Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-02-06
NEW THINGS SEEN IN The MOON.
photographs of Luna Made with the Ana
OF the Lick Telescope.

comptShed many wonderful resu,tS
OUT nothing perhaps more SURPRISING
th&n It's discoveries upon the moon
! says the New York Sun. The moo, i
so near by and has been SO carefnrv
STUDIED with the most powerful tele-
scopes for hundreds of wears that the
astronomers had come to think that
they knew pretty much all about il. or
| at least about that face of the moan
| winch Is turned toward the earth Rnt
II turns out that photography possesses
the power to reveal things upon the
moon which can not be seen by the
! eye even with the aid of the best of
telescopes A careful study of the
negatives OF the moon made with the
ana OF the great Lick telescope has re-
| Vea!ed the existence of many unknown
OBJECTS there, including great crater
mountains and riffs or chasms in the
surface OF the moon, as well as some
OF those mysterious objects that po
under the descriptive name of bright
streaks or rays.
Near the great crater which we call
Copernlcus another crater of nearly
equal dimensions is shown upon the
negatives, although it is absent
from the most elaborate maps of the
moon, aud can not 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 is considered that this
mysterious crater represents the re-
mains OF mountain ring more than
nifty miles in diameter it appears ex-
ceeding strange that it should escape
detection by the telescope when di-
rected to the moon, aud yet be visible
upon photograph of the moon. The
reason appears to be that the walls of
this newly discovered crater were long
ago destroyed, being RACED bv some
denuding force nearly to the level of
the surrounding surface Ii is couse-
quently the remnant of a great crater
ring Even in that condition, how
ever, it would be visible to the eye but
for the fact that its huge neighbor, CO.
pernicus, whose walls are still stand
ing to great height, is surrounded by
enormous masses of luminous material,
which looks like lava, that must have
overlooked the surrounding country
ages ago, and reflects back the light of
the sun to our eyes with overpowering
brilliancy. The glare of this broad re-
tiecting surface covering hundreds of
square miles is so great as to conceal
the comparatively low relief of the
broken crater ring.
In fact, it is not improbable that the
Copernicus is responsible for the dis
appearance of the other great crater,
which doubtless was the predecessor
of Copernicus, and once lowered up to
an equal height above the surrounding
plains. After it had ceased to be an
active volcano, and Copernicus had
burst forth, the latter probably over
whelmed it with torrents of lava,
which, filling up the space within its
broken walls nearly to the level OF
their tops, submerged it, so to speak,
beneath the new surface thus formed,
so that only the summit of its broke n
walls remains to be caught by the
acute vision of the Photographic plate.
In other parts of the moon similar
events appear to have taken place, and
there are a number of large craters,
enormously greater than any volcanic
crater upons the earth, which seem to
have been buried by the outburst of
lava from subsequently formed yolca-
noes in their neighborhood, so that
only portions of their mountain walls
now remain visible.
Another discovery, also arising from
inspection of the negatives made with
the Lick telescope. relates to the Won
derful system of bright rays surround
ing the most perfect crater in the
moon, Tycho. This extinct volcano is
some fifty.four miles in diameter, and
is surrounded on the outer side of its
lofty walls by comparatively level
region, some twenty-five miles broad,
of much darker hue than that of the
crater itself or of the surrounding
country beyond. The hundreds of
great sIrpaks which radiate from Ty-
cho like the spokes of wheel. varying
in width from ten to twenty or thirty
miles, and in length from few miles
to nearly 1000 miles, have always APP
peared, when viewed with a telescope
alone, to take their rise from the outer
edge of the dark rim surrounding the
crater, but the Lick negatives show
that some of the streaks at least pass
through this dark rim and extend clear
up to the very walls of the crater.
The suggestion that these mysterious
streaks had their origin in the volcanic
energy of Tycho when it was still an
active crater is strengthened by this
evidence that the streaks actually reach
to the crater itself.
These discoveries are likely to give
renewed interest to the study of the
moons surface, and while it is perhaps
too much to expect that a great deal
of light will be thrown by astronomi-
cal photography upon the question
whether evidences OF the present or
former existence of life upon the
moon can be detected from the earth,
yet there can be no question that a
new method Of attacking the many
problems that still remain 10 be
solved concerning the character and
condition of our satellite has been
placed within the reach of astrono-
mers.
Just see that trombone player. His
from, bIptuiu q