The Dickinson press., 1890-01-18
GEOGRAPHY OF THE MOON.
A BRIEF WORD PICTURE OF OUR
NEAREST PLANET NEiGHBoR.

| Onier WOhO FIC URE Of OUR
NEAREST PLANET NEIGHBoR.
Something About the Chasms and Noun.
tains of Fair and Rather Mysterious
Luna-The Sea Basins and Several Other
Important Items.
| Though the moon is so near us when
compared with the other heavenly bodies,
it is still very long way off when esti-
| mated by more ordinary standards.
Under the most favorable circumstances
our neighbor is nearly 250,00O miles
away, and when viewed from SO great
distance objects have to be of consider
able magnitude if they are to be visible
at all. A lunar mountain, even if it
were as great as Mont Blanc itself, would
only bo shown like a tiny hillock by our
mightiest telescopes. No object on the
moon could be seen unless it were at
least as large as town hall or cathe-
dral. Were the great pyramid of Egypt
on the moon it would only seem to us as
speck, which an artist who was max.
ing sketch at the telescope would indi.
cate by dot with his pencil.
SIZES BY COMPARISONS,
There are certain spots or marks on
the moon as seen with the unaided eve
with which every one is familiar. They
can be best observed when the moon is
full, and it is remarkable fact that the
features exhibited by tho full moon are
always the same. In fact, the moon al
ways turns tho same face to us; we are
never granted glimpse at the other
side, and as to what that other side may
bo like neither nor any one else can
give you the slightest information. The
diameter of the moon is about 1900
miles, from which we infer that the
hemisphere which we do see has an area
about double as big as the entire surface
of Europe. Some of those large spots
which form the features on the full moon
are therefore about as large as France or
Spain. These regions have different
color to the rest of the moons surface,
and the telescope shows that their floors
are smoother than other tracts of lunar
country.
We are certain that the surface of the
moon no longer contains any visible
water. 1t seems to have penetrated into
the interior of the lunar globe at some
period ages before telescopes were ever
directed to the heavens.
Though the ancient sea basins are the
only conspicuous objects in the naked
eye view of the moon, yet when the tel
escope is used these features are not
nearly so interesting as the craters.
These are multitudes of small objects
quite invisible to the unaided eye, though
many of them must be a hundred miles
or more in diameter.
To observe these objects with advan-
tage we should select an opportunity
when the moon is at or near the quarter.
In any case we should avoid making our
visit to the observatory at tho time when
the moon is full. You must remember
that the moon derives its light from the
sun just as tho earth docs. The sun il
Eliminates that half of the moon which
happens to be turned toward it, while
the other half is in darkness, and accord.
ingly as we see more Or less of the bright
half we see the moon more or less FULL
1t is along the diameter of the moon at
the quarter, or at any time along the
boundary between the bright part and
tho dark, that the illumination is best
suited for rendering faint objects visible.
NOT NICE FOR WALKING.
There is one particular kind of object
which specially characterizes the geog-
raphy of the moon. The type of this OBJ.
ject is ring, and of these rings there
arc hundreds. They have been most care
fully drawn on the charts of the moon,
and, indeed, the great majority have had
special names assigned to them. Let me
try to describe what one of these rings
would actually look like if you were able
to stand on the moon. You would find
the ring to be rampant of lofty noun.
tains, surrounding a rough and rugged
interior. The diameter of this circle will
range from the smallest size that we can
just discern, which will be few hundred
yards across, up to vast e1tents of 100
miles or even more in diameter, indeed,
if you were standing in the center of one
of the larger of these rings the range of
mountains which encircled it would be
Invisible to you, because they would lie
below your horizon.
While these are the general features of
the moons geography, some others may
be noted. There are, for example, lofty
ranges of mountains which, in their alti.
tude and in their massiveness, may be
compared with our Alps or our Apen.
mines, names which, indeed, have been
also applied with appropriateness to
corresponding lunar objects Imagine,
however, that walk on the moon would
be attended with most frightful difficult
ties from the nature of its surface alone,
quite independently of other impede
ments of a still more insuperable descrip-
tion. The entire area of moon land ap-
pears to be an utter desert-a desert,
too, not of sand, but of rough rocks,
carven into the widest forms, and pre-
senting every difficulty to one who
should try to move across such country
Lllllputians trying to run races over
heap of bricks would, fancy, have an
easy task of it as compared with the
conditions under which you or would
try to walk upon the moon.
You know how in climbing over an
Alpine glacier the presence of yawn-
ing crevasse Is difficulty which somc-
times battles the mountaineer. The lunar
rambler will find his way occasionally
barred by a fearful chasm half a mile or
more in width, descending to a depth
which his eye cannot fathom. Never in
the course of his travels will he meet
with any features resembling those with
which he is happily familiar on the
earth. He will never meet with brook
or river; he will never see a grassy field
or a tree; in fact, water being now en-
tirely absent from the moon, it is almost
needless to add that vegetation of any
sort is not to be found there, either. 1t
follows also that there can be no animal
life on the moon, for every animal we
know of contains water as a part of its
organization.-Sir Robert Ball.