National Republican., 1874-04-01
AN HOUR WITH THE MOON,
THE LAST LECTURE OF TIE ASTRo.
NOMICAL COURSE.

NOMICAL COURSE
ABRILLIA.ST DISCOURSE ON THE EARTH's
sATALITE THE MOONS ASPECTS AND
NoTIoNs-HER SERVICES TO THE EARTH
PROBABLE HISTORY, SHAPE AND fhEs-
ENT CONDITION OF THE MOON.
Nearly q thousand people listened with marked
attention To the last lecture on astronomy Dy
Professor Proctor, last evening, At Lincoln hAll
Amer speaking briefly Of the approaching transit
of the planet Venus, the lecturer spoke a. iOl-
1oHs:
wbsn dealt with the subject Of the sun, I
smoke Of the worshipers Of the sun, who knelt
down TO him and regarded him as the ruler Of
theIr desttuies, but there were nations who
,Worsbiped the moon, and II we inquire into the
reason Of such worship We very readily nnd 1t.
We notice that Job speaks Of the moon aswalking
TN brightness and he speaks too Of the subject Of
khs moons worship. 1t was natural that men
should worship the moon. The ancients vor-
shipped the moon. The ancients worshiped any
body that seemed to move upon the heavens, and,
therefore, they WorshIped the sun, the moon, and
the plants
Now this orb that moves around the earth
Seems to be there in order TO give light during the
night time Let US see what astronomy has
taught u.s. 1t teaches that the moon is very muen
smaller than the earth with 9 diameter Of 2l0o
The surface Of the moon is less than the earths In
the proportion Of ! to 1S1<. In other words, the
.surface OF the moon is about l4,oOo,oOO square
miles, equal almost exactly to the surface Of
North and South America. 1t Is also equal eP-
proximately to the surface of Europe and AFRICA
taken together. II the moon is the abode OF life
there is plenty of for life and 1t is an inter-
aestIpg question whether she now can maintain
Lie. We know that the volume of the moon II to
that of the earth as i to 4OH while her density is
rather less than that of the earth, 80 that her
mass is to the earth as about to 81.
IL First OF ALL as to the Offices Of the moon. II 1t
is shown that she discharges important offices to
the earth, you will see that We are no longer
bound by the argument of design to recognise her
as the 9bode Of life. First, we know she serves
for the division of time. Sho gives light by night
God set His lights in the oxpanse Of heaven, the
greater to rule by day and the lesser by night,
alternately. There is q service performed by the
moon which is so regular as to suggest that per-
haps the Almighty intended the moon for that
special purpose.
Laplsce went go far as to say If he had made the
moon he would have made 1t much more useful to
man. He would have pat It four times Its present
distance away from the earth, when IL would be
Ear enough away TO be q full moon and give
regular light continuously by night. The hfst
objection to this is astronomical one, for Of oil
nuisances the moons light is one which the as
tronomer disllkes most, especially at time when
he wants to study some nebule, or some barely
visible comet; al those times the moons bright
mess seriously ipterferes with his observations;
and am surprised, indeed, that Laplace, himself
an astronomer, should have suggested so fneon-
venlent an arrangement as that. But there are
other difficulties.
have to be opposite TO the sun. The sun would 60
around the world once o year and the moon also.
The moon would no longer be measure Or time,
tide-wave, represented in hight By S. You have
those a't two ~ waves are as sOnetines combined n
single wave, and act together, sometimes oppos-
ing, sometimes coalescing; According to these
ence Of and to the sum Of and 2 That is to
say, the least hight and the greatest. This fg
as any one who lives by tRf seashore knows; It il
OF great interest to the shlpbuilder and merchant
sSSId nS ai%sRs 3. hFS des nor siWays IoT
That important service would not have been sub
served by the moon if the confederation suggested
by Laplace had prevailed. There is another very
important service. The moon enables the as
trGnomer seaman IN long voyages to astertain
the longitude. which is nothing more or less than
the true time at the observers station.
II she moved twelve times more slowly she
would be less fit 10 indicate the time in exactly the
same degree as the hour hand OF o watch is less |
at than the minute hand. There are other very |
great and important advantages Of the real moon |
did not Occof 70 a mat6ematician such as he, the
only man who ever lived Of whom It can be said, |
-'He was the rival Of Newton" He himself said
Newton was fortunate In having lived before him. |
In another man it would have been rank conceit, |
but in Laplace it was considered as q just state
ment. Yet he failed to notice, when he suggested
this moons being four times further from us that
under his conditions, If spread SO as to give the
same light, the material of which the moon is |
made would be lighter than any solid element |
known to us I think it we'll that the Al |
mighty did not take counsel from Laplace in |
creating the moon.
