Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1880-06-17
Mountains of the Moon.

Mountains of the Moon.
When one looks at the moon though power.
ful telescope furnished With prism eye piecs.
be seems to be suspended in mid air and look
log down upon the lunar plains and noun
tsins from an enormous height. The falling
away Of the surface toward the edges of the
great ball sometimes produces the sensation thai
is experienced in stauding on the brick of q
giddy precipice 1.-THE msgnifyiug power used
Is 500 diaueters, the effect is about the same
as ii tie observer wero 10 balloon 500 mil g
sbova the surface of the moon. Below him lie
mountaios greater than Mount Bisno end
Chimberbzr, locking no larger than pebbles
Atcent sea bottoms are spread beneath him like
smooth floors, dotted here and there with eleVa
tions thss may one, have bocn islands. aud sur
rounded by table lands, plains and mountao
chsius that show where the old sea c,ast was
Hat snd marshy, where it was full OF harb0rs,
and where it was iron bouod and perlious -
Great naked plains stretch out in various direc'
tons as smooth as our prairies, and in other
places there are resches of billy country, aDd
then tremendous mountain masses. The great
Typographical features remain, ss in the days
when the moon was young and full of life like
luc Chlluj UQl CUdStS hI0 euCul Us luc
mountain peaks. the seas are empty, the fruit
ful soil is gone, all that ancient teeming life has
vanished, and the whole land is void of air. II
is only the rocky skeleton of dead world, and
picture of what our earth will be hundreds of
millions Of years heDco.
IL is this last c)nsderatiou-that the moon
furnishes Us sort of prophetic page wherein
the earth future can be read-WhIch makes
the study of lunar scenery only less interesting
than it would be if our telescopes revealed to
as cities and cultivated fields and all the evl
denc,s of man. 8 pressnc, 10 tho mooo.
The scanery OF the moon is not only wonder.
| fu, bot exceedingly beautiful. when viewed
| from Tho lofty perch that the observer with a
| telescope seems to occupy. This is especially
true of the mountaius. There being DO air on
| those ROCKY heights. there is 20 gadation Of
| light and the widows are abso utely black.
| Therefore. nigbt and day confront one another
| vii bout any intervening twilight. 1t one could
stsod upon lunar mountain. be night be IN
| the tull bez, OF the suu on the summit, while
| ten feet below oil would be buried 10 the black,
est night. The scene recalls the Plague of
| Darkness that was sent upon Egypt when the
habtstiUus of the lsraelites we're filled with
lpht. while the djoiniDg lands Of the Esyp
tians We're walled up 10 hight. The effect of
this sharp contrast of light and shadow 10 the
moon is wonderfully beautiful. A chain of
mountains just at the edge of the illuminated
| portion liz, uuder the telescope pictured 10 sl
bouetts upJn the sdi .csnt plain by the long
shadows that are as sharp in outline IS If cut
from black paper. Yet more beautiful are the
circular mountains, or craters, that are the
| characteristic features of lunar scenery. Some
of these are forty or fifty miles 10 diameter, and
in the oantre of the lat fJor enclosed by the
| ring mountain rise ono or mNe high peaks.
The efvcs OF the light aud shade among these
orators are almost endless in diversity.
With good threc inch telescope. and little
| prsc ice in the management Of the msguilyinp
powers oDc may easily see all the famous nnouo
| tsus of the moon, and most Of the strange look
ing objects that have at different times been
taken for forti6cations, roads aud other works
OF mao. There are number of excellent maps
of the moon, by whose aid every conspicuous
object may be recognized. The point of greatest
interest to'the observer is the long. jagged line,
called the termiDator that marks the sharp d.
vision between day aud night If you watch
that line for an hour or two you will be aston.
shed at the changes that have taken place un.
der your eye. You will see the sunshine creep.
ing down the steep inner side of riDged mouo-
tain, until the floor of the vast BASIN which had
before been perfectly black, looking like hole
| right through the moon, Is reached a1d lighted
up, while the rocky t1snks of the oeutral peak,
or cluster of peaks, come into view, and begin
| to cast long, spiry shadows over the crater
| floor. A. lofty mountsip, whose summit, gilded
| by the sunlight. has been visible for au hour,
shining out of the dense obscurity that covers
tho region about it which is yet stepped in
night like little island lying of sunny coast,
gradually swings into view, and the line of sIa'
shine gees sweeping up it's craggy sides, chas-
| ing the shadows, and revealing rocky spires and
precipitous gorges deeper than the valley of the
| Mer de Giace.
TIE vast dark plains, which were formerly
supposed to be real seas, but 10 which moderl
astronomers see only the bottoms of seas whose
waters disappeared ages ago, retain their old
romantic names.
There is the Ocean Storms, covering a vas
region 10 The Eastern Hemisphere With it:
equatorial situation, and surrounded by some
of the most gigantic mountains 10 the mooO, il
may have been before its waters were stoler
away, ss tempestuous as It's name implies. OI
ii Q south of the O,ean of Storms pryj cots
large bay of remarkably green hue, which il
called the Sea OF Moisture. while on the nortt
the ocean runs into the narrow Bay of DIV
Then there is the Sea of Showers, the larges
of the moons seas, or sea bottoms. B-twesr
the Sea of Showers and that bri4nt portion
of the moon called the Land of Hoar Frost
lies the Bay of Rainbows. which, as the cels.
brsted observers Beer and Nader thought
uoou. 1t is surround or lofty, shining cliff
10 the ceutre Of the muoa are the Sea OF Va
pers and the Bay oil Tides. 10 the norlh ar
Plate, or the Greater B .ack Lake, the Sea o
Cold, aud the Marsh OF Sleep, the latter beiu,
remarkable for its reddish hue 10 the eas
are the Sea of Serenity, the Sea of Tranquility
the Sea Of Fertility, the Sea OF Nectar, aud tb
dark Crisian Sea. Toe last named, judgiu
from its uousual depression, was probably ID
deepest IF all the luosr seas although its great
est length is only about $50 miles.
| Around all these seas custer rlDge