Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-11-08

imagination Of some Of the ancients
peopled it, and shown how untitled il
is for the habitation of beings like
ourselves and those we see around us
should now make us believe that the
moon is the home of beings more gro
tesque in our eyes, perhaps, than any
the Imagination has pictured. We do
not say this is probable, but only that
it is suggested by the very interesting
observations which have lately been
made, and which we shall briefly o..
scribe.
On the 9th of March last, Mr..
Stanley Williams, an English observ-
er, was looking at the moon in the
early evening with telescope of con-
siderable power, and giving particular
attention to that very singular oval
known to astronomers by the name of
Plato. This valley is about sixty
miles broad, remarkably level, and
surrounded by ring of mountains
averaging something less than 1000
feet high, but shooting up here and
there into peaks nearly as high as
Etna. When the sunlight strikes
across the SUBMITS of the mountains
on one side it throws the shining peaks
into splendid relief, but all the valley
within remains shrouded in darkness.
The sun was just rising upon this
mountain ring when Mr.. Williams
made his observation of Plato, and
his eye at once detected strange ap-
pearance. The interior of the valley
which usually appears totally dark at
such times, was illuminated with a
faint phosphorescent light, making its
level floor dimly visible. 1t was not
the effect of reflection from the illu-
minated mountains, because the inter-
Tor of the valley was protected from
such reflection. Some passing clouds
in our atmosphere shut out this inter
esting scene from the sight of the OBJ
server for about an hour. When the
sky cleared again Mr.. Williams look
ed once more, and saw that the strange
light had disappeared. Mr.. Williams
had made a similar observation, in the
same spot, about five years ago.
About seven weeks after Mr.. Will
liams' observation which we have de-
scribed, there was q total eclipse of
the sun. and party of French and
English astronomers went to Egypt to
observe it, as the line of totality ran
across that country. When these as
tronomers turned their spectroscopes
upon the edge of the moon as it hid
the sun on the 18th of May, they per-
ceived indications, in the strengthen
ing of certain lines of the spectrum,
of the existence of an atmosphere on
the moon. This observation, though
not unprecedented, was hailed with
satisfaction by those who had always
contended that the moon was not as
dead as it seemed. The existence OF
ON atmosphere would explain tho phe-
nomenon which Mr.. Williams witness
ed in the valley of Plato, as well as
various other equally singular obser-
vations which have been made by stu
dents of the moon from time to time.
But this is not all. On the 18th of
May, two days after the eclipse, John
G.. Jackson, of Delaware, while study
ing the moon, as he had been accus-
toned to do for years, with a reflect
ing telescope. was surprised to see
near the western edge of the disk, and
over a.portion of the fiat region known
as the sea of Crises, something which
he described as feathery looking
cloud. Just two months later he saw
a similar appearance in the same
place. And now Mr.. l.. E. Trouvelot,
a well known astronomer, comment
ing upon Stanley Williams observa-
ton, says that he has more than once
witnessed similar appearances upon
the moons disk. He has seen lunar
landscapes loose their distinctness as
if thin clouds were floating over them,
and once, around the crater of Kant,
he saw what may have been rare
vapor slightly tinged with purple.
He has also seen another large crater
Illuminated with faint purple light.
Mr.. Trouvelot thinks these various
appearances are manifestations of
lunar atmosphere of nature yet I'M
known.
Curious observations of q similar
nature can be found scattered here
and there in astronomical records
reaching back more than a century,
but they have generally been looked
upon with distrust or totally disre-
garded. These recent observations
give them renewed interest and tend
to vindicate their correctness. If it
can be shown that the moon has an
atmosphere, Sir William Herschel's
IL. Ill -..~ - 11.l- .. l.