet surprisingly lustrous to our eyes, they must, of course, keep the globe beneath them most of the time in shadow. It is a source of keen regret that the surface of Venus can not be seen as clearly as that of Mars, for, a priori, there is rather more reason to regard Venus as possibly an inhabited world than any other of the Earth's sister planets, not excepting Mars. Still, even if we could plainly make out the presence of oceans and continents on Venus, that fact would

utical Almanac, and then mark its place upon a planisphere or any good star-map. This planet is at the present time (1888) slowly drawing nearer to the earth at each opposition, and in 1892 it will be closer to us than at any time since 1877, when its two minute satellites were discovered. It will consequently grow brighter every year until then. How splendidly it shines when at its nearest approach to the earth may be inferred from the fact that in 1719 it was so brilliant as actually to cause a panic. This was doubtless owing to its peculiar redness. I well remem

(Seen with a Field-gl

m, present a miniature of the solar system. With a strong opera-glass one or two of Jupiter's little family of moons may occasionally be caught sight of as excessively minute dots of light half-hidden in the glare of the planet. If you succeed und

uated. If you miss one or more of them, you may know that it is either between you and the planet, or behind t

ting that the position of the whole system, as there given, is reversed, or presented as seen with an astronomical telescope, which inverts objects looked at, as an opera-glass does not

ourse of a single evening, if he begins early and follows them for three or four hours. It is impossible to describe the peculiar attractions of the scene presented by the great planet and his four little moons on a serene evening to an observer armed with a powerful glass. Probably much of the impressiveness of the spectacle is owing to the knowledge that those little points of light, shining now in a row and now in

ll, however, for the observer to trace its slow motion among the stars with the aid of the Nautical Almanac, and he should be able with a good field-glass to see, under favorable circumst

efore Herschel's discovery, being simply mistaken, on account of the slowness of its motion, for a fixed star. When near opposition, Uranus looks as bright as a sixth-magnitude star, and can be easily detected with the naked eye when its position is known. With an opera

Uranus. But there were other small stars in the field, and, supposing I had not been certain which was Uranus, how could I have recognized it? The answer is plain: simply by watching for a night or two to see which star moved. That star would, of course, be Uranus. The accompanying cuts will show the motions of Mars and Uranus with respect

ranus, May

ranus, Jun

ranus, Jun

ars but Uranus also has shifted its position with respect to the three immovable stars. This change of place alone would have sufficed

be no possibility that the merest tyro in star-gazing would fail to notice the change. Whenever the observer sees an object which he suspects to be a planet, he can satisfy himself of its identity by making a series of little sketches like the above, showing the position of the suspected object on successive evenings, with respec

opera-glass, but even with the unassisted eye. At present (1888) we are near a minimum period of sun-spots, and the number to be seen even with a telescope is comparatively very small, yet only a few days before this page was written there was a spot on the sun large enough to be conspicuous with the aid of a field-glass. During the time of a spot-maximum the sun is occasionally a wonderful object, n

September

tangible body, whose diameter is of that stupendous magnitude. One sees at a glance, then, the enormous scale on which these spots are formed. The earth placed beside them would be but a speck, and yet they are mere pits in the surface of the sun, filled perhaps with partially cooled metallic vapors, which have been cast up from the interior, and are settling back agai

slightly by pieces of cardboard placed between the ends-and fasten the edges together with strips of paper gummed on. Then, by means of a rubber band, fasten the dark glass thus prepared over the eye-end of your opera-glass in such a way that both of the lenses are completely covered by it. It will require a little practice to enable you to get the sun into the field o

to cover the object-end of the instrument instead of the eye-end. At a little expense an optician will furnish you with strips of glass of complementary tints, which, when fastened together, give a very pleasin

creation. This is a sympathetic bond by which we may conceive that intelligent creatures throughout the universe are united. Light tells us of the existence of suns and systems so remote that the mind shrinks from the attempt to co

expressed a similar thought in

e character peculiar to all intelligent natures, a sense of receiving impressions from light by various organs of vision, and toward this result you can not but perceive that all the arrangements and motions of the planetary bodies, their satellites and atmospheres,

ves while light exists. But when the throbbing energies of all the suns are exhausted

e had thought, and that the creation, of which the Earth is an infinitesimal part, is almost infinitely more magnificent in actual magnitude than the imaginary domain which men of old time

TNO

brim of the bowl of the Dipper is about ten degrees, and he will have a mea

earances of the Hercules cluster, which I mad

phenomena in their great photograph of the Pleiades is a long wisp or streak of nebulous matter, along which eight or nine stars are strung in a manner which irresistibly suggests an intimate connection between the stars and the nebula. This recalls the recent (August, 1888) discovery ma

t Procyon and Sirius are true double stars, consisting of a visible and an invisible star. No reason exists for considering luminosity an essential property of these bodies. The fact that numberless stars are visible

y, the Sea of Tranquillity, the Sea of Vapors, etc., and is best seen with the aid of an opera-glass of low power. The face is readily distinguishable on Rutherfurd's celebrated photograph of the full moon. It is necessary for this purpose to turn the photograph upside down, since it is a telescopic picture, and consequently reversed. The

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much the effect of great cloud-masses is heightened by them, especially when seen in a bright light. Delicate curls and stri? of cirrus, which

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