The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-04
seen IN THE MOON.
Some Of the Wonderful Things Re-
Gently Accomplished by Astro-
nomical Photography.
Great C~raters, Invisible Through
the Telescope, Now Shown
f by the Cameras Aid.
Volcanoes Greater Than Upon the Earth
Now Visible-New Fields Opened
for the Astronomers.

Astronomical photography has accom-
plished many wonderful results, but moth
ing perhaps more surprising than its dis
'coyerles upon the moon, says the New York
Sun. The moon is SO near by and has been
so carefully studied with the most power
full telescopes for hundreds of years that
the astronomers had come to think that
they knew pretty much all about it, or at
least about that face of the moon which is
turned toward the earth. But it turns out
that photography possesses the power to
reveal things upon the moon which cannot
be seen by the eve even with the aid
of the best of telescopes. A careful study
of the negatives of the moon made with the
aid of the great Lick telescope has revealed
the existence OF a great many unknown OBJ
1ects there, including great crater noun
talns and riffs or chasms in the surface of
the moon, as we'll as some of those myster-
lous objects that go under the descriptive
name of bright streaks or rays.
Near the great crater which we call Co
pernicus another crater of nearly equal
dimensions is shown upon the negatives.
although it is absent from the most elabo-
rate maps of the moon, n cannot be seen
even with the Lick telescope, except when
the magic eye of the camera. instead of the
human retina, is applied to look for it.
When it ia considered that this mysterious
crater represents the remains of a mountain
ring more than 30 miles in diameter it an
pears exceeding strange that it should
escape detection by tho telescope when
directed to the moon, and yet be visible
upon a photograph of the moon. The rea-
son appears to be that the walls of this
newly discovered crater we're long ago de-
stroyed. being RACED by some denuding
force nearly to the level of the surrounding
surface. 1t is consequently but the rem
nant of a great crater ring. Even in that
condition, however, it would be visible to
the eye but for the fact that its huge
neighbor, Copernicus, whose walls are still
standing to a great height, is
surrounded by enormous masses of
luminous material, which looks like
lava, that must have overlooked the sur
rounding country agea ago, and reflects
back the light Of the sun to, our eyss with
over-powering brillianoy. The glare of
this broad rejecting surface, covering hum
dreds OF square miles, is SO great as to con-
ceal the comparatively low relief of the
broken crater ring.
In fact, it is not improbable that Coper-
nicus is responsible for the disappearance
of the other great crater, which doubtless
was the predecessor of Copernicus, and
once lowered up to an equal heipht above
the surrounding plains. After it had
ceased to be an active volcano, and Coper-
nicus had burst forth, the latter probably
overwhelmed it with torrents of lava,
which, filling up the space within its
broken walln nearly to the level of their
tops, submerged it, so to speak, beneath
the nav surface thus formed, 80 that only
the summit of its broken walls remains to