TELESCOPE yTEws-THE MOON HOAX.
I pass from these considerations to the tele- |
scOpic study of the moon; When we think how,
near the moon is the planet that comes nearest |
toSus being $50 times further away than the moon,
certainly tho hope would seem natural when |
Calico first turned his telescope to the moon that
he would discover signs OF its fitness to be the
a0ods Q! lie: we knoH shat happened. he
that be compared them in number on the moon TO
the "eyes" on peacOck's tall. Where there ap-
Called them seas He found them to be really |
solid, and afterward telescope observations went
iargement Of these features and the revelation Of
new details, but nothing to suggest that life sx-
listed on that arid surface. Men went on hoping
be obtained. 1t was thought that with Herschel's
great telescope something more would be deter
mined. Herschel thought be could recognize in
the bright part of the signs of volcanic erup-
tion We knew it was only the reflected light Of
the earth.
that some one in America, a Mr.. Locke, conceived
the idea Of publishing that strange book, the
Moon Hoax, which misled not only the mass, but
those who were well educated There was great
ingenuity displayed in the method Of construction.
There is the conversation between Brewster and
Sir John Herschel the enthusiasm Of Brewster,
which IS very eomically described, as he leaps
from his seat and, catching Herschel by the hand,
exclaims, Thou art the mani"
Then q curious appearance OF different flames,
and then animals which seemed to escape away
whenever the observer tried to iX his attention
upon them; and the Bst-men-monstrouS crea-
tures-and the comparison between these BAt-men
sad the militia Of London. At this point the story
the impression It made, when come one wrote to
Sir John Hersehel from America, asking IL II was
true, and urging means Of conEeying religious
instruction TO the poor benIghtec Inhabitants Of
the moon. [LAuEhter.l And, strangely, at 9
quite recent time, the idea has been suggested
Of studying the moon as to discover living crea-
tures there, by the same method.
saw a few days ago in an American paper an
idea based on the same mistake that existed in
but trick. II you have the image Of the moon
photographed to perfection, it seemed as though
and objects of half mile less in SIZE II not
recogaiEe living creatures. But this is the same
mistake as those make who believe in the trans
fusion Of light. What the astronomer does when I
he sees the moon through a telescope, or when he
takes photograph of the moon Is to magnify the
image as much as It will bear. II be interposes q
screen and tries to magnify the image, he Is mag
nifying moon less perieotI HIS best chance is by
looking through the eys-piece at the image in the
telescope beyond which It cannot be increased.
heard, . few days ago, that the observatory to
the moon within thirty miles Of US; but that q
impossible.
II 10 not question OF place ABOVE the atInos-
phere seeing the moon through the rarer parts of
the atmosphere, but the optical difficulty. The
image formed BY the object-glass Of the astrono-
mer has defects and If you magnify It you mag
nifty the defects. When you get beyond certain
point 1t is useless to magnify the image AFT RD-
pears ald there is no hope Of any telescope larger
than Roses &c get q close view Of the moon 1.-THE
best view Of 1t obtained, perhaps, is that at the
Cambridge obseTyatory.l We have images here /
taken by the Cambridge refactor, and there are |
all the details, you see OF the craters and flaws
and irregularities OF surface, but no sign Of life
can be seen.
EVIDENCES OF ABSENCE OF ATMosPHERE.
When VIC begin to inquire into the relations Of |
the moon see how hopeless IL is to expect signs
of life. We have an orb having ne atmosphere, /
or very shallow one. This Is shown by the fact /
that shadows thrown by the lunar mountains are /
seen these black parts, indicating that there is
no considerable atmosphere. An observer watch
ing cur earth from the moon would not see black
shadows but dark Shadows of greater and greater
darkness, but there would be q certain amount Of
light in ths valley all around the mountains; for
we know we can stand on q Rountain top when
the is rising and see that the valley below IS
not black; there is twilight there, and It comes
from the atmosphere. If there were atmosphere
in the moon, an observer from the earth would see
shadows thrown all around the but